can I still put new strings after a regulation?

[laura-palmieri]

I just got my harp regulated on Monday.

[barbara-brundage]

I wouldn’t think there’s any way on earth you could get a whole set of nylons to hold pitch in a week’s time, even if you had people tuning in relays 24/7 until then.

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

If you want your harp to be out of tune for the concert you can….but I sure wouldn’t. It takes me awhile for my strings to settle in. Two weeks isn’t enough time. Also, won’t that change the regulation….especially if you switch from guts to nylons? Why did you put nylons on your harp?

Briggsie

[Jerusha Amado]

I suspect that changing from gut to nylon would affect the regulation.

[laura-palmieri]

Thank you for all the replies! I will leave the current strings on. There are a couple

[barbara-brundage]

Good luck with your concert!

[Karen Johns]

Hi Laura!

I don’t have a answer to your question but I must say I am looking forward to you playing this weekend! I live in the area and although I don’t play a pedal harp I have never had the chance to hear one live. Briggs, if you have the time this Sunday at 7:30 pm, email me and I’ll let you know where the concert is. Laura, I’m sure you’ll be brilliant, I’ve heard great things about you from Daniel!

Karen

[sherry-lenox]

My teacher has a trick for saving old strings but I can’t remember what it is. She rubs something on the strings when she feels a rough patch and they last longer. I’ll ask her at my next lesson if I can think of it.

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

Thanks, but I’m not available this Sunday. I did, however, go to Laura’s graduation recital from O.U. and it was just a delight! We are both lucky to have such a great teacher, too. 🙂

Briggsie

[laura-palmieri]

Thank you Karen! I am very excited as well to perform for the Maritime Days Concert! Briggs and I take harp lessons from Kerstin Allvin who is one of the best teachers I’ve ever had. She’s really

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

There should be no big change in the regulation if you switch to nylon strings, which I prefer. Any regulation needs minor adjustments as the strings stretch and the felts pack down, so learning to make those yourself will take care of things. When felts are changed, the regulation usually needs to be redone after a month or so of use. It depends which nylon you have though, if you have Pirastro, there will be little difference, but a bit more if you have other nylon strings. I only use Pirastro.

[barbara-low]

Glad you decided to keep the gut strings on till after your concert.

Regarding the regulation, with your concert next week as the main consideration:

1) forget about what you prefer and tune to 440 till you get your harp re-regulated to 442.

In preparation for a re-regulation to 442, put your new nylons on and start tuning your harp to 442. After all strings become stable in the new tuning, take it to your technician and say specifically that you what it regulated to 442.

The harp has a memory – it will want to return to 440 if you don’t pre-tune to 442 prior to regulation.

[laura-palmieri]

Barbara- Yes, I

[carl-swanson]

I have not read all of the posts here, but have skimmed through them. Here are some thoughts in no particular order.

There is no difference between a regulation at 440 and 442. The harp is either regulated or it isn’t . Raising the pitch by 2 cents does not alter string length, which is the main factor in question when regulating a harp.

Strings tend to return to the pitch they were tuned at. If your harp is always tuned to 440 and you decide to lower it to 435, it will creep up towards 440 for at least several days until the strings adjust to the lower pitch.

Changing your stringing from gut to nylon may possibly cause some problems with the regulation. It won’t change the pitch regulation, but since a nylon string reaches its designated pitch at a lower tension than gut, the looser nylon may thwack against a disc prong, particularly down in the 4th and 5th octaves. If you’re going to change the stringing of your harp from mostly gut to mostly nylon, you should change the strings at least a month in advance of the technician working on it. He cannot regulate the instrument unless and until each string is firmly holding pitch, and not dropping every time the string is played.

[Karen Johns]

Laura,

All I can say is WOW….well, maybe that isn’t all I could say! Briggs, you were right,

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