Editing Harpsichord (section)

==Strings, tuning, and soundboard==
[[File:Resonance Chladni Soundboard Harpsichord Clavecin.jpg|thumb|right|Sound board of a harpsichord with [[Chladni]] patterns]]
[[File:035 Museu de la Música.jpg|thumb|Detail of the harpsichord by Karl Conrad Fleischer; Hamburg, 1720 in [[Museu de la Música de Barcelona]]. A decorative rose descends below the soundboard in which it is mounted; the soundboard itself is adorned with floral painting around the rose. The bridge is at lower right.]]
Each string is wound around a ''tuning pin'' (also known as a ''wrest pin'') at the end nearest the player. When rotated with a wrench or tuning hammer, the tuning pin adjusts the tension so that the string sounds the correct pitch. Tuning pins are held tightly in holes drilled in the ''pinblock'' or ''wrestplank'', an oblong hardwood plank. Proceeding from the tuning pin, a string next passes over the ''nut'', a sharp edge that is made of hardwood and is normally attached to the wrestplank. The section of the string beyond the nut forms its ''vibrating length'', which is plucked and creates sound.

At the other end of its vibrating length, the string passes over the [[bridge (instrument)|bridge]], another sharp edge made of [[hardwood]]. As with the nut, the horizontal position of the string along the bridge is determined by a vertical metal pin inserted into the bridge, against which the string rests. The bridge itself rests on a ''[[Sound board (music)|soundboard]]'', a thin panel of wood usually made of [[spruce]], [[fir]] or—in some Italian harpsichords—[[Cupressus sempervirens|cypress]]. The soundboard efficiently transmits the vibrations of the strings into vibrations in the air; without a soundboard, the strings would produce only a very feeble sound. A string is attached at its far end by a loop to a ''hitchpin'' that secures it to the case.