The Finished Harpa

The nyckelharpa has been finished for a few months now, and my posting on the project went by the wayside in lieu of my wedding and everything that entails.

Here is the finished instrument and I must say I'm pretty proud of it!

 
The finish looks wonderful--thank you to my friends, the Welkers, who allowed me to fumigate their garage last winter to apply the varnish!  Thanks to Lon B. for the piece of leather from his leather working business!
Thanks to Earl Holzman for the wonderful bow he made for me--check out his website for ordering!
I'll post more pictures tomorrow.

I had to rework the key box due to a miscalculation of the spacing of the keys.  They are truly spaced much closer than you might expect--the last few keys being very thin or delicate, which meant that the "spacers" on the key box components (the "key holders") had to be very thin.  It was pretty frustrating trying to carve the fine pieces and eventually I just popped them out and glued them back in on purpose.

All the keys slide well.  I do have plans to rework my tangents with a different wood, heavier and harder than the cherry wood I used originally.  The sound is great on the highest string, good on the middle string, and fairly good on the bottom string but not fantastic.  I'm hoping I can get a better sound by replacing the tangents with the higher density wood.

I have also just purchased a copy of Peter Puma Hedlund's nyckelharpa school vol. #1, available through Rita Leydon's website (the producer of some fine films on Swedish music).  I can't wait to truly get started learning how to properly hold and play this instrument, and perhaps one day I'll be able to take a few live lessons with a nyckelharpa professional!