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Home › Forums › Harps and Accessories › string ?

Viewing 10 posts - 1 through 10 (of 10 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • April 21, 2010 at 7:05 pm #74424
    kay-lister
    Member

    Just wondering . . . I am familiar with the Merlin harp as I helped a friend sell his and the harp is strung so that the lowest string is D (I believe).

    April 22, 2010 at 1:24 pm #74425
    kay-lister
    Member

    Hmmm – I’m surprised no one has responded to this one.

    April 22, 2010 at 1:53 pm #74426
    holly-bowron-hainley
    Participant

    Hi Kay:

    I asked this one a couple of days ago and the jury is still out as you can see from the link.

    April 22, 2010 at 2:25 pm #74427
    andy-b
    Participant

    I had thought the range

    April 22, 2010 at 5:17 pm #74428
    kay-lister
    Member

    Andy,

    Your exactly right, it is the B.

    April 22, 2010 at 5:43 pm #74429
    jessica-wolff
    Participant

    I sorta doubt it. Reason: judging from the website, he’s calculated things pretty exactly, what with three different kinds of strings and an odd-looking harmonic curve. Some while back I asked Pam Bruner about the Vesta, no longer made, a 32-string instrument, whether the lowest string (E) couldn’t be lowered to C. She said no, that someone had insisted on lowering it to D, but that the C would mess with the tension too much. I imagine some harps are more forgiving than others on this score.

    But look, why don’t you ask the maker himself? And while you’re at it, find out why he chose such an odd range (with B instead of C as the lowest string). I wouldn’t be inclined to tinker with a harp that sounds as good as that one does (I was just floored by the middle and the bass), and at least you DO have the C two octaves below middle C.

    April 22, 2010 at 5:57 pm #74430
    kay-lister
    Member

    Guess I could ask Rick Rubarb but I was asking this as a general question, not just about the Merlin.

    April 22, 2010 at 6:19 pm #74431
    Tacye
    Participant

    I have been thinking about this from the physics point of view some more.

    April 22, 2010 at 7:45 pm #74432
    kay-lister
    Member

    Tracey,

    Interesting – so I would think that it could be done on a harp such as a Merlin because strings would be moved DOWN a space and the tension, I would think, would not be that different as far as creating additional stress on the harp or the performance of the string.

    April 22, 2010 at 8:20 pm #74433
    Tacye
    Participant

    I just went to my L&H and played with the 4th G.

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