I am slipping into retirement and am no longer building new harpsichords, although I continue to be responsible for my work and the instruments I've built (except where unauthorized work has been done).  The "Instruments Available" section shows harpsichords I have on hand which need owners who will play them and take care of them.  But I'm no longer doing rentals or refurbishing work on other harpsichords.

    I've been in this field for upwards of four decades, and have learned considerably.  There is a wide variety of things to learn.  Harpsichords never became standardized as pianos did by the 1850s.  Each antique that has come down to us is different; each national style is different; each century is different; and each modern builder has rediscovered these differently.  My interest has always been in design, and I have built a dozen or so of different types of harpsichords, including five different types of eighteenth-century French doubles.  I've experimented with different materials, and have learned what design features are crucially identifying and what are adaptable.  I have explored the evolution of these instruments across the three centuries, towards greater and greater sustain as the music became more harmonically fulsome, towards more open soundboard area, towards a balance between sufficient structure and free resonance.

    Below is a nostalgic tour of the instruments I used to offer.  And I recommend you to the Instruments Available section.

    --Robert Hicks.