Home › Forums › Harps and Accessories › Installing Pedals on a Lever Harp
- This topic has 12 replies, 8 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 4 months ago by
tony-morosco.
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April 2, 2012 at 3:34 am #69996
PassionateCross
ParticipantBuying a pedal harp seems a bit expensive, so I’ve thought of this idea. I know this process would be expensive too. Do you think it would be possible from some harp technician to do this?
April 2, 2012 at 1:58 pm #69997jessica-wolff
ParticipantNo.
April 2, 2012 at 3:07 pm #69998sherry-lenox
ParticipantOooops, the answer is actually “yes” , but the process is not practical. There was a post at Yahoo in 2011. I believe the builder that was mentioned was Rick Rubarth who now builds and sells RHarps.
There was also the harp made in England (Morley?) with 43 strings, I think, that could have a pedal mechanism added. That was fairly recent.
I may be wrong, although I just read the Yahoo reference so it can be googled.
I’m not absolutely sure, so I’d rather say “maybe” than “No”.
April 2, 2012 at 5:05 pm #69999tony-morosco
MemberYou can’t install pedals on a lever harp without completely rebuilding the harp. At the very least the column would have to be replaced with one large enough to be hollowed out to run the pedal rods through. A base would need to be built for it to
April 3, 2012 at 6:31 am #70000adam-b-harris
ParticipantApril 1st anyone?
April 3, 2012 at 12:34 pm #70001william-weber
ParticipantGood point — it may have been totally tongue-in-cheek. OTOH, I have wondered if it might be possible to rig up a pedal with some kind of cable to run up to a particular lever that needs a lot of changes. (Of course, a lever harp purist would consider that cheating.)
April 3, 2012 at 1:06 pm #70002wil-weten
ParticipantThis old type of Camac harp (I think it may be more than 20 years old)
April 3, 2012 at 2:23 pm #70003wil-weten
ParticipantAnd this: http://www.enchantedharp.com/Used_Harps/UsedPetite930.JPG is how this former type of a 38 string Camac looked like as a lever harp.
I don’t think installing pedals on a lever harp could be economically interesting and I don’t know whether these old Camac lever harps can still be adapted for (single action) pedals.
April 3, 2012 at 8:54 pm #70004Bonnie Shaljean
ParticipantJust in case this isn’t an April Fool jest – if you don’t mind having it only be single-action, you could consider a Tyrolean harp. These are much smaller and lighter than the standard concert pedal harps, including the “chamber-sized” ones, and cost far less. Thread about them here (and I’m pretty sure there are others too if you dig around):
http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=5086671
April 4, 2012 at 8:45 am #70005PassionateCross
ParticipantHaha thanks everyone. Looks like will have to find a really cheap pedal harp with my luck. But LOL! I am pretty inexperienced about how they build the harps, causing me to ask poorly thought out questions. So I guess my question is April Fool’s related! xD
April 4, 2012 at 9:28 am #70006Bonnie Shaljean
ParticipantDon’t forget there’s also a good chance of finding a secondhand harp that would suit you – though get someone experienced to check it out for you before committing yourself.
If you can give us a general idea of how much you want to spend, and also roughly where you’re located, we can post suggestions or links if we see any. Also, how important is size? Does it need to be as portable as possible, or is that not a vital consideration?
Sorry for the April Fool misunderstanding – I keep falling for those jokes, and this time thought AHA! I’ll be wary. Too wary, I guess. Thanks for taking it in such good humour!
April 4, 2012 at 10:04 am #70007adam-b-harris
ParticipantIts a great discussion topic in any case. Got my imagination going.
April 4, 2012 at 4:01 pm #70008tony-morosco
MemberI don’t think it was a poor question. It was actually an interesting one.
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