Before completing the second attempt at the top of the instrument, I decided to complete and glue on the headstock – in my design it’s rather closer to a guitar headstock that to a violin pegbox. The old kontrabas nyckelharpas had all the strings tuned using wooden pegs set near the top of the instrument, all vertical (if the instrument is lying on its back).
I decided that I wanted to have mechanical fine adjustment for the sympathetic strings, and rather than using the set of tuners fixed together in a row as is common on acoustic guitars or mandolins (and normally used on the three row chromatic nyckelharpa), I thought I would try individual tuners as found on most electric guitars. I carefully designed the layout to get a clear path for the string between the tuning peg and the nut, and had excellent advice from Kjell Lundvall who had suggested that I lean the headstock back at a small angle to get a better path for the strings across the nut.
The main part of the headstock is cut from wood that formed part of the core of the old piano body. It was disguised by two layers of veneer, but is a very straight grained wood with no knots, and seems very strong; it’s of average density. I have no idea what it is – on the piece I have used for the headstock, the heartwood is greenish and the sapwood more yellow. I guess that it might be poplar or something like that. The colour really doesn’t matter, as I’m going to use a fairly dark stain on the body and neck.
Here’s the piece marked out, with a trial hole for one of the tuners made.
And the other side:
The wood is easy enough to work, and absorbs water (so it’s not one of the oily tropical hardwoods!). The holes were drilled by hand – I have a small pillar drill that I can set up but it didn’t seem worth it for six holes. They are different sizes on the two sides of the wood.
Here’s the headstock cut to shape and set on the neck; I used wires through 2mm pilot holes where the tuning pegs for the playable strings will go. The inner end is cut at an angle so that the nut will be at right angles to the neck.
The headstock can now be glued onto the neck, and I have used Cascamite again for this job; this is a component I do not want ever to remove, and I don’t want the joint to creep at all under the tension of the strings. It will of course be pegged as well, since the three main tuning pegs go through the headstock and the neck extension.
The headstock must be straight on the neck, so this is checked with a drawing square:
More details of the clamping – here’s the view showing the angle the headstock is clamped to the neck. I will need to add a little wedge in the gap at the nut end.
You can see the central locating wire.
So now it’s beginning to look a bit more like a musical instrument!
The tuners all fit nicely – so it’s not time to get back to sorting out the top.