The short answer is yes, but the difference becomes less apparent the higher up the harp you go. The choice for most harpists boils down to the lower cost and durability of nylon strings versus the pitch clarity and warmth of gut.

I started playing on harps with only the fifth octave strung in gut. For the Betty Paret book I was fine, but when I owned my first harp a few years later, it was clear that the fourth octave had to be gut or all I would do was snap and buzz. I gradually switched to gut in the third octave, then the second, as I grew tired of having to adjust my playing to accommodate the “break” to the lighter tension nylon strings. Without gut my right hand thumb melodies went from mellow alto to shrieky soprano with the change of a single note.

—John Wickey lives and teaches in South Carolina where he is principal harpist with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.

The majority of pedal harpists use nylon strings in the first octave. The string preference for the second octave is mixed. Approximately half of my clients prefer nylon, the other half, gut. By the third octave, fewer still use nylon. Why is this?  Because of two very different but important reasons. First, thin gut strings break often, and second, the thicker the nylon, the “pithier” and blander the sound. Lever harps are also very particular to string type with gut going out of favor by most of today’s makers.

Each harp is different, so finding the sonic point where the transition from nylon to gut makes the most sense is best done on a case-by-case comparison. In very rare circumstances, a single nylon string surrounded by gut may prove to be better sonically. Harpists playing in high-humidity environments will prefer nylon at the sacrifice of tone because natural gut acts like a hygrometer, swelling and shrinking and being a nuisance to keep in tune. Those harpists employing authentic performance practices eschew nylon (the first commercial production of nylon strings, originally for guitars, wasn’t until 1948). I prefer nylon from the first octave through the second-octave C, and the remaining gut on pedal harp.

—Erich Rase, from Lansing, Mich., began harp lessons in 1979 with Jane Weidensaul but quickly realized that his talent was for repairing, instead of playing.

Absolutely. Gut has a higher tension than nylon so it will have a different feel, different pluck, and different ring. Logically, different materials will produce different resonances. The most common description is that nylon sounds “brighter.” For gut strings I like to use the words “earthy” or “grounded.” Words to portray sound can be tricky because they can have a positive or negative connotation for different people. When it comes to regulating, I prefer harps with gut strings from the second-octave E down to fifth-octave A. This is because there is less stretch in the string so that I get a solid reading in flat, natural, and sharp. Often, when there is nylon in the second and third octaves, you can get a Doppler effect in which the string sounds sharp on the pluck and then lowers in pitch on the decay. Gut strings, as a general rule, are more consistent.

So there is a bit of dichotomy when it comes to nylon and gut strings. They certainly regulate differently (which is why it is important to be consistent in what you choose), and in the resonance of what you would like. Listen to your harp and decide for yourself. •

—Liza Jensen resides in Brooklyn; she travels worldwide to maintain harps for Camac Harps and is a problem solver on behalf of all harps large and small.