Chris,
      I have the RK Lee plan and looked at it last night.
I would strongly recomend getting in touch with Mr Lee
who should gladly tell you how to move the bridges to achieve 440 in brass.
An inch devided between bridges should do it. I would also redraw the keys
to affect a narrower stichmass (octave). Don't change the string band width
or pluck points. Case is fine!
                                                      Jack Peters
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rujo King (C. Gregory)" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2003 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: Looking for information about construction of virginal


> One more question, this time on the R.K. Lee Perticis virginal:
>
> On his web page, Lee mentions that the instrument would be 'musically
> successful' strung in brass at A=380.  And since that is nearly a full
step
> lower than modern pitch, I take 'musically successful' to mean 'not
> exploding during tuning and/or playing.  However, most of my playing would
> be with an ensemble, and playing a step lower than the other
> instrumentalists would be quite awkward, even though I can transpose up
> fairly accurately.  Would it be possible to play up at 440 with the
> instrument (modified or not?)  Even getting the pitch up to 415 would be
> preferrable to asking everyone around to tune down, possibly causing
> vocalists to lose the bottom of their range.  I don't want to do anything
> that would cause wood and brass wire shrapnel to fly around the room.
>
> Though if that did happen, I could tell everyone it was because I'm Tha
> Bomb.
>
> Thanks once again for all the information; I'll update my page with the
> latest on both the Neupert and my own efforts.
>
> Chris Gregory