Pedal Harp String Spacing?

[Gregg Bailey]

I just examined the eyelets on my Prelude 40. I haven’t taken any measurements, but, to my eye, I see 6 different sizes. From the top down, I count 9 of the smallest size, then 6, 6, 6, 3, 3, then dots for the 7 wires, of course.

-Gregg

[John Leclerc]

Thanks will do!
Chipping away at building the soundboard, fun but time consuming! here’s my setup, lots of cutting ,sanding, checking fit for every plank.
Forgot to mention I not only have one damaged harp but two! why is this happening to me lol.
So another free harp it’s a Clark Irish harp ,think it’s around 1920.

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[balfour-knight]

I have heard about the Clark Irish harp from Biagio! He would love it!

Good luck making that solid-wood soundboard, John. I have never done that before!

Best wishes,
Balfour

[John Leclerc]

I’ll try to video that Clark harp soon, it’s in pretty bad shape and super old, so far I’m still working on the slats, time consuming for sure, no wonder they have to charge alot for harps, it’s a lot of labor!.

I did see a lot of L&H harps use plastic eyelets not brass, I may electrify this harp? wait and see.
Also I found I can remove veneer from Stanley’s soundboard using a heat gun, he used contact cement to glue it on and that comes off easily with a eraser.
Made another video, why? mentally it makes me want to do a good job! plus if I goof up I can go back in time and see where I went wrong.
I have a youtube channel for my Mercedes cars also and video all the repairs on them, have about 750 subscribers, who would have thought lol.

[balfour-knight]

Good going, John! One tip–try to not have a knot at the string holes! It would affect the integrity of the hole and the tone of that string. You make me think of the men in my family. I grew up with a father and two grandfathers who could literally “fix anything.” I worked along with them and learned a lot. We were poor western North Carolina mountain people, but we got by. My sister and I both earned Master’s degrees, so my family must have done something right, ha, ha!

Good luck on this project.

Best wishes,
Balfour

[John Leclerc]

Thanks, good going on the masters! My dad was a engineer inventor, worked for Bell & Howell, he knew how to fix everything, so I inherited his skills, I’m better at electro mechanical than wood, but I enjoy playing with wood! I messed up on the knots, not thinking, planes don’t like knots lol.
This is my first attempt at a soundboard, if it fails I’ll just make another one, kind of a trial run .

• This reply was modified 2 years, 6 months ago by John Leclerc.

[John Leclerc]

My son said Dali.

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[balfour-knight]

Tell him he’s right, ha, ha! Way to go, John–you can do some good artwork on that new soundboard when you get it finished.

[John Leclerc]

Posted this yesterday but when I clicked submit it disappeared, figured it would take a while to post so waited overnight and this morning still not posted??? must be static worms lol.
So reposting.
Update, still at it lol, glueing soundboard slats together, getting some warping , wood was dry as a bone, think the PVA glue may be at fault,it does contain some moisture plus very hot here humidity is at 15 percent , I glue 2 slats together ,clamp and put heavy weight on top while it dries.
Did call Titebond manufacture and asked if their glue will stick to wood putty, Frank said yes but will be a weak joint, so removed all putty on soundbox side where soundboard will be glued, he told me redwood and Sitka spruce are very similar in nature, both light and not the strongest wood,Frank started doing all kinds of calculations lol and came up with Tight Bond before it breaks has 750-800lbs of pulling strength every 2 inches for redwood, Sitka is around 900
Been searching for bits I will need like eyelets for the strings, found out the brass ones can crack and ruin the string, plastic can break also, so I’m thinking nylon? what guitar picks are made of.
They must use those dots for bass strings because how big they are, no eyelet could survive them.
I did find a harp site that sells all the correct size eyelets , but made of brass.
Next couple days soundboard slats will be completed, so far its 1/4 at bass section and graduates to 1/8 at top , final sanding needs to be done, then glue 2 reinforcement strips on back side so ithe whole mess doesn’t fall apart on me, after that glue top veneer on , then center hardwood strip front and back, drill holes for strings, install eyelets and dots.
That should keep me busy for a month!

[Biagio]

I have not been following this closely but wrt eyelets: Robinson’s sells brass plated extra large steel eyelets. Those are what I use for a wire strung:

http://www.robinsonsharpshop.com/hardware.html

[John Leclerc]

Thank you.

[John Leclerc]

Soundboard about 65% done , just glued ribs on back side, now it will be more stable to handel, next will work on top veneer, then apply a clear to it, next glue front and rear center splines, figure out the proper spacing on them, mark and drill holes, etc.

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[John Leclerc]

L&H 40 string pedal, Does anyone know how thick the center spline is for rear of soundboard?
I’m having a hard time finding any info on it, I have a sample piece of original SB with front spline on it, it’s about 1″ wide and 1/8 thick, but the rear of piece is missing spline, the marks it left on the wood appear to be 1.5″ I’m sure the rear spline has to be thicker for strength, I bought new wood for spines, for the rear I have 1.5 wide and either 1/2 or 1/4.
Its all about tone right? thinner is better but weaker , thicker may affect tone but will hold up to string pulling pressure.
Will put a video up soon on progress.
Thanks if anyone know!

[balfour-knight]

John, I love your improvised weights, ha, ha! Years ago, my wife and I built a mountain dulcimer. We only owned 2 clamps, so we had to come up with alternatives, much like you are doing right now. We got the dulcimer all clamped, weighted and banded together, and it has done very well to this day.

Thanks for posting and showing us your progress. You could always try lever-gauge strings on your harp, when you get it all completed. They would probably sound good, and it would place a little less tension on the soundboard than pedal-gauge strings would. The Camac harp company uses little wooden dowels, about 1/4″ by 1″ long, as string anchors underneath the soundboard. You can make your own from a 1/4″ round length of dowel. The other companies use 1″ pieces of thick old gut strings, which I do not think are as good. On Camac’s website, you can find instructions on how to tie the string knot on the little wooden dowel, and it is much easier to do, in my opinion. It is just like tying a simple knot, but you twist the loop first before you insert the end. On the high strings, nylon in the top, you put the string end through this twisted loop twice, to get a good hold. Nylon is more slippery than gut! You can practice this by using your weed-eater (string trimmer) nylon string, like you showed us in your video. You can also learn how to lock the end of the string under the first loop around the tuning pin, at the top of the harp. Dusty Strings shows how to do this on their website. What would we do without the Internet? I used to find all of this in books, ha, ha!

Hope this helps. Good going!
Balfour

[balfour-knight]

John, on my Camac concert grand, this center spline on the underside of the soundboard (string support rail) is about 1″ thick at the bottom, and tapers off to about 1/4″ at the top. Of course, this is a full-size 47-string harp, which has more tension on it than a 40-string one. It also has a 22″ wide (at the bottom) extended soundboard, which has to be thicker to support this great tension! I have no idea what these measurements are on a L&H, but maybe someone on these forums can help.

Best wishes,
Balfour

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