Installing Pedals on a Lever Harp

[PassionateCross]

Buying a pedal harp seems a bit expensive, so I’ve thought of this idea. I know this process would be expensive too. Do you think it would be possible from some harp technician to do this?

[jessica-wolff]

No.

[sherry-lenox]

Oooops, the answer is actually “yes” , but the process is not practical. There was a post at Yahoo in 2011. I believe the builder that was mentioned was Rick Rubarth who now builds and sells RHarps.

There was also the harp made in England (Morley?) with 43 strings, I think, that could have a pedal mechanism added. That was fairly recent.

I may be wrong, although I just read the Yahoo reference so it can be googled.

I’m not absolutely sure, so I’d rather say “maybe” than “No”.

[tony-morosco]

You can’t install pedals on a lever harp without completely rebuilding the harp. At the very least the column would have to be replaced with one large enough to be hollowed out to run the pedal rods through. A base would need to be built for it to

[adam-b-harris]

April 1st anyone?

[william-weber]

Good point — it may have been totally tongue-in-cheek. OTOH, I have wondered if it might be possible to rig up a pedal with some kind of cable to run up to a particular lever that needs a lot of changes. (Of course, a lever harp purist would consider that cheating.)

[wil-weten]

This old type of Camac harp (I think it may be more than 20 years old)

[wil-weten]

And this: http://www.enchantedharp.com/Used_Harps/UsedPetite930.JPG is how this former type of a 38 string Camac looked like as a lever harp.

I don’t think installing pedals on a lever harp could be economically interesting and I don’t know whether these old Camac lever harps can still be adapted for (single action) pedals.

[Bonnie Shaljean]

Just in case this isn’t an April Fool jest – if you don’t mind having it only be single-action, you could consider a Tyrolean harp. These are much smaller and lighter than the standard concert pedal harps, including the “chamber-sized” ones, and cost far less. Thread about them here (and I’m pretty sure there are others too if you dig around):

http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=5086671

[PassionateCross]

Haha thanks everyone. Looks like will have to find a really cheap pedal harp with my luck. But LOL! I am pretty inexperienced about how they build the harps, causing me to ask poorly thought out questions. So I guess my question is April Fool’s related! xD

[Bonnie Shaljean]

Don’t forget there’s also a good chance of finding a secondhand harp that would suit you – though get someone experienced to check it out for you before committing yourself.

If you can give us a general idea of how much you want to spend, and also roughly where you’re located, we can post suggestions or links if we see any. Also, how important is size? Does it need to be as portable as possible, or is that not a vital consideration?

Sorry for the April Fool misunderstanding – I keep falling for those jokes, and this time thought AHA! I’ll be wary. Too wary, I guess. Thanks for taking it in such good humour!

[adam-b-harris]

Its a great discussion topic in any case. Got my imagination going.

[tony-morosco]

I don’t think it was a poor question. It was actually an interesting one.

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