Cheap pedal harps?

[leonard-lim]

Hi!

[carl-swanson]

Carbon fiber is not plastic, nor anything like plastic. It is long strands of a kind of thread and is incredibly strong. I use a layer of woven carbon fiber in the necks of both my new Swanson harps and in any replacement neck I make. It makes the neck much more rigid and stable without adding an ounce of extra weight. It is glued in place with epoxy. I would flatly refuse to make a neck without it. I can’t tell you anything about carbon fiber in soundboards because I don’t use it there. I still feel that for sound wood is best.

[unknown-user]

I’ve only been playing the harp for about 7 months, but my college degree is in aeronautical/astronautical engineering and 17 – 23

[carl-swanson]

Karen- I’m sure what you are saying is true. But there is also the issue of sound. Carbon fiber may be much more rigid(which is good for stability and strength) but that can cause problems with the sound. Poor attack, long resonance, etc.

[unknown-user]

Yes, I have noticed the boomy quality with harps that I know have carbon fibre in the boards, over responsive and a lack of focus to the note, and also not enough attack. I’m not sure all Camac have carbon fibre, when I last asked an agent in the US, I was told “some do some don’t” and that he doesn’t find out till they arrive.

I was told once by a harp maker that you can check for carbon fibre by putting a flash light inside the soundbox against the soundboard, in the top octave. If it is wood, there will be a slight

[barbara-low]

I’ve heard and played on harps without carbon fiber soundboards that had poor response but not a long resonance and the lever harps I’ve played generally have a very long resonance without a carbon fiber reinforced board.

[carl-swanson]

it is a cloth, but it’s glued in place with epoxy, and the epoxy completely saturates the fabric. So the epoxy has cured, it’s as brittle as glass. That quality is great for a neck, but not a soundboard.

[carl-swanson]

There are other examples of good materials poorly used. The pinblock material that is used to make necks for example(which is made up of layers of maple veneer) is very strong in that application because the layers of wood are vertical and the pressure(more than a ton) is straight down. But using that same material for baseframes of pedal harps is a disaster, because the layers are now horizontal and the pressure is still straight down. The wood layers in this application warp and delaminate. But I’m not complaining. I’ve made a great deal of money repairing this problem! I’m the one who invented the baseframe repair and not one of my baseframe repairs has ever come apart. Careerwise, I hope the other companies continue to do it the same way.

[barbara-low]

Why a neck and not a soundboard?

[barbara-low]

Congrats on your success regarding body base frame failure.

[carl-swanson]

It’s one of the things you should chek on ANY used instrument, cheap or expensive. Look for a shadow line at the bottome of the soundboard showing if and how much the baseboard has slipped down. Look at the seam between the top of the pedestal and the bottom end of the body right where it meets the baseboard to see if there is an opening there. Look into the opening right there with a flashlight to see if there is any torn wood, indicating that the base frame is coming out.

[carl-swanson]

Because the neck doesn’t produce the sound. The soundboard does.

[Jerusha Amado]

Carl,

I think that Barbara Brundage mentioned on

[carl-swanson]

i’ve never heard of that happening. Maybe Barbara can explain the situation.

[barbara-brundage]

Actually, I’ve seen this happen both ways. I would disagree with Carl that the neck has no influence on the sound: with an instrument made of wood, the entire instrument resonates to some extent, not just the board. But I very definitely have seen two instruments sent back to two different highly respected shops that returned as much poorer instruments than they went, although nothing was done but the neck, and I’ve seen the opposite happen, too.

I had a 17 which was very very beautiful but imcredibly hard to play, although it was my main instrument for about 5 years. The woman who bought it from me knocked it over putting in the car to go to a gig on a windy day. She had to get a new neck, and the sound was very greatly improved by the change in the neck. As far as I know the neck was all that was done–I saw no evidence of any changes in the body, like the extra bracing L&H sometimes puts in, and she was not charged for anything but a neck.

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