N E W 5 - O C T A V E H A R P S I C H O R D S
I N T H E N E A P O L I T A N S T Y L E
The Soundboard Details
The wood used both for the soundboards and for the case construction:
Graziano Bandini and Grant O'Brien drove to the Apennine ridge at the beginning of July, 2003 to choose a tree of abete bianco (in Italian), abeto (in the local Florentine dialect) or fir (abies alba, sp.). We could choose a tree only from a certain area of the forest. But it was not easy to find a tree where we were told it was possible to cut out a tree that was both large enough and without branches on the lower section of the trunk. This was, of course, necessary in order that the wood should be suitable for use as a soundboard, a use to which fir is almost never put.
Details of the cutting of the tree:
Abete bianco del Casentino
Loc: Badia Prataglia (AR)
Lotto: Camp dell'Agio
Average diameter: 80 cm
Height of the trunk (before the branches started): 6 metres
Age of the tree: 120 years
Time of cutting: 15 July, 2003
Cut into planks under Graziano's supervision: 5 September, 2003. The lower trunk was sawn up for use as quartered soundboard wood. The upper trunk was sawn more-or-less at random for use in the construction of the baseboard, framing, etc.
The wood was brought from the forest to our workshop in Castel San Pietro (BO): 5-6 September, 2003 in two separate trips.
Since then the wood has been stored and sticked outside under the extended workshop roof 6-8 September, 2003. From 2005 it has been stored inside the workshop in the loft space.
This wood was first used to make up the cases and framing of the 5-octave instrument in October, 2006. The first soundboards were glued together in April, 2007.
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