Broken wire string

[dorka]

Dear Everyone,

Today I had a little bit frightening experience. I was playing the harp, and when I changed the B pedal, I heard that big noise, which happens, when a wire string breaks. But nothing happened for first sight, and I looked around the harp, and realized my 6th octave B becomes loose… but not broken. Anyway I didn’t find anything, everything is working. Is it possible, a string breaks like this? I didn’t do anything, I am waiting my technician’s answer, till, I thought I ask here also..

[Sylvia]

Yes, that’s how a wire breaks.  Sounds like a gun going off.  The string does not look broken.  It won’t fall apart like a gut or nylon.  As you said, it feels loose.  Your string is broken.  You need to put on a new one.  If one wire broke, it might be time to change them all.

[carl-swanson]

Wire strings are made up of a steel core that is wrapped in silk and wire. When a wire string breaks, it is the core that breaks. The outer wrappings of silk and wire do not. So it looks fine, but is loose and impossible to pull back up to pitch.  Usually when a wire string breaks, you have to pull on each wire string just to figure out which one broke.

[dorka]

Thank you for your replies. Yes, I checked and changed the string, and everything is ok. earlier I hadn’t got experience the wire strings can break like this.

 

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