Double-strung harp saga

[wil-weten]

Hi Mae, any news? I very much like to hear about any new developments regarding your double strung harp.

[mae-mcallister]

The saga continues…

…we come to The Installation of the Levers.

Lessons learnt from this weekend: Firstly, installing levers is every bit as tedious and boring and fiddly and crap as everyone has always said it is; Secondly, in the nicest possible way, Americans and their outdated illogical pain-in-the-ass imperial units can go to hell:)

So, it being along weekend and me staying at my parents (my dad got lots of tools:), I decided it would be the perfect weekend to make a start. The Stoney End instructions specify the following stages:

1. Position the lever by hand and mark the point with an awl.
2. Drill a hole
3. Use a screw to thread the hole
4. Screw in the lever with the screw.

They also specify that you have to start with the largest string but it took us one lever to realise that the exact opposite applies for the RH side of a double-strung.

What it also doesn’t mention about stage 1 is that it’s impossible to do this with less than 3 hands unless you are very, very good. You cannot hold the lever down and test the string at the same time, because holding the lever down when it’s engaged is HARD. But that’s fine, we had Team Dad and Mae and Mae’s Partner.

Stage 2 is (relatively) simple, except since the hole is directly underneath the string, you have to hold the string away from the hole by a RIDICULOUSLY large amount. This is especially worrying for the shortest strings, which are about 10cm long. I am so glad I didn’t string the harp with gut, because I swear every single one would have snapped in my face. And again, you cannot drill and hold the string away at the same time without 2 people. But we made it through with no (currently) snapped strings, although a couple of the smaller ones got a bit too friendly with the drill and are a bit scratched.

Stage 3 is bullsh*t. We barely did 6 levers like this. The screws are not made for threading, they get crazy hot and it is super hard work, especially as the little screwdriver just doesn’t have that kind of leverage on it. Oil didn’t help and it was only a matter of time before one of them sheared. Unfortunately, despite being wise enough to order the drill bit and and ball screwdriver and the spanner from the lever company on the basis that no one here wants to start a huge and potentially expensive imperial tool hunt, I did not order the tap. (“Get everything but the tap. You won’t need it for wood” – Mae’s partner. “I never use a tap for wood” – Mae’s dad. “Use a hex-headed machine screw to tap the hole” – Stoney End instructions). I am telling you now, FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY, GET THE TAP. DO NOT USE A SCREW.

So we realise we can’t do this without a tap and it’s Good Friday so all the shops are shutting early and many internet searches and phone calls later we cannot find a SINGLE shop that sells imperial taps. Not. Even. One. If it was a SENSIBLE (i.e metric) tap, there would be a dozen shops within stone’s throw. Wickes only sell imperial taps in sets and even then it didn’t have the right one. And no other shops sell imperial taps. The internet probably does, but no one’s really sure from the on-line specs whether it’s the correct one and most of them are metric anyway and it’s Good Friday so that’s no use anyway. Between the three of us we can only think of one shop that would (Mackays), and it’s near where I live, only we’re not where I live!

Saturday comes, and no tap. In a last-ditch attempt, Dad remembers that the dad of some family friends has all kinds of randomn tools and luckily they live nearby. We phone him and he invites us to come and have a look and when we get there he pulls out dozens of randomn taps all labelled in different ways and some not at all but glory be, we find a tap that fits…PHEW.

It turns out when we get home that it’s too small to fit over the levers to wind but a quick think plus an allen key and an electrical connector and we have a longer handle that does.

Screwing in a tap also requires one to move the strings aside, cue more hands, plus some very stretched strings.

Stage 4 involves more pulling the string about and generally swearage and fiddles. Quite often we had to widen the slot on the lever through which the screw goes because either the screw wouldn’t quite fit through the hole or because our hole was a tiny bit off and the lever needed to move a bit sideways. One lever has a little semi-circle of metal shaved off the top so that the lever could get a tiny bit closer to the bridge pin. Widening the slot for the string to accommodate thicker strings was the work of a few seconds with the needle file and the easiest thing ever.

By the end we were taking about 10mins per lever instead of 20/25mins. Even so, we finished last night at 10.37pm, just in the nick of time. Out of 44 levers we only had to re-drill twice (all that stretching of the string plays merry hell with tuning) and you can’t see the holes anyway because the levers cover them up so that’s fine. For two of the levers (one each side) the brackets are too big so the notes are too sharp even though they are right up against the bridge pin (lesson learned) so I will source replacements for those but the hole is drilled and tapped so changing them over shouldn’t be hard.

Another interesting thing I learned is that it’s all very well for Dusty Strings and their large harps to be all high-and-mighty with their “we aim to have the wrap stop between the bridge pin and the lever because bridge pins ruin wraps” preach (this is true), but when you have a small harp your lever and bridge pin are sometimes so close together they might as well be one entity. The wraps on two of the strings are just slightly too short so that the lever ends up stopping on or near that weird twisty bit at the top. This should improve in time as the strings get tightened, but when I order spares I’ll ask them to make the wraps only half an inch shorter than normal, not one inch shorter (good job most of them are too, or they’d already be curling around the zither pin).

