Jim, that's correct in my experience although a well designed and built harpsichord won't need a lot of tweaking. I know that sometimes, for example, you may need high tensile .008 in the top of a 4', if the low tensile you want to use will not come up to pitch. This is usually a sign of the scale being too long, a execution problem in the instrument rather than the strings. If I remember right, some short scaled historical instruments (Italian and German) were copied in steel strings originally and it wasn't until someone realized they worked well in brass, and at lower pitch so needing a transposing keyboard, that they really revealed the true sound. Brass is going to sound different from iron no matter how you voice it, as will phosphor or red brass or steel. Sperrhakes, Neuperts all those dinosaurs were built using piano concepts, not harpsichord knowledge. FWIW, I am having a run on harpsichord work for the first time in many years, 2 Neuperts, a Herz and a Zuckerman. Fun stuff after so many pianos, even the less than satisfying ones... --Dave New Orleans Jim Busby wrote: > Barbara, > > This reminds me of the harpsichord builder friend of mine who has a neat box with all kinds of wire and sizes. When one breaks he pulls out the next size and/or other material (sometimes) and replaces it. His words to me were something like "Oh, the scale is just a guideline. We're continually tweaking it to make things work. A size up or down doesn't really make as much difference in a harpsichord as it does a piano." >
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