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
>
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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 .
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