Pinning the left bridge

Now that the virginal is completely strung, it is time to pin the left bridge. Small metal pins are attached to the inside edges of both bridges to hold the strings in the right place. If the bridges were not pinned, or pinned poorly, some strings would be further from the jacks than other strings, leading to inconsistent voicing since those plectra would have to be longer than the others. Pinning the strings to the bridges also increases the effect of the acoustical function of the bridge; the pins hold the strings tightly against the bridges, helping maximize the transfer of vibration from the strings to the bridges. The bridges then transfer those vibrations to the soundboard, which transfers its vibrations to the air, from the air to our ears, etc.

On the left side of the virginal, the treble hitchpins are down below the level of the bridge. On the right side, the wire is wrapped around the tuning pins so that they leave the pins just a few millimeters above the level of the soundboard. So on both sides of the instrument, the hitchpins and tuning pins hold the strings down against the bridges, increasing the pressure of the strings against the bridges for the aforementioned acoustical reasons. This is called downbearing.

You can also see that the bridge pins pull the strings toward the front of the instrument, quite dramatically in the highest strings. This is called sidebearing and it serves the same acoustical purpose as downbearing.

Moving toward the front of the instrument, the bass hitchpins are set in a higher plane than the treble hitchpins, meaning there is little downbearing; and they also provide little in the way of sidebearing. The theory is that excessive pressure on the bridge by these heavier strings will dampen the vibrating of the bridge and lead to a dull, muffled tone. I have verified this by sounding notes while pressing down with some force on the bridge and listening to the results.
To provide the acoustical benefit of sidebearing without interfering with the free operation of the bridge, these lower strings are backpinned. This simply means that another bridgepin is inserted on the far side of the bridge, offset slightly toward the rear of the instrument. The bass strings are then threaded through the path between these two pins. In this way, the back pins provide a degree of sidebearing, while remaining in mechanical contact with the bridge, reducing the damping effect that would result if a similar amount of sidebearing were introduced by the bass hitchpins.

Although both bridges on the virginal must be pinned, the right bridge was already pinned by the previous owner of the kit; it was about the last task he completed on the project. To locate these right bridge pins, the manufacturer provided cross-marks on the full-sized drawing; the builder simply attaches the drawing to the bridge, and then makes dimples in the bridge with a sharp tool such as an awl. After removing the drawing, each dimple is drilled out and the pins are inserted into the resulting holes.

While this works fine for the right bridge, following the same procedure for the left bridge would require an unrealistic level of accuracy from the manufacturer, draftsman, and builder, so another solution is required. Ideally, a plectrum length of about 1/8" is desired; so, we put a piece of heavy cardstock in the damper slot of a jack, push it back so that exactly 1/8" of the cardstock projects from the jack, and place the jack in the jack guide. We then pull the string that corresponds to that particular slot in the jack guide into position on the left bridge, and make a dimple in the bridge where the string meets the bridge. After all the dimples are made, we drill them all out and insert the pins.



This was a simple and straightforward task. I only ran into two problems; first, the #27 drill bit used to drill out the holes is so small that the chuck in my electric hand-drill could not grip it; I had to use a bit of tape on the end of the bit to give it enough girth for the chuck to hold it in place. This did not work very well, and I had to reposition or replace the tape after every two or three holes drilled. The next time I do this, I will look for a better solution.



The other problem I had was due to my own inexperience and carelessness. The strings are supposed to run just behind the pins on the inside of the bridge, but a couple of times I forgot this and wound up making dimples in the bridge on the wrong side of the string. This is particularly easy to do on the bass strings, which have to be pulled with the fingers toward the back of the instrument to get them into the correct position before the dimple is made.