Carbon Fiber Saddles
Thursday, day 31. January 2008I was pleasantly surprised today at the performance of a new saddle material. As a matter of fact, I found it so superior to just about all other saddle options, that I’m thinking of phasing out nearly all other materials for saddles. (Except of course using an all-wood bridge with no saddle at all, which […]
Building, News, Experimental | 0 Comments »
What a Difference a Little Sanding Makes…
Monday, day 28. January 2008In the picture to the left you’ll see what a bowed psaltery looks like after I’ve just glued the binding on. Actually, since I’m experimenting with a new type of binding - Verawood - and the back and sides are made of Cocobolo, (all very oily and resinous woods), I chose to use CA glue […]
Building | 2 Comments »
Abralon Sanding Discs
Monday, day 21. January 2008At the picture to the left you will see one of my favorite sanding items. It’s called Abralon, and I use it when I am initially buffing out a bowed psaltery’s finish. It’s a sanding disc that is basically made out of fabric, with a 1/4″ foam backing. These things are just plain great.
Just what’s […]
Tools and Equipment | 0 Comments »
Delignit is Here
Friday, day 18. January 2008So just what is Delignit? Delignit is a laminated pinblock material made of European Beech and bonded with phenolic resins. It is widely used in high-end pianos worldwide, and is actually imported from Germany.
In a nutshell, it is a specialized form of plywood that I’ve now adapted to be used in bowed psalteries to give […]
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Tim’s “Celtic” Psaltery
Wednesday, day 16. January 2008 Here you can see a bowed psaltery that I just finished stringing. It has a bookmatched Sitka Spruce top with a Celtic knot style rose, along with a ring of burled walnut to border it. The trim and bridge is Black Walnut, and the back and sides are Curly Maple.
And I just had to […]
Building | 0 Comments »
Custom Turned Tuning Wrench
Monday, day 14. January 2008About a week ago, the thought occurred to me that I could make my own tuning wrench handles. Since then, I’ve been itching to give it a go.
“But what kind of wood should I use for the handle?” I thought.
Well, I resolved that question by making my first tuning wrench handle out of something entirely […]
Building, Experimental | 3 Comments »
A True Heavyweight Psaltery…
Wednesday, day 9. January 2008One of the psalteries that I’m currently working on is with a wood that is the heaviest that I’ve used to date: a tropical rosewood called Cocobolo.
It has probably one of the brightest and glassiest tap-tones of any wood I’ve come across, and it’s also one of my personal favorites in terms of beauty. See […]
Building | 0 Comments »
Fun with Bookmatching
Monday, day 7. January 2008As I was walking past a bowed psaltery in progress, I noticed an interesting phenomenon with the wood.
Light tends to reflect off of the wood in different ways depending on the orientation of the wood. So, two bookmatched panels, which are basically identical in color and grain pattern, can look different because they are oriented […]
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Laser-cut Roses
Saturday, day 5. January 2008I’ve fought and resisted this for a while now, but decided I’d finally cave in and make laser-cut roses available via the special order form. Why did I fight it? Because I like to build everything myself, and there’s just something unsettling about using something that has basically been cut and patterned by a robot. […]
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All-Wood Bridges
Friday, day 4. January 2008When I first designed the “Phantasy Psalteries” website, the bowed psalteries I made still used plain-steel strings, and wound strings were added later as a new feature. As a result, I’m finding that not everything is a one-to-one carryover from the plain mono-filament music wire of the past.
Most notably, there is the bridge saddle. If […]
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Santa Fe #2
Wednesday, day 2. January 2008I’ve been quite busy lately, and though I’ve said that I will be getting back into building psalteries, I still really haven’t re-established a normal routine yet coming off from the holidays. The last two weeks feel like about 3 months have gone by.
Anyhow, I did manage to do one thing: take a picture of […]
Building | 0 Comments »
