Info @ a wire-strung by Rocky Mountain Enterprises

[Angela Biggs]

Good morning!

I have a new student who is borrowing a harp from a friend to take lessons. The harp is a wire-strung harp by Rocky Mountain Enterprises, and has 26 (rusted) strings. Her friend bought it at a fair about 20 years ago, and based on the description of the strings, I’m pretty sure the harp wasn’t kept in a controlled environment.

The company doesn’t have a website; all I can find from the internet is that it’s based in Homestead, PA. Do any of you have experience with this harp or company? What is your opinion of the instruments?

I’ve been in touch with VT Strings about the possibility of getting a string chart and pricing on a new set, but if any of you have information about that, that would be great. Also, my understanding is that wire harps usually don’t restring to nylon well. If I’m wrong, please correct me.

I’m meeting with the woman and taking a look at the harp on Friday. I’m not sanguine about the chances of salvaging it, but just in case — can you recommend any books on playing the wire harp?

Thank you!
Angela

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Angela,

I started with Ann Heymann’s books and they are excellent: http://www.clairseach.com/shop/books.htm.
I began with A Gaelic Harper’s First Tunes and then went to Coupled Hands for Harpers. Very well written and so well done I was able to do it without it a teacher. I see she has re-issued Secrets of the Gaelic Harp, which was much in demand. I don’t have that, since I understand the first book is essentially a b/w revision of that first edition.

Also if you listen to her CDs they are very helpful in getting a sense of the material she is presenting.

I didn’t rush through these books, just took my time and made sure everything was committed to muscle memory before moving on to the next exercise.

I’m not aware of any issues in stringing a wire harp with nylon strings, since they are heavily built instruments designed to take the extra tension of wire, but the reverse is certainly a problem! Harps designed for nylon strings aren’t built for the enormous tension and will be damaged by it. My harp has a pillar shield to distribute the pull, also the neck is one solid piece and the body and soundboard are quite sturdy as well. There is also a thick metal builder’s plate at the junction of the pillar and neck opposite the strings.

I imagine stringing your student’s instrument with nylon would go quite well and there should be no problems.

VT Strings is a great company; I’ve bought strings from them in the past for my Paraguayan. I found them very helpful in guiding you when restringing an instrument for which you have limited information but you need a whole need set of strings.

[Tacye]

There are two main potential issues that I can think of for changing from wire to nylon. The first is that the strings may be too close together and the second is if the harp is so heavily built the sound is really disappointing.

[Sherri Matthew]

Mostly I wouldn’t want to do it because that’s what the harp was originally intended for – wire. And also because I’m always happy to hear whenever anyone decides to take up the wire harp. 🙂

[Angela Biggs]

Thank you Sherri, I knew you would have lots of good information! The harp was experiencing some torsion, and it was strung so that one string went from the first tuning peg, through the front of the soundboard, across to the next grommet, and then came back up to the next tuning peg. Is that normal for a wire harp? It certainly looked odd!

I gave the student the information about how we’d go about salvaging the harp and and the estimate of how much the strings would cost; in the end she preferred to rent one of my Harpsicles. In a way it’s a shame, because I would have loved to bring an old harp back to life — but this way is easier, at least. 🙂 I also would have liked a reason to look into wire harping, but for now it looks like that’s going to wait.

Thank you, ladies!

[Sherri Matthew]

Hi Angela,
I’ve heard of that kind of stringing. I don’t do it with mine, just for the reason that if one string should break, then the tension would be abruptly released on the next string as well (now you have two broken strings) and that could possibly lead to a cascade string breakage if the tension is high enough. Probably depends on the harp. I had a few cascades with mine and finally had to lower my tension (read: tuning) to A415, also changed to the na comhluighe tuning at middle C as well to further reduce it. No more string breakage. But that’s just my particular instrument.

I agree, it would be fabulous to restore this harp, but probably getting your student just started on harp would be a priority. A Harpsicle, I think, is a good gentle introduction. I’m sure glad I didn’t start out immediately on wire, because just learning to tune it and restring it when they broke turned out to be an artform in itself. My first year with my Luna I broke a lot of strings. 🙁 Before that I learned to play on nylon, for the first two years. But it was wire technique, oddly enough!

Maybe you could post a picture of this instrument? I’d be curious to see what it looks like.

[Angela Biggs]

Pictures – I should have thought of that! Unfortunately, she’s already taken it back to her friend, where it will likely sit unused for several more years. 🙁

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