Do you have a picture, Doug?
There's some cedar of Lebanon on eBay at present, might be worthwhile

Sent from my iPhone

On 24/11/2010, at 12:48 PM, Doug Brooke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> My new virginal is finally making sounds - a pine bottomed and framed,
> otherwise all cypress pentagonal virginal after Berlin 427.
>
> It does something I've never felt before, I can feel the vibration  
> of the
> soundboard right through the keys:  I have the usual sensations of
> resistance and pluck in my fingers but this tiny light instrument  
> sends
> vibrations through everything including keylevers.
>
> Is this a normal thing?  I would have thought that any feature of the
> keyboard that draws attention to itself is flawed:  that is the best  
> are
> ones that are entirely transparent with nothing to distract a player  
> but I
> find this sensation quite thrilling and enchanting, intimate and  
> personal -
> at least for now.  Perhaps after playing for a while it will give me  
> the
> shits......
>
> Some notes on its voicing that others might find useful:
>
> When I put the jacks in initially I cut them to all to approximate  
> length -
> within 1mm of final length against a stop on my tablesaw. I quilled  
> them and
> gave them a very rough voicing cutting the quill to length and  
> thinning it
> out to give a workable action but still raucous tone, then cut them  
> to final
> length and made sure they repeated accurately in the instrument.  I  
> then cut
> out little steps on the jack tails to make sure they stood only on one
> keylever and not across two.
>
> Now I am evening out the voicing, started around middle c and  
> focussing on
> an octave either side, working up and down in octaves and fifths, not
> spending too much time on each note, leaving them overstrong  
> initially and
> gradually working them down over several iterations and evening them  
> out.
> Testing them by playing arpeggios and pulling out the strongest note,
> thinning it a little and moving on.  I find that my ear isn't tiring  
> and I
> can maintain focus better this way, lots of short snips of focus,  
> lots of
> stepping back and seeing the big picture (ie playing a chord) then  
> zooming
> in for a closer look at just one note before panning back out again.
>
> Every now and then stepping outside this band and taking it an  
> octave wider
> again gradually picking up the whole stringband in steps of fifths and
> octaves.  Working in 30-45 minute grabs.
>
> I have found this a very good way of maintaining the mental  
> landscape of the
> overall sound and placing the note I am voicing into this context.   
> I say
> this because I've found it very easy to get lost before by trying  
> too hard
> and spending too long on one note only to realise later that yeah it  
> matched
> a reference pluck well but fitted awfully into the whole...
>
> Doug.
>
> ::: 
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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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