These are the notes that accompany my plans for building the Irish Lyre available on the Lyre Making CD-ROM or a separate Download at www.michaeljking...
Cement production is synonymous to green house emissions and mineral resource depletion. So as to produce about 1tonne of cement, 1.5 tonne lime stone is required and nearly 1tonne green house gases are emitted out. This article present sustainable u
Maple 640mm by 24mm by 209mm is the final size Maple, 480mm by 209mm by 5mm Half set of Acoustic Acoustic guitar guitar set will do for this instrument
5mm brass rod 50mm long, brass wire 1.5mm Harp pegs cut and re-drilled, Zither pins, Wooden pegs Maple, 90mm by 12mm by 27mm
25mm by 2mm 11mm wide. Bent, drilled and cut to fit the lyre) lyre) The instrument is ideally ideally made of maple, maple, Irish accounts write of Willow instruments instruments though, Joining on a separate string arm in another wood is an option, done well it makes little difference to the sound. I have used standard harp pins cut to size and re-drilled. re-drilled. You can also use small wooden violin style pegs with the heads heads shaped smaller smaller or Zither Zither pins. Harp keys are available available to order. The mounts are optional. I made mine from 2mm brass and had them engraved. engraved. These lyres can be made of one piece of wood with the string arm/head as one piece, or you can join a piece of wood with the the grain following the the arc. Neither is better better and both are vulnerable vulnerable if the lyre is dropped. The archeology shows examples of repairs on both types of head. I like to graduate the soundboard, soundboard, starting with the plank planed planed to no less than 4mm and then tapering the edges and arms down to 3mm or 2.5mm at the arms.
The Irish Lyre plans in G tuning, are a wire strung instrument with strings in iron, brass and Silver strings, Smaller than my Sutton Hoo model and very playable this can be also can be strung in Nylon, gut or Fluorocarbon strings and tuned to a higher pitch of B or C This Design is a really good Diatonic model in the scale of G, but with modification G Pentatonic major or minor, see the folder with strings notes. The download includes includes PDF files to be printed off on your home computer, front, back and side views along with string charts and pictures for reference.
Included as an extra is a PDF of the outline shape of my 2014 D/Eb tuned Irish Lyre and also the plans for Simons Lyre 2008 which has a flatter middle section inspired by the sculpture of Cross of Support by email/hangouts/skype/messenger included if you need it.
If you are interested further in Lyre making then note the Irish Lyre plans are now also included in My Complete 2015 Lyre Making CD-ROM that shows all you need to get started making and building these. see: http://www.michaeljking.com/build_your_own_lyre.htm (The Lyre CD contains plans for 13 instruments, plucked and bowed lyres.)
Please feel free to email me if you have any questions, Kind regards Michael J king
