I am going to be up front and admit a bias against Bizzi instruments.
They are terrible, and do not last long term. The quality of the builds
is bad, and the design of the jacks is bad.
There should be no inherent preference of steel/iron vs brass. A well
designed and made harpsichord with either will be stable. Brass has a
small advantage that with temperature changes, the whole instrument will
go up or down, but stay more or less in tune with itself. A steel/iron
instruments usually mixes red brass, yellow brass, and steel/iron, and
they tend to go out of tune in "zones", with each material going out of
tune in its own way.
I would much prefer wooden jacks to plastic. But I don't think Bizzi's
jacks are really wood...they almost seem like they may be MDF or
something. I don't know, but they are not good wood jacks. I don't love
plastic jacks, and Hubbard jacks can have long term issues after about
25-30 years. But if the instrument is in good shape, and plays well now,
I would much prefer the Hubbard to the Bizzi.
Dongsok
On 7/2/2017 12:32 AM, B Ritter wrote:
> Hi. Haven't posted to the site in years! Anyway, I currently have a Bizzi single, built in 2003, and have been considering purchasing a Hubbard double. The Hubbard was built in ~1995, from a kit, but it turns out that the "kit" was ordered with a complete frame, and then it was strung, regulated etc, by a professional harpsichord builder in Davis, CA (now retired). I tired it out today, and the action and feel seemed good. The instrument appears to be well cared for, and passed my preliminary evaluation, and I'm thinking about it.
>
> I've noticed over the years that the Bizzi is very hard to get in good tune, especially in the upper pitch notes. It is very difficult to achieve small changes in pitch, resulting in a lot of time spent on each string. It is strung with brass strings.
> The Hubbard seemed to be much easier to get into pitch, in that the tuning pins were much more resistant to large changes with each small adjustment. It is strung with steel strings.
>
> Is there a preference of steel vs brass?
>
> The Bizzi has wooden jacks and the Hubbard has plastic jacks. Do these have a life span?
>
>
> Thanks for any help that any of you might be able to provide.
>
> Bruce
>
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
> Note: opinions expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the individual con-
> tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
> versity of Iowa. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
> [log in to unmask] saying HELP .
> ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Note: opinions expressed on HPSCHD-L are those of the individual con-
tributors and not necessarily those of the list owners nor of the Uni-
versity of Iowa. For a brief summary of list commands, send mail to
[log in to unmask] saying HELP .
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
|