Welcome to my Website. Last updated on 22nd January 2021.
In solidarity with the NHS, my workshop is not open to visitors, but I am still able do 'Click and Collect' and make some limited deliveries. In the meanwhile, I shall be making instruments for you to visit when it is safe to do so.
Unsurprisingly, deliveries to Mainland Europe are experiencing difficulties.
Please wait patiently until we get rid of this government and re-join the EU!
Many thanks to all my lovely customers in 2020. You have kept me sane!




Colin Booth Single oct2020.mp3
BB-d3. Transposing a=415/440. 2x8' with buff stop.
Case and lid made from French Poplar, Beech wrestplank, bridges, jacks and registers, Spruce soundboard, solid oak stand which can be reduced to three sections for transport. A compact, light double manual harpsichord without a 4-foot register.
Gold bands coming shortly!
Size 212cm long, 82cm wide and 28cm high, on a stand which is 73cm high.
£10,850. Reduced to £10,350.
Delin Double Goldberg Extracts 2020.mp3
DelinDouble10.10.20.mp3
English Harpsichord after Thomas Barton by Peter Barnes 2019.
English Harpsichord oct2020.mp3
This harpsichord, made by Peter Barnes in 2019, is in the English tradition and is based on the c.1715 bentside spinet by Keene and Brackley and the 1709 harpsichord by Thomas Barton. It has traditional wooden jacks, guides and keyboard, a detachable lid with solid decorative brass-work and a folding music desk. The inside of the case and the nameboard are made from Cedar wood, with cross-banded walnut capping.
The harpsichord is strung with Malcolm Rose Iron and brass wire, it has 2x8’ stops and a walnut case and stand. The GG - f3 compass transposes A440 / 415 without loss of top or bottom notes.
The stand detaches from the harpsichord and can be easily taken apart for transport. This harpsichord is 193cm long, 88cm wide and 21cm deep. It has a soundboard painting by Jennifer Douglas which is closely based on the Coston Harpsichord from the Edinburgh University Collection.
This harpsichord is about to come back from an 11 month home hiring and is now available for £8,900.
Sold, but commissions undertaken. (For example, you could order a similar instrument without the soundboard painting for £7,900.)
English Harpsichord 2019.mp3
ZOOM0038.MP3
ZOOM0039.MP3
Can be seen in Colchester. £4,750 ono.
Reduced to £3995 on 22.1.2021.


ZOOM0064.MP3
ZOOM0063.MP3
ZOOM0043.MP3
ZOOM0042.MP3

Good quality Keyboard instruments wanted.
I am happy to buy your instrument from you, or sell it on commission.
Further details on: selling-your-harpsichord.php
You can contact me by phone on 01373 831498 or (+44)7733619002, or by email peterbarnes850@btinternet.com or via this page: contact-us-and-instrument-transport-links.php
Klop Spinet.mp3
ZOOM0053.MP3
Chembalino 10.10.20.mp3
Delin Single Oct2020.mp3
Delin PB 2020 Back 8'.mp3
Delin PB 2020 Both 8's.mp3
Delin PB 2020 Buff stop.mp3
ZOOM0044.MP3
ZOOM0046.MP3

Harpsichord after Migliai by Colin Booth 2008.
This is what Colin Booth says about this harpsichord:
Two decades ago, while on a visit to the Germanisches National Museum in Nuremberg, I fell for the 2-manual Italian harpsichord in their collection. At the time the maker was unknown, but Denzil Wraight has since found evidence that it is by the leading 17th century Italian maker Migliai.
This original harpsichord is a light-weight ‘inner’ instrument, housed in an outer case. It has the normal small compass of only C/E short octave to c3, but demonstrates the common interest through Europe in the later 17th century, of either placing a small instrument on top of a large one at normal pitch, or actually building the octave facility into the instrument, using a second keyboard.
This tradition died out after 1700, but even without the presence of a manual coupler, it gives the player a far more interesting variety of timbre than one might expect: it can be found in Italy, France, and in the Netherlands, where the ‘mother and child’ virginal was quite common.
Italian harpsichords had from the start been at the heart of my harpsichord-making, and I quickly decided to build a close copy of the Nuremberg instrument. I incorporated a coupler, and the resulting varieties of tone were even more startling. These are exploited on two CDs:
Frescobaldi- keyboard music SBCD201, and Peter Philips, the English Exile SBCD992.
The sonority was deep and majestic when more than one register was employed, and beautiful and intimate on solo stops. The unique elegance of the instrument was itself highly satisfying.
In 2008, following the sale of the copy, I produced an enlarged version. The compass was extended to the common later 17th century GG/BB short octave to c3, and the keyboards transposed to give A415 / A440 / and A466. (If preferred, the pitch can be lowered by a semitone, to offer A392 instead of the high pitch A466). A lightweight lid system proved adequate as protection, and a full dismantleable table stand seemed justified by the splendid character of this instrument. The nobiliity of tone which was a feature of the copy, was more than equalled in this larger version.
I have recently ended my harpsichord-making, and no longer have a spacious workshop in which to house instruments which are not in immediate use. Hence the need to reluctantly part with what was part of my ‘core collection’. The harpsichord has only rarely been used for concerts, and is in almost entirely perfect and unmarked condition. It is mature, but plectra and strings are almost new.