When 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 you’ve ever seen one of those taut-wire cheese cutters you’ll probably know why a saddle is needed with plain-steel strings. (Which are about half as thick as wound strings.)

Yet I’m finding that when the materials are carried over from the plain-steel construction and used on wound strings, there is an increase in the amount of sustain on the string. As a result, I’ve decided to adapt to this and make all-wood bridges standard with wound strings, while keeping the aluminum saddle as standard if plain-steel strings are used.This is not to say that the previous options are no longer available for wound strings. (I personally prefer a longer sustain.) Yet to play it safe, I’m using an all-wood bridge with no saddle as the default from here on out.