My number one annoyance is the nylon string. Harpists complain that “the upper octaves are out of regulation” when the fact is the pitch on the nylon strings is wrong because the string needs to be replaced. A regulation is expensive. Don’t sabotage your appointment by showing up with bad nylon strings.

Try this, really. Tune your highest nylon F string in flat at fortissimo. Now move the F pedal into sharp. Play the F-sharp note at pianississimo and see what the pitch is on your tuner. Steadily crescendo, noting the pitch. My bet is the pitch keeps going flatter the louder you play. And that is just one nylon string. They will do the same thing after regulation unless the string is changed. Nylon does not break often enough! They hang around as pitch torture devices for a long time if you let them. Highly accurate regulation cannot be done with newly installed nylon strings so please do not expect magic from your regulator (they stretch like crazy for us too). That is why I request harpists change their nylon two weeks before their regulation appointment.

—Peter Wiley, the “Harp Doc,” is a certified member of the Lyon & Healy/Salvi Harp Technicians Guild and resides in Albuquerque, N.M.

The short answer is that a worn, damaged, or pitted string won’t regulate well, and when you finally put on a new string to replace the old string, the new string will be out of regulation. This is because the new string will have a different mass and diameter than the old damaged string. The selfish answer is that it’s easier on the technician to regulate a harp with new strings that are already holding pitch.

Of course, most reputable technicians will change any worn or pitted strings during the regulation. It just takes us a little longer depending on how many strings need changing. If the question is about changing all the strings, that’s a little different. I don’t think it’s necessary to change all the strings prior to a regulation. Some harpists like to do that, and it certainly won’t hurt, but in most cases it’s perfectly acceptable just to change the worn, damaged, or pitted strings. A full set of new strings costs around $500—that’s a lot of money, especially if you’re regulating your harp every year.

—Jason Azem is a certified member of the Lyon & Healy/Salvi Technicians Guild and is based in Aurora, Ill.

Old strings regulate differently from new strings. This is because an old string becomes more pliable and flexible. It means when the disc engages with the string, the string is bending to its maximum capacity. (Hint: just by changing your old string, you can bring that pitch back down without a regulation, but it does not take the place of a regulation.) A new string resists bending. It wants to remain straight and will resist against the disc to remain so. When the disc engages with the string, the string does not bend to its maximum capacity.

Let’s say I regulate an old string so that the pitch is in tune in flat, natural, and sharp and the string breaks. You replace it with a new string and the tuning in flat will be just fine. However, the tuning in natural and sharp will now be low in pitch. The opposite is true as well. If you have your harp regulated with new gut strings, and you decide to change to nylon, then those strings, when engaged in natural and sharp, will be too high in pitch. This is because they will bend to their maximum. The lesson here is that in order to get the most out of your regulation and money, make sure your strings are not more than one or two years old and always replace a broken string with the same type of string it was regulated with. •

—Liza Jensen travels internationally as a harp technician and lecturer and is from New York, N.Y.