| Regarding sound holes, I have to say that such were known and common on other instruments at the time when lyres were in use. The lack of such on a lyre may well have been for deliberate reasons having to do with the sound. I have not tried both, so can't really say what the difference is. A lyre without a soundhole is still plenty loud enough for singing with and just enjoying. The Trossingen lyre has small holes that probably function as soundholes, so the idea of using them isn't even all that ahistorical. If I wanted to make a point of building a "modern" lyre, I would use guitar tuners up top, I'd also add a bass bar and a sound post to the top, in the manner of modern violins. This means either F holes or something that functions the same (slits would work fine, they don't have to be super decorative, really). I'd probably construct the body from pieces rather than carving it from a plank. I'm tempted to envision an 8-stringer with two bass strings slightly separated from the 6 main strings. For the key of G, which is what I use for my lyre, I'd tune the bass strings to G and D an octave below the range of the other strings. Probably want a deeper body to take advantage of the bass potential. Oh, and add an acoustic pickup! I don't like the sound of most magnetic pickups, but a piezo job would work fine for plugging in. Really, as long as you don't represent an instrument as being historical in nature, the lyre can be used as a basic form to create some wonderful modern instruments. Got me thinking about building something, now. -Patrick |
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