Pedal Harp String Spacing?

[John Leclerc]

Waiting on contact cement, for veneer, hopefully get it done soon, lots of planning to get it on straight, the veneer has 40 holes lol , still need to figure out the side rub molding, I’m going to make my own out of 2 thin strips of wood trim.

[John Leclerc]

Getting further down the road on this harp, yesterday glued the veneer to soundboard and came out pretty nice! not the easiest thing to do using recycled veneer with 40 holes in it and matching holes in soundboard, used contact cement because if I messed up can always remove it with a heat gun, plus it rubberized and will flex not crack.
This morning glued the top strip on and matched those holes also, next up will be applying first clear coat.
Here’s a short video on my process.

[balfour-knight]

John, great job!!!! We really enjoyed your video! Yes, it is beginning to look like a harp. We saw your can of Acetone on hand–that is the best clean-up solvent for contact cement that we have found. You said you are almost 70, and my sweet wife and I are almost 68, ha, ha! Did you find the string eyelets okay?

Harp Hugs from both of us,
Balfour and Carol Lynn

[John Leclerc]

It’s coming along slowly lol, have 2 clear coats on, wet sand it in-between coats with 400 grit, temps are pretty cold here now so takes 2 days to dry each coat , plus it stinks! so put it out in a covered patio after it sets up, this may have 4-6 coats , the board has highs and lows and the sanding in-between will flatten it, I use a 10 inch block sander. it shows the low and high spots.
Wish I had a clean room lol, do my best, eyelets , no haven’t bought any yet, Lyon and Healy used just thick dots for base strings around 9mm wide X 5.92 deep, must be for base tone? maybe the vibration of string goes straight to soundboard better, , no eyelets at bass section , can’t find those in off white , some kind of plastic, did find mother of pearl ones but can’t use that material I think it would break.
Will call Robinsons Harp and get their opinion, metal ,brass plated may be the solution.
Update:

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by John Leclerc.

[balfour-knight]

It’s looking good, John!

[John Leclerc]

Thanks, question , neighbors moved and left a spinet piano at the curb, could I use the strings in it for the harp?

[balfour-knight]

No, they are totally different.

[John Leclerc]

Right, did some research.

[balfour-knight]

John, can your son get harp strings through his music store? One word of caution–nylons sound great for the top two or three octaves of the pedal harp, but 4th and 5th octaves really should be gut, and we are talking pedal OR lever gut here. These gut strings are even more expensive than the bass wire strings, but are completely worth it. In pedal harp terms, the First Octave is from your top E string down through F. The next E begins the Second Octave and goes down through F, and this system will carry you all the way down to your lowest string, Sixth Octave A. Your harp only has 7 wire strings, then the guts start on Fifth Octave A. There are only 5 thick gut strings in the Fifth Octave. You can find a string chart for the L&H 85P on-line. I hope this helps.

Cheers,
Balfour

[John Leclerc]

Thank you! food for thought , I’m months away from strings , I work on this project about an hour a day, most time is waiting for clear coats to dry, each takes 2 days, have 3 coats on so far, but I wet sand each one so not as thick as you would think, soundboard is feeling pretty sturdy now.
Few more coats and should be ready for the design work, then order the eyelets and install, then glue and screw it down to sound box.
One hard part coming up is the rub moulding, it has to be custom made and hopefully tapered towards the top , one side of moulding is flat and other side has to have a slight curve towards the soundbox, not going to be perfect that’s for sure!

[balfour-knight]

It’s looking good, John! When you get to your final coat of finish, I would suggest rubbing it down with some very fine, dry, steel wool, either 00 or 000. This will make a nice satin, or flat, hand-rubbed finish. I always follow that thorough rubbing down with adding a nice coat of finishing wax, like Minwax, and then polish it very much with a nice dry cotton cloth. That way, the ripples will not be obvious. Most solid wood soundboards show some ripple, including my very fine grand piano, so do not be too hard on yourself. By the way, I loved the piano improvisation background music in your video!

Also, when you make the rub moldings, be sure to round-over all the edges that a harpist will touch or rub against while playing the harp. We “hug” the harp to play it. There should be no sharp corners anywhere!

Happy finishing, and more harp hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)

[John Leclerc]

Good idea, yes I was thinking about rubbing it down at the end, have 1000 grit grey pads I bought when I was doing paint repair on my sons car, its finer than steel wool.
Only thing I think about is, if I have a design under the last clear it may be hard to see, maybe not if I polish it?
I have that small section of original soundboard with the gold design, don’t think it’s a decal, almost looks like hand painted, perfectly flat, then a light coat of satin sprayed.
Plan on no sharp corners on rub moulding, I know I’ll be pulling my hair out building that.

[John Leclerc]

Just tried the grey pad on a section and works perfectly for giving that satin finish.

[John Leclerc]

Almost looks like gold leaf then paint????

• This reply was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by John Leclerc.

Attachments:

You must be logged in to view attached files.

[balfour-knight]

John, I’m not sure how L&H does their soundboard artwork. On my Camac Atlantide Prestige, it is hand-painted. It looks like there may be some gold leaf, but there are a lot of paint products which can simulate that same look. Maybe L&H would let you know?

Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)

[Author]

Posts