Here is another “Safari” bowed psaltery that I’ve recently finished. It is nearly identical to the psaltery shown in this post, except that it has a fancier (figured/curly) Mahogany top, and a nice Cocobolo rosette. It also has bronze strings and black pins, which really match and go well with the rest of the colors on the psaltery. I really feel that the Bloodwood binding and bridge strongly defines the appearance of this psaltery.
Below you can see the striking Zebrawood back. I love the look of flat-sawn Zebrawood. And acoustically, it makes a pretty good sounding psaltery too…
Well, as promised, here are some pictures of the back of the psaltery that I have been working on.
I’ve finally got my new photography tent all set up, and this was one of the very first pictures. I’m still tweaking and perfecting things, so please bear with me. It has always been at the forefront of my mind just as to how to go about photographing a bowed psaltery. The shape is very awkward, and I never can seem to settle on one single correct viewing angle.
As for the psaltery itself, it should be evident from the title of this post what the figure on this instrument resembles. I took one extra picture of the back to show a better view of the details.
I was thinking about Bearclaw Sitka Spruce, and how each one of the tops are completely different from each other. Some have big splotches of figure, others have smaller streaks, and still others have thinner lines and trails of bearclaw figure. Additionally, the figure didn’t seem to continue itself very deeply in the wood, which made it a little bit more difficult to get perfectly symmetrical figure in the bookmatched tops.
None of them, however, looked as though a bear had run his claws across the board, (where the name had first originated from.)
As a result of this uniqueness, I’ve decided to list each Bearclaw Spruce top individually in the Treasure Trove. The top on the left shows some nice figure, along with a very good level of symmetry as well.
Here is a near-complete psaltery that looks all dressed up. It has black pins, and an ebony bridge and binding. In contrast, it also has light-colored nickel-plated strings and black and white purfling around the binding.
In case you were wondering, this is the (almost) end result of Arielle’s psaltery. All that’s left is to buff out the back and sides, (hopefully I’ll add more pictures of that too), and wait a bit longer for the finish to harden.
Here is another “Safari” bowed psaltery that I’ve recently finished. It is nearly identical to the psaltery shown in this post, except that it has a fancier (figured/curly) Mahogany top, and a nice Cocobolo rosette. It also has bronze strings and black pins, which really match and go well with the rest of the colors on the psaltery. I really feel that the Bloodwood binding and bridge strongly defines the appearance of this psaltery.
Below you can see the striking Zebrawood back. I love the look of flat-sawn Zebrawood. And acoustically, it makes a pretty good sounding psaltery too…