Anyway, the harp is now levered, phew. Never again.

http://www.harpcolumn.com/members/mae-mcallister/media/263/

http://www.harpcolumn.com/members/mae-mcallister/media/264/

[Biagio]

Well, anyhow you did it! Quite a saga, I assume these were Lovelands?

Now anyone who might have wondered knows why we charge so much to lever a harp.

[Allison Stevick]

Yay! I’m glad you got it done! It looks great, and I can’t wait to hear it. 🙂

Biagio- please please tell me that Truitts are easier to install than Lovelands… I’ll have help available, as I can’t even seem to regulate my levers without extra hands… Oh dear. (I’m just doing partial levers at first, once my double is ready, so I’ll just have 8)

[Biagio]

Mae, your new harp is one that of which you should be very proud! The harp looks very professional for all the trials and tribulations – and it is unique. So kudos multissimi!

Allison, yep, Truitts are much easier to mount than Lovelands – which is why I charge the same even though Truitts cost me 3 times as much:-) When you order your first set Betty will send you detailed instructions. Just be sure that you consult with her before ordering to make sure you get the right sizes.

Truitts press UP on the strings so that tension will hold them in place; Lovelands press DOWN so as our courageous Mae discovered, you need three hands unless you’re really used to them!

Here are a few additional tips on Truitts that differ from her instructions:

I remove the lever after marking for holes as it is very easy to nick a string or (horrors!) any winding.

If you don’t have and “egg beater” drill use an electric one at slow speed; most of us do even if we have the manual kind.

It is a good idea to tap the hole about three turns, though a lot of people don’t (including your truly if I’m in a hurry). I have a long handled tap wrench but you don’t really need that, an ordinary one will do or just twiddle it by hand.

Go slowly, be patient, and you will be very happy

I think it’s just wonderful that you two are doing this!

Biagio

[Janis Cortese]

You know, I have to wonder if it isn’t possible, by judicious scooting forward of the bridge pins, to make a cross-strung out of a kit like this. You’d have to noodle with the holes in the soundboard too, but …

[Biagio]

Interesting point Janis; perhaps the neck would be a bit too short for a cross but as I wrote to another friend recently there’s nothing to say you can’t mess around with a kit to suit. If a cross strung interests you a good place to study them would be Dan Speer’s at Argent Fox:

http://www.argentfox.com/index.php/instruments/crossstrung

Speaking of kits and messing with them….Music Makers still sells the plans for their discontinued 3 octave Shepherd (range G below middle C to g). It’s too bad the kit is no longer available, because that model is a prime candidate for a bronze strung harp, if you drop the range almost a full octave (A2-A5 using the scientific notation).

It would also make a nice double if you beef up the neck and board a little.

Tempting – about $200 total for a nice little 3 octave clarsach, maybe $400 for the double version! But you’d need a few tools to scratch build from the blue print.

Biagio

[balfour-knight]

Wonderful news and photos of the harp and levers, Mae! So sorry that it was such an ordeal–that is why I have never built a harp, ha, ha! The 20 years it took me to build the pipe organ “did me in” with building things long-term for myself.

Now, since no one else has commented on it, we Americans are very set in our ways about our measuring system, which we got from you folks in the UK, by the way! I remember when Metric first appeared in our schools, work, and tools. It was just as hard for us to deal with as it has been for you to deal with our American (outdated, of course!) system. This system works very well for us, and I suppose we are content to keep it, like the pedal order on the harps.

I too, am very proud of you for doing this harp project! I will be looking forward to a video of you demonstrating it for us.

Best to all of you,
Balfour

[Allison Stevick]

Janis- Stoney End does sell a couple models of cross-strung, and you can get them as a kit. “Esabelle” is the small one. It’s a different shape than the Brittany (It’s like their Eve, I’m playing one in my profile pic) but it wouldn’t require fiddling with the design to get it built. 🙂

[Biagio]

Heck I’ll comment on that one as an American. This country’s incredibly stubborn adherence to an archaic measuring system based on body parts just drives me buggy batty!

[wil-weten]

Hi Mae, any news on your double harp saga? Perhaps a first video clip?

[Allison Stevick]

I’m still excited to hear your harp, too, Mae! I hope you’re having fun with it. 🙂

I finally (FINALLY) heard from Stoney End that my double Brittany is ready, and that I should have it by Tuesday! Yay! Mine is coming assembled already, but I have to do all the sanding, some shaping, and hardware installation. I’m excited to get started on it, though I know it will take me a while to get it done… and maybe by the end I will feel like I never want to see a piece of sandpaper ever again… haha 😉

[balfour-knight]

How exciting, Allison! I know you are going to do an outstanding job like Mae did, and I too want to see/hear some videos!
Best wishes to all of you,
Balfour

[Biagio]

This has been such a wonderful thread; a big THANK YOU to all who have contributed…but most especially to Mae for opening it and creating something really special!

Gosh I love harp folks!

Biagio

[mae-mcallister]

Ah, yes, video…I’m still basically terrified that I won’t do it any justice :S

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