The call for class proposals for Fall University has gone out, and I think I want to teach a lyre-playing class. I know of at least three gentles in Atlantia who have found the lyre on their own; perhaps there are others who would be interested in giving it a try.
Now, to teach lyre playing, you need some lyres.
I asked the folks on the Anglo-Saxon Lyre Group for some advice. I was getting ready to try and make some resonator-less lyres (boards with hand-holes and strings, essentially), when Master Arden of the East mused that it might be even easier to nail together some wood in the appropriate shape. Bless him, he even provided notional sizes of the wood needed. I sure wouldn't have had any idea.
So I have a collection of bits now:
Poplar 1" x 1" x 3' - to be cut into lengths the width of the lyre. One at the top, one at the bottom, one at around the middle.
Poplar 1/4" x 1.5" x 2' - The sides of the lyre. Couldn't find any small craft boards that were exactly 1" to match the cross-supports.
Beech (? I have to check) 3mm thick plywood - from a craft store. Soundboard and back of the instrument.
1/4" x 5/8" rectangular basswood dowel - for bridge. Grabbed at the last minute in the craft store; I worry the basswood will be too soft.
5/8" round dowel and brass flat-headed screws - possible tailpiece assembly. The other advice I got was just to put in small escutcheon nails and tie the strings directly to them.
Got sandpaper, polyurethane spray, etc.
Still need: zither tuning pegs, fluorocarbon strings. (60-80lb, 40lb and 30lb test are decent starting points, apparently).
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