Fantasy Lyre Harp

The lyre or lyre harp has existed in the musical world since Ancient Greece. Similar instruments existed in Scandinavia and examples of the lyre exist in the Anglo Saxon period of English history.

They have become very popular in fantasy publications like DnD and Skyrim as well. The music will really set the atmosphere for any renaissance or medieval setting.

I used some very plain, natural materials for this build and I really like the way it turned out! This is also my first instrument build and I was super happy with how it turned out

For my build, I used the following materials and tools:

SAFETY GEAR (goggles, gloves, respirator, ear plugs)

A board of maple (around 20" long, around 8" wide and about .75" thick)

Small chunk of antler for the bridge

Tuning peg, strings, eyelets and hammer kit (Amazon and Ebay have a lot of them)

1/8" brass rod

2 part epoxy or wood glue

Drill and bit set

Router with straight cutting bit

C clamps

Jigsaw

Palm sander and sand paper (1/4 sheet sized for sander use)

0000 Steel wool

File/rasp combo tool

Rotary tool (I used a flex shaft dremel)

Wire cutters

Tung oil

Beeswax

The design I went with requires 2 halves to create the cavity that the sound resonates from. The upper side ended up being around 14" tall with the arms being around 4.5" and a decorative curl on the top corners. This design is very symmetrical, but a lot of historical examples tended to follow the harp's asymmetrical style. I cut out the outer shape with the jigsaw with relative ease, but the hole had to have a fairly large hole drilled to get the jigsaw blade into. I also had to make several cuts in order get everything out. From here I used my combo rasp/file to clean up the inner radii of the hole and the curls on the corners. I also marked out where the tuning pegs would go by marking the first and last holes, then marking a middle between them. Then I marked 2 holes between the middle and either side, giving us a total of 7.

The backside of the lyre can be cut now as well, its shape mirrors the front except it stops where the arms begin on the front side.

I marked a line around .5" inside the back shape and repeated the same line on the front. Make sure that these are on coinciding sides so that they form a hollow when the halves are glued together. The space inside these lines will now be removed with a router using a straight cutting bit. With the thickness of my wood being .75" I made the final depth of my cut .5" on either half to make the walls of the hollow .25". In order to get a cut this deep I had to cut .25" deep and then go over the same cut at .5" Make sure to be careful when using the router, they will sometimes kickback.

Now that both halves are routed out, the front thickness of the lyre is now .25" and you will need to mark a shape (traditionally a round hole, could be a moon, star, fish, diamond, etc) and this shape will need to be routed out at the thickness remaining AKA .25". The sound hole can now be sanded smooth.

At this point the halves can be glued together with a 2 part epoxy or wood glue and clamped to dry overnight. Once the glue is fully cured, a section on the back side of the bottom can be routed out to make an area for the strings to... be strung through.

I also went ahead and did the very basic carving to bring out the curl detail and separate the middle at the top. I typically use carbide burrs to remove material fast and they usually last a very long time.

From this point, you can drill the holes for the tuning pegs. These holes can go through, but I only drilled mine about .5" deep into the .75" thickness. The diameter of these holes should be just under the diameter of your tuning pegs, this is because you'll want to let the pegs tap into the wood. This will keep the pegs from coming untuned as quickly. Once the holes are drilled, put a little beeswax into the threads of the peg, then gently push it into the hole. You can then start screwing the peg into the hole with the tuning hammer, be sure to gently press down and turn clockwise. If you don't drill through, make sure that the peg ONLY bottoms out and doesn't bust through. Now the holes at the bottom can be drilled through, these will most likely be about 1/8" to accommodate the eyelets provided with the kit. These eyelets will prevent the strings from digging into the wood.

Now you are able to smooth the back half into the front and curve all the edges. I sanded from 100-150-240-400 grit and then lightly with 0000 steel wool.

Now that all the surfaces are smooth and prepared for finish, I took a small chunk of antler that I cut and polished smooth and made it into a bridge. I drilled an 1/8" hole on either side, then used the dremel to make 7 notches for the strings to lay in. This piece was attached to the lyre by drilling a very shallow hole and press fitting the bridge in place with brass rod. The string spacing on the bridge should be wider than the eyelet spacing, but not as wide as the tuning peg spacing. It should also be on the lower side of the sound hole.

At this point, I did 2 thin coats of Tung oil and rubbed it in very thoroughly before allowing it to sit. I then polished in some beeswax with a piece of cloth.

The tuning pegs should be installed at this point, but the eyelets will need pressed into the bottom individually allowing the string to hold them in place. Make sure to back the tuning pegs out just a little before running the string into them, then you can slowly start tightening the pegs back down, allowing the strings to wrap. Don't worry about tuning yet, you just want these to be in well enough that you can trim the excess string.

The tuning pattern that I chose was A4-G4 going right to left. This is because I am right handed and the instrument is held in the left and faces towards me. You can tune your lyre in any combination that you'd like, but I like a single string for each chord that I'll need. Now that you have a finished, tuned lyre you can start playing some songs! A great resource for chords is Samantha on Mars from Youtube https://www.youtube.com/c/SamanthaonMars

I have included a video of how mine sounds just playing around.

I hope you try your hand at making one of these simple, timeless instruments and I look forward to seeing them!