Site hosted by Angelfire.com: Build your free website today!
Making a Simple Lyre

Continued from page two

lyre endpin

Not done, yet! The next step is to make and install the tuning pegs! I decided to use wooden tuning pegs, in an attempt to be more authentic about the whole project. I got the basic method from another online article about making a similar lyre. The pins were started by cutting some pieces of birch board into square-sectioned pegs a little over 2" long.



tuning peg in test block

I used my big belt sander to shape the pegs, just running a 120 grit belt and rotating the pins against the belt by hand. I also sanded my left index fingernail almost through! Oops! Anyway, the scrap with the tapered hole in it was nearby and I kept checking the fit of the pin until it would go all the way into the tapered hole.



wooden tuners

The top of each peg was left square so I can grip them. This is why I didn't use dowels for the tuning pins. It took me about an hour to make 8 pins, but without the sander, I think it would have taken me about 2 hours. A pocketknife, a rasp, and some sandpaper would work fairly quickly. I made 8 pins so I could afford to mess up and not have to go back to this step. Spare pins are also not a bad idea in case of damage to one or more of the in-use pins.

Once all of the pins were fitted into their own holes, I marked a dot about 1/4" above where the pin exits the lyre. This is the point at which I drilled a 1/16" hole for the string. I would have gone smaller, but I am working with what I have in my collection of tools, right now. I will also note at this point that the pins do not quite reach the bottom of the holes. As the wood compresses in the pin and in the hole, each pin may sit a little lower and I want to allow for the lyre to last a lot of years.



wooden tuners compared to zither pins

I almost used regular zither pins because they are easy to install and very secure. These are available from several sources. Most folks seem to know them as Autoharp tuning pins. I bought 100 zither pins from Elderly Instruments for about $20 for use in projects like this. They are also sold individually, if someone wants to buy just enough for one instrument. They are quite a bit more compact and regular in size than my homemade pegs, but really do look a bit too modern for my tastes.



pilot holes drilled for the tuning pegs

I drilled 6 holes 3/16" in diameter along the top arch of the lyre. I didn't want the pins to go all the way through, so I put some masking tape on the drill bit at about 7/8" from the tip. That should leave just the plywood back covering the holes.



reaming the holes to taper them

Then I put the tapered file in my hand drill. Since the file teeth are set in a spiral pattern, it would be easy to have the file screw itself into the wood. In order to avoid this, I had to run the drill in reverse, so the file teeth would be turning in the opposite direction from the spiral. It worked quite well. Try it on a piece of scrap wood first.



untrimmed pegs in their holes

At this point, I have a lyre with handmade tuning pegs and it is almost ready to string and play! After I took this picture, I trimmed the tops of the pegs so they are all about the same height.



the assembled tailgut

The tailgut needs to be made, now. The name gives an obvious source for the appropriate original material, but I don't keep gut around my shop. At the suggestion of another man who made a Saxon-type lyre (in the SCA he is Freiman the Minstrel, but I don't know his real name), I used a piece of rawhide cut from a dog chew toy that had been soaked in water for several hours.



holding the tailpiece in place as the tailgut dries

In order to have it dry in the correct position, I rigged up the whole lyre with a piece of fishline to hold the tailpiece in position while the rawhide tailgut dries. It has to dry at least overnight to make sure the rawhide won't shrink any more once I put the strings on the lyre.



guitar strings for the lyre

Now, it is finally time to string it up, tune it, and play for the first time! Since the vibrating string length is under 16", I was able to use one string for each pair of holes in the tailpiece, and just buy standard steel guitar strings. These strings are about 40" long, so there is enough extra to wind onto the tuning pins at both ends. I bought the strings from Grassroots Guitar Company in Fairbanks. I used one each of sizes .010, .014, and .018.



The finished lyre

the finished lyre in all its glory

I don't know enough about this subject to say that these are the best sizes, but they seemed about right when gauged by eye. Nothing else in this project is scientific, so why should the strings be an exception? Strings usually take several tunings to settle in on any instrument, since they stretch a little. This is true of steel or nylon strings, and I have heard that it is especially the case with real gut strings. I am well aware that I will have to retune this instrument a few times before I can hope that it will hold a tuning for any length of time.

Tuning is a matter of conjecture, as far as I know. There are no surviving manuals for playing lyres of this type. According to the article I was using when I started my lyre project, there is one written account of how the strings were tuned. According to this evidence, the strings should be tuned in the first 6 notes of a major scale. This is what I intend to try first. I may modify my tuning at a later date, depending on what I like and what I don't like about it.

Other folks seem to use a pentatonic tuning. The advantage here is that all of the notes sound good together, so there won't be any dichordant sounds when strumming. The problems are twofold. First, there is no evidence that this is a historical tuning scheme. Second, with a pentatonic tuning, there are notes left out of the scale. What if I want to play those notes?

Please see the article that inspired this effort for a discussion of playing technique and better information about tuning.

kids playing the lyre

Obviously, the lyre is a very accessible instrument. As you can see, even kids who are barely walking enjoy playing it! This picture was taken about two minutes after I got the strings on. If I ever get a chance to play with it, maybe I can report on the sound and volume. If my kids are accurate in their playing efforts, the lyre may actually be a two-person percussion instrument...

I hope that this article inspires more people to attempt home building of musical instruments. I have very little experience (as you can probably tell) in making instruments, but I ended up with quite a nice little lyre. You can avoid my mistakes, since I showed what I did wrong. That puts you quite a ways ahead of me! Please e-mail me if you make something like this (or have made one in the past). I'd love to get in touch with other amateur instrument makers out there!



fnpfwNOSPAM@uaf.edu (remove the spamblocker to e-mail me.)

-Patrick Woolery


Go to page 1 of the lyre project
Go to page 2 of the lyre project

Back to the Musical Instruments page
Back to the main page
These pages were designed and created by April Woolery. Last updated Feb. 2004