Need strings 🙁

[Norah Calamy]

does anyone have atleast a couple higher

[barbara-low]

Norah, I don’t have any strings to sell, but can offer a few suggestions that will allow you to have extra strings on hand that won’t cost quite as much.

Vanderbilt Classic Gut, sold by Vanderbilt Music, is a quality string that has a warmer tone compared to Bow Brand Gut. They are a good value for your money.

You can get by with a skeleton set of strings, F, A, C, and E, of each octave from 4th to the top. In the 5th octave, you’d need A, C and E. If you need to replace a G or B, use the A. To replace a D, use the E. This works pretty well as A and E are very close in diameter to their neighboring strings.

You might also consider stringing your 2nd octave with nylon. Some harps, and harpists, don’t mind and actually prefer to have nylon in the upper 2 octaves.

You could live dangerously by only keeping the top 3 octaves on hand as backups. A bit less dangerously if you add the 4th octave.

Hope this helps. Strings are expensive; no two ways about it.

(P.S. I have no affiliation with Vanderbilt Music.)

[Norah Calamy]

Could I purchase the 3rd, 4th, and 5th octaves in Vanderbilt Nylon, or perhaps the Burgundy Gut strings?

Because if my Ogden doesn’t mind being strung up top with nylon until I can get the proper strings, I’d be thrilled.

I have already replaced one string, and I’ve had the harp for two weeks. I think it was the third F string… and I replaced with with a cheap nylon string I’d already had on hand, and it doesn’t sound any different than the gut string previously on the Ogden.

[barbara-low]

You can purchase either the nylon or the Burgundy gut for 3rd-5th octaves, but you might really notice a change in sound using nylon in the 5th and at least the lower half of the 4th octave. You won’t be damaging your harp if you use the correct string gauges, so you don’t have to worry about that aspect.

Back in the olden days the two L&H 23 university harps we played were strung from middle C on up with nylon. I think it was to save money when purchasing replacement strings since the music department didn’t allot much money for strings and regulations. Our instructor did what she had to do to make ends meet.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

If you play lower on the nylon strings than normal, you can get a tone much like a gut string. There is no problem with putting all nylon strings on your harp,

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

If you are really stuck, someone who is ready to change strings that are old but not broken could send you the used ones for temporary use. Nylon strings should be changed long before they break, every twelve months at least, if you play an hour a day or more.

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