The thickness and plasticity of the string will help determine how many windings you should have on the tuning pin. The main objective is to get the string from the tuning pin to the bridge pin parallel to the neck of the harp. However, if you see that some of your strings on your harp are not parallel, don’t change anything unless there is a problem. When you change the string placement on the tuning pin, it can affect your regulation.

The thinner strings will need several windings in order to line up parallel with the neck. My suggestion for the top two octaves is about two and a half inches of extra string. From there to middle C leave about two inches. The lowest fluorocarbon and gut strings stretch a lot, so you don’t want to leave any slack before tuning it up. For wound nylon, if you’re only winding monofilament on your tuning pin, then two inches should be just fine; if you’re also winding the wound part onto the tuning pin, then you will not need that much.

The bass wires need about four to five windings close together. These actually should angle out from the tuning pin to the bridge pin. This way the tension of the string pulls the tapered tuning pin tighter helping solve the problem of slipping pins. Measure the string two and a half to three inches above the tuning pin, cut it off pushing it back through the tuning pin hole leaving it barely sticking out before winding it onto the tuning pin. This will keep your string end from scratching you or tearing up your case.

—Sharon Thormahlen is a composer and arranger and helps run Thormahlen Harps with her husband, Dave in Corvallis, Oregon

Strings wrapped around tuning pins on any stringed instrument have a particular function to perform. Such is the case for the modern harp. Take for instance the nylon string. The fewer the wraps around the tuning pin, the better. Nylon stretches…and stretches…and stretches. After a few years’ time, what started out as maybe two or three revolutions will turn into eight or more! With natural gut, the fewer revolutions around the tuning pin, the better. They stretch, too, but not as much as nylon. Two revolutions will suffice; even for the very thick 5th octave gut. Any more than four or more revolutions will put too much lateral pressure on the string, an unnecessary force. These extra windings make tuning more difficult and weaken the string, causing premature breakage.

Wires are usually wrapped two revolutions, and no more than three, with the exception of the 7th octave ,where a single wrap may be required because of the wire’s thickness. Bass wires, in my opinion, are best left to the professional harp technician to install. This way, you can rest assured that they will be installed to every advantage of the harp’s performance.

—Erich Rase from Lansing, Michigan, trained under the tutelage of Victor Salvi and Dale Barco in 1978-79. Lansing, Michigan

The reason we leave slack when installing strings is to make sure we get the proper number of windings on the tuning pins. The composition of the string and the octave where it is used will determine the amount of slack needed to get the proper number of windings. Too few or too many windings can both cause problems.

I typically pull the string up through the tuning pin. I grab the amount of the string I need above the tuning pin and pull that length back down through the tuning pin. For bass wires I use approximately two inches. For gut and nylon in the 4th and 5th octaves I leave no slack. The nylon may actually stretch enough that you will need to go back later and remove a few windings worth of length. For gut and nylon in the 3rd octave I leave a half inch. For gut and nylon in the 2nd and 1st octaves I leave one inch. For nylon wrapped nylon I leave no slack. •

—David Kolacny operates Kolacny Music in Denver. He is a member of the Lyon & Healy/Salvi Technicians Guild and President of the International Society of Folk Harpers and Craftsmen.