Hi Sandy:
Yes, the Korg will use the modern piano notation. I’ve been forced to learn it recently because PitchLab, which I love in every other respect, insists on keeping it. Nearly all of us in the harpsichord community, however, use the “Helmoltz” notation, and you can quickly become comfortable with it.
Starting in the middle, middle c is written <c’> (c-prime).
If your virginals had a four octave chromatic compass, it would go like this:
Low C = C
Tenor c = c (unadorned lower-case, or sometimes with a zero superscript)
Middle c = c’
Nextc = c’'
Top c = c’’'
And yes, you measured in cm.
If the bass jumps from .40 mm or thereabouts in various places in that bottom octave (a bit on the light side, but do-able) to .23mm, which is about right for the VERY top of the range, it sounds, not to put too fine a point upon it, that nobody in the responsible firm paid the slightest attention to the highly inexpert work of the apprentice, or that nobody in the place knew what they were doing.
What you need to do is a couple of things, and someone in our group with a lot of experience with Italian virginals can tell you how to proceed. (Do you have a stringing list from the original repair sessions? You should.)
You need to state the compass of the instrument. (Hint: a “normal” real historical Italian virginals will have had one of two likely compasses, either C/E-c’’’ (45 notes) or C/E-f’’’ (50 notes). Yours might be 4 octaves chromatic.
The sounding lengths from bridge to bridge for at least all the c’s and f’s (the ones that fall in the cracks between will fall into a fairly straightforward spline curve, I imagine). Mms or Cms are fine, but should be specified appropriately.
Probably your lowest note will want to hover around #2 (≈.46mm./.0918”) and things will probably want to end at the very tippy top at something like #9 (≈=.23mm/.009”. Or #10 (≈.21mm/.008”). ISH. with a smooth transition curve from one to the other.
Hoping this doesn’t muddy the waters even further. Perhaps it’s not the fault of the apprentice; perhaps someone replaced a string near the brass-iron crossover, where you’re most likely to have strings break, and just grabbed a completely inappropriate diameter for the task.
Owen
____________________________________
Owen Daly Early Keyboard Instruments
557 Statesman St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
http://www.dalyharpsichords.com
(503)-362-9396
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