Can I use fishing line?

[YJ Lin]

Hi, I’m a harpist-to-be from Singapore. I’d like to know whether it’s alright to use a fishing line of same diameter to replace nylon harp strings. I’m doing this to save cost. An informative response is very much appreciated.

[Fairy Reel]

YIKES! I don’t know, actually, but it doens’t really sound like

[harpglo-jean]

Yup…it’s possible…just check out Sara Deere-Jones playing on a reproduction of a 15th Century Gothic (small) harp..she even states (page 7 of comments) that: “fishing line” was used to string it with…incredible! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bf1bFOf4Gg

[patricia-jaeger]

For emergency use only, it will work, until you can order a true harp string. Nylon, a patent by DuPont company, is sold for fishing line, tennis racquets, weed-cutter tools and so on, but for all of those the string is not first passed through a diamond die to make it perfectly cyllindrical as harp strings are, to get correct vibrations when we pluck them.

[unknown-user]

Hi YiJun,

Good to hear from you.

I have heard of this being done in emergencies in remote parts of the world. I knew

[andy-b]

I would also be concerned that you may void your warranty on the harp by not using strings approved by teh manufacturer.

Andy

[barbara-brundage]

I have known professional harpists who used nylon test line, so yes,it is possible, although I don’t know how the quality control compares with real strings these days.

[YJ Lin]

Hi all, thank you very much for your responses. I do have harp strings available here, and I see that using fishing line might cost more than it seems. =)

[unknown-user]

Good luck YiJun, it was an interesting question and its always good to hear from harpists in SE Asia!

Cheers.

[Author]

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