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can you use nylon strings when gut are recommended for that model ?

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Home Forums Harps and Accessories can you use nylon strings when gut are recommended for that model ?

Viewing 11 posts - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
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  • #69371
    mike-c
    Participant

    I got a L&H style 17 a few months back. The sellers weren’t harp aficionados, but as a courtesy they replaced many of the strings that were mangled

    #69372
    tony-morosco
    Participant

    A L&H 17 should be able to handle either gut or nylon, or any combination of them. I think in this case when they say that gut is recommended I think they are speaking in terms of tone, not harp structure. Lyon and Healy typically ships its harps with a combination of gut with nylon in the upper octave or two. Lyon and Healy concert harps generally sound best when the majority of octaves other than the very top are strung in gut.

    I would not suggest replacing just one string with nylon however if the rest are all gut because it will most likely stand out. I would wait and restring the whole harp the way you want it if you really want to go with nylon.

    I keep my pedal harp strung the way that L&H sent it, with mostly gut, and nylon only in the top. Looking at my string chart it looks like the recommended stringing for L&H semi grands is to be strung with gut through the 3rd octave, and then nylon in the 2nd and 1st octaves. But all gut or all nylon are shown as options for stringing.

    If you change from one material to the other you may need to get it regulated after switching over from one to the other.

    #69373
    catherine-rogers
    Participant

    Tony is right. One other point is that nylon in the 5th octave sounds dull and thunky, doesn’t ring like gut. A 17 is a higher end model and will sound best with better quality strings, but that’s generally true of most harps.

    #69374

    I like the sound of gut strings, even in the upper octaves.

    My both harps (lever and pedal) of Lyon & Healing both are only strung with gut strings (and wire for the lower octaves).

    I’m very happy with these strings and they don’t break more often that nylon strings.

    So you can make the choice for yourself which type of strings you like.

    #69375
    mike-c
    Participant

    thanks everybody for the reply. I will keep that in mind about the better quality sound. For the interim, I will use the nylon strings I bought, but in the long run I’ll look forward to having gut (not not looking forward to having to restring them all, what a chore!).

    #69376
    Sid Humphreys
    Participant

    Mike, don’t give yourself a bad attitude about restringing. I just did the top two octaves of my 23 the other night. I use gut string all the way ( I do like the ring that nylon gives in the top two octaves but I never can stabilize nylon strings in the upper

    #69377
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Gut is higher tension than nylon. Quite a bit higher. You should string the instrument in nylon or gut within an octave and not mix and match gut and nylon within the range that you choose to use one or the other. It will feel and sound odd, but will not hurt the instrument. It could possibly cause minor regulation problems or buzzes to change from gut to nylon or visa versa after it’s been regulated.

    #69378
    mike-c
    Participant

    Thanks for the encouragement. I replaced 3 strings in the 5th octave with nylon. It was really hard working with the string, tying the knot at the bottom, and guessing the proper amount of slack to leave so that when tuned it would have about 3 winds on the peg. I have restrung an entire harp before, less the bass wires, but then I went so long without doing it I forgot.

    #69379
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    Mike- You don’t have to leave any slack with nylon strings. In fact, you will probably at some point soon have to unwind the string, take up all the slack, and then rewind it again. Nylon stretches and stretches and stretches, and you have to be careful you don’t get so many windings on the tuning pin that the windings push up against the neck. The only strings that you have to leave slack for are the wires. My repair and maintenance book, A GUIDE FOR HARPISTS, available from Vanderbilt Music Company, has all of that information in there.

    #69380
    mike-c
    Participant

    oops I typed my reply to you down in Carl’s reply. Thank you both for answering my question. I would be so lost without harpcolumn!

    #69381

    Nylon is preferable in the first, second and even the third octaves, if you ask me. Gut strings do not sustain long enough to produce good melody lines. They also do not produce as good harmonics. Time was, L & H supplied their harps with nylon in the first and second octaves. There are many reasons nylons can be preferable. But you should not mix between nylon and gut, each area should be separate, and gut sound better on the lower strings.

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