The gestation of a harp

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This topic has 63 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 2 months ago by Liam M.

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January 26, 2009 at 12:56 pm #155085

michael-rockowitz
Participant

This is kind of my answer to Audrey Nickel’s post below, “The birth of a harp.”

January 26, 2009 at 2:37 pm #155086

Karen Johns
Participant

Well good for you, Michael! I commend anyone who wants to take the plunge and builds their own harp.

I do suggest looking into Musicmaker’s ( http://www.harpkit.com

January 26, 2009 at 3:12 pm #155087

Audrey Nickel
Participant

Sounds like a fun project!

January 26, 2009 at 8:59 pm #155088

Liam M
Participant

Michael,

January 26, 2009 at 9:36 pm #155089

bernhard-schmidt
Participant

Hallo Michael,

just check this

I’m planning on making the neck and column all from 3 1/2″ pieces of plywood, starting with rougly the correct shape (i.e., an “L” at an acute angle).

January 27, 2009 at 1:23 am #155090

Liam M
Participant

Bernhard,

January 27, 2009 at 1:54 am #155091

michael-rockowitz
Participant

Hello to all!

The enormity of this project is beginning to hit me.

January 28, 2009 at 6:07 pm #155092

bernhard-schmidt
Participant

Hallo Liam,

generally it is an issue of stiffness if the string diameter is in a badly relation to the string lengt, string thickness and Frequency.

I dont know what you mean by MPL

Regards

January 28, 2009 at 10:16 pm #155093

jennifer-buehler
Member

I think Bernhard said that the column is never made of plywood.

January 28, 2009 at 10:17 pm #155094

jennifer-buehler
Member

I also meant to mention that the string tension is fairly light and may have an impact on the construction of the harp.

January 28, 2009 at 11:35 pm #155095

Liam M
Participant

Guden

January 28, 2009 at 11:51 pm #155096

bernhard-schmidt
Participant

Jennifer,

I mentioned it to

January 29, 2009 at 1:02 am #155097

michael-rockowitz
Participant

Bernhard,

I was thinking of a different tension – but yes, I see, from the point of view of the torsion from the neck, the plywood column would be more likely to bend/break, and would be weaker (although I’m not sure if the 50% figure is quite right).

January 29, 2009 at 6:25 am #155098

michael-rockowitz
Participant

Hi to all,

To state the probably obvious – only the first paragraph above is directed to Bernhard

January 29, 2009 at 2:15 pm #155099

Karen Johns
Participant

From my experience building three harp kits, the internal rib does taper in width as it goes up in a larger harp, but is straight in both of my smaller(lap) harps. The external rib does not. With both of my Musicmaker harps I do not have an external rib- this may be due to the fact that it is more of an aesthetic rather than structural necessity. The internal rib of my nylon strung harp is 5-ply aircraft birch, while the wire-strung has a solid walnut strip.

You can download pdf files of all the Musicmaker harp
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