Marking out: Hitch pin positions

With the bridge pin positions correctly located, the hitch pins were marked out. First I decided on the sidebearing: the angle at which the strings would come off the bridge pins. This is necessary in order to bring the strings into firm contact with the bridge. My friendly harpsichord maker pointed out that a shallow angle would allow the non-sounding string tails to resonate somewhat at the expense of part of the instrument's sustaining power, as vibrations would leak past the bridge. A sharper angle would lead to a drier sound. In historical instruments I have read about sidebearings of as much as 17 degrees. The Trasuntino has about 14; I followed my contact's advice and settled on 12. A little after-ring is a characteristic part of the harpsichord sound, which is, on the whole, not too dry.

To locate the hitch pins, I used the same wooden jig that marked the bridge pins but without the register. Since this is tilted at 8 degrees, I cut a plywood scrap off at 94 degrees, so that the extra 4 degrees would sum with the jig's 8 degrees for a total of 12. By lining the jig up with each bridge pin mark and pushing the scrap up to the mark, I could easily see a line going off to the right at 12 degrees. Where this line met the edge of the soundboard I put a little dot with a felt-tipped pen:


I allowed the leftmost 5 strings to go off to the left, instead of the right, in an effort to balance the sideways forces on the bass bridge hook.

Of course, all of these markings will be covered up by moldings that will be glued atop the soundboard against the interior of the case sides. So I will need to transfer them from the soundboard, once it is glued in, to the inside upper edge of the case.