lever harp vs. pedal harp

[Tacye]

I would be tempted to consider electromagnets as the way to go, I can think of some potential mechanisms where one or two permanent magnets and an electromagnet with reversible polarity could move a lever and no electrical power would be needed to keep it in place.

Several years back someone was working on a hydraulic system.

[bernhard-schmidt]

Maria,

all this things are already have been tried in the past….but with no succces.

There existing already different US patents of different systems like pneumatic..or elektromagnetic…or hydraulic. But that’s ideas and I cant truely see the possibility for a

[carl-swanson]

Joel Garnier, the founder of Camac harps, started his company in the 1980’s with the idea of building a computerized harp. The actual mechanism was a hydraulic affair that activated little pinchers that extended out and pinched the string when activated. While he was still in the experimental stage of working out these details he invited me to his factory in Brittany to look at what he was doing and to comment about it. I made some suggestions, but in my heart felt ultimately that this was not going to work. It would be too heavy, too unpredictable, and probably not sound very good. He ultimately presented 1 demo instrument at either a World Harp Congress or at the Israel Competition-I don’t remember which-and then abandoned the whole thing, turning instead to a harp construction based more on the modern pedal harp.

The organ has done very well with a modernization of its mechanics. But an organ stays in one place all the time. I simply don’t see a harp benefitting from a mechanism that requires a motor, tubing, electronic circuitry, or any other type of devise that has a high probability of breaking down. Even Deborah Hansen-Conant has had to learn to solder on stage, because, with a pickup on each string, if one pickup breaks down, it renders the instrument unusable. Just look at what happens when a rod or pedal spring breaks, or a pin breaks off a disc on a pedal harp.

[barbara-brundage]

>But just to remind that the idea was not new completly..it’s original from John Egan at the 19. century.

Yes, I’ve always thought the Royal Portable definitely beats the Dilling harp on aesthetics, but I can see that the curve of the neck is a more practical location for levers/ditals for both the maker and the player.

Carl, you make an excellent point.

[unknown-user]

Bernhard,

I really had no idea whether the idea for a lever-sized pedal harp had been tried before…I just thought that it would be a neat instrument if someone could figure it out.

[barbara-brundage]

>a lever-sized pedal harp had been tried before

Just in the interest of accuracy, the L&H Prelude and the 85P are exactly the same height and very nearly the same width. Only the weight is very different.

[Harp Museum]

Thank you Victor, that’s how I saw it too.

[bernhard-schmidt]

Maria,

>..I just thought that it would be a neat instrument if someone could figure it out.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

How about a pedal sized lever harp? It would sound wonderful. But you would need extensions on the levers to be able to reach the lower ones. It would look funny. I would like to put levers on my 7th octave D and Cstrings. L & H doesn’t think it would work, but I can’t see why not, at least with the original type of levers. I guess I could just take them off my troubadour and screw them on the big guy.

[carl-swanson]

Saul- don’t even THINK of putting levers on those two lowest strings. In the first place, you would have to screw the levers into the brass plate. But the swing of the vibrating strings down there would not work on any current lever. At the very least it would rattle terribly. But how would you reach those levers anyway? Stand up during the piece to move them? And anyway, those last two strings have barely any pitch to them. I have the last 5 strings( G6,F6,E7, D7, and C7) specially made to a thicker gauge. They have a much clearer pitch than regular gauge strings and they are much less prone to bang against each other. I use these on my new pedal harps as well as all of the instruments I repair. My clients love them.

[Victor Ortega]

Maria, yes, an electromechanical solenoid is an electromagnet.

[jennifer-buehler]

Have you seen a Pratt harp?

[jennifer-buehler]

Ooops.

[Jerusha Amado]

Jennifer,

I love my Thormahlen also, and agree with you that a lever-sized pedal would have to

[Jerusha Amado]

Carl,

I have an electric lever harp which is used for performance up to four nights a week and haven’t had a technical problem with it.

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