Horse: Component parts

The assembly of the wrestplank, the two supports it sits on and two additional boards forms what is called the horse. I have no idea why; it doesn't look at all like a horse, or like anything else, for that matter.

First, confession time: I must admit to having made a small glitch in my wrestplank supports. At the time I cut them, I forgot that I had planned to make them differently than those in the original. They should in fact look like this:


My original supports lacked the cutout you see above, which accommodates the rabbets in the underside of the wrestplank. These new supports will keep the top of the wrestplank and the front edge of the soundboard at the same level—120 mm from the baseboard—which I forgot to take into account the first time around. The registers will lie just behind the wrestplank and the cutout will keep them level with the soundboard as well.

This wasn't a difficult fix; I obtained a small piece of walnut cheaply and set aside the old supports for jack-making material. So there's no need to throw anything away.

The cutout was sized to include a horizontal piece known as the upper belly rail (1/2" thick poplar, 1.75" wide) which stretches between the two support blocks. This is backed up by a larger board—the lower belly rail—which sits on the baseboard of the instrument between the wrestplank supports and reaches almost up to the top edge of the upper belly rail, pressing against its back face. The lower belly rail is 3/4" thick and about 115 mm high. The faces of the belly rails will be glued together where they touch, and both belly rails will be dowelled into every adjoining piece for strength.

Here is a dry fit of all the items making up the horse. The upper belly rail is easily visible, while the lower one is mostly hidden at this camera angle:


With the upper belly rail in place, the gap between it and the back of the wrestplank is 44 mm. The two registers together come to 40 mm; the extra space is deliberately left over to allow free side-to-side movement of the registers. The instrument may contract slightly when it is strung and under tension, so having the extra space is crucial. If things were made to an exact fit, the registers would get squashed between the belly rail and wrestplank if the instrument were to contract too much.

The registers are temporarily laid in the gap so you can see their proper position:


Ultimately the registers will be fastened together in pairs, one register directly above the other. I plan to make the registers removable through a little window in the left side of the instrument. In some instruments the registers can only be removed by taking off all the strings first, so leaving a little access window like this is helpful in case problems develop in future.

As seen here, the horse is nearly done. The back of the treble support block has been left a bit long and needs to be mitred at the same angle as the corner where the bentside and cheek meet. Both supports need a notch in the back to receive the liners, which form an interior rim upon which the soundboard sits. When glue-up time comes, everything will get plenty of dowels, especially the joint between wrestplank and support blocks.