Pinblock

The pinblock—which, together with the spruce-fir wedge, forms the so called “head” of the cimbalom—is made of beech plywood. This plywood does not break (breakage being the most common and most serious damage with old cimbaloms). The individual layers of the plywood intersect each other, which enables a better hold of the tuning pin than solid wood. Besides, plywood also reacts to the changes in humidity less than solid wood.

The whole “head” of the cimbalom is glued and screwed (with five stainless screws) to its bottom part. The nuts of the screws, situated on the bottom part, have to be checked regularly, and kept tightly screwed on (see The Guarantee). The screws prevent the “head”, which is exposed to a constant, enormous pull of the strings, from being torn off.