Michael Levy: Blogs

HOW TO CONSTRUCT YOUR OWN REPLICA LYRE OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS!

Here are the dimensions of my lyre, which can be used by anyone wishing to also attempt to build their own instrument:

Length - 61cm (Bottom to top of bar in which tuning pegs are set)
Depth of the sound box - 5cm
Width at narrowest point - 8cm
Width at widest point - 33cm (middle of lyre)
Length of Bar where tuning pegs are set - 8cm
Length of Bridge over which strings are stretched - 6.5cm
Height of bridge - 1.5cm

Bridge is tilted at the following angle, so that the highest string is
short, and the lowest string is long (giving a more equal string tension
on all the 10 strings):

Length between bridge and tuning peg for lowest string:51cm
Length between bridge and tuning peg for highest string:41cm

For any would-be "ancient lyre luthiers" out there, wishing to build your own lyre of the ancient Hebrews from these measurements & dimensions, you may wish to get in touch with Mitch Vire, who runs the "YoppyKyabetsu" Youtube Channel - a few years ago, he built a Kinnor based on the dimensions I gave him! Here is a video he posed of the result of his amazing work:

The strings are regular nylon harp strings - a set can be bought either from Mid East Ethnic Instruments, or any set of Celtic Harp Strings. Mitch managed with nylon fishing line for his lyre!