Conclusions on Lyre prototype #1: I have decided to name my first prototype “Fragment []”.I named my first prototype that in honor of the many blank spaces in Sappho’s poetry. Later editors mark these blanks with brackets [] to indicate a gap in a line, or a gap of many lines. As I hoped, Fragment [] makes sound. I am not going to try and tune her, but as a test run for assembling a lyre I think it went very well.
My takeaway: Fragment [] is great, but her arms are uneven, and not fully parallel to each other. Her strings are loose, and there are gaps between the skin and plastic bowl base in some places.
Overall, this prototype’s biggest problem is that the bridge is way too high to allow the sound to resonate. I placed the bridge on the edge of the bowl because I thought the solid plastic would add stability, and was worried if I anchored the bridge in the middle of the skin it would tear. In reality, the dried skin is firm enough to support it, and the arms under the skin offer additional support.
As the bridge on the Fragment [] is so high, most of the sound comes from the strings above the drum, and does not capture the resonance it would have if the springs rested on the drum. Additionally, the notches on the bridge are too shallow, and thus do not hold the strings well. They also are not evenly spaced out as I forgot to measure them, and just sawed them in willy-nilly.
For my next lyre, I hope to use these lessons to improve my overall design. Now that I have a clearer image of what a re-creation looks like, I plan to put the bridge in the middle of the drum, and more properly space the strings. In addition, I will attach the skin more carefully, sewing it around first and then conservatively hot gluing. I will also use nylon fishing string instead of guitar nylon strings, because I do not need to tune my next prototype either, but just practice making them. For the moment though, I have a sound producing lyre to practice on, and my focus will shift to the vocal aspect of my performance.