Pedal Harp String Spacing?

[John Leclerc]

HaHa I do have fun working on this project , I try and do a good job on everything I work on, usually it’s working on my cars, house ,yard, and I like to paint acrylic art and design print on demand products, being retired I find lots to keep me busy.
Have 13 dots cut today, kind of a time consuming pain, but will get them all cut to size, 6mm deep, found a coping saw and much easier to use than the Dremel , nylon melts with heat so can’t use a cut off wheel.

[balfour-knight]

John, glad you are having fun on this project! The coping saw is a good idea. I used one of those to hand-cut out the keys of my pipe organ. It took a while, as the keyboards of standard organs have 5 octaves (61 keys each), and there are two keyboards (manuals). The organ supply company would have built them for me back in 1982 for $2000, but that might as well have been $20,000, ha, ha! Money was too short to afford it back then, and would be difficult even now. Plus, I love playing on the keyboards I made myself. You will be proud of that harp when you get it finished, too.

All good thoughts,
Balfour

[John Leclerc]

Getting closer to attaching soundboard! Dots glued in and string holes drilled, for sizes I used inside hole diameter for harp eyelets, small, medium , large .
Not a perfect job , but it should work hopefully.
Update 13

[balfour-knight]

John, I enjoyed your latest video! I found some string gauges in millimetres for you, so you can check the sizes of your string holes. Everything is looking good! As long as the holes are large enough for the strings to go through, it will be great. Good going!

Top E .56 mm (First octave in nylon) 2nd Octave–Gut (these would be slightly different in
Nylon)
D .58 E .66
C .61 D .70
B .64 C .74
A .66 B .78
G .69 A .82
F .71 G .86
F .90

3rd Octave–Gut
E .93
D .96
C 1.00
B 1.05
A 1.10
G 1.15
F 1.20

4th Octave–Gut
E 1.24
D 1.30
C 1.40
B 1.46
A 1.59
G 1.68
F 1.77

5th Octave–Gut
E 1.87
D 1.97
C 2.07
B 2.18
A 2.29
Change to Wire
G 1.60
F 1.73

6th Octave–Wire
E 1.82
D 1.92
C 2.00
B 2.10
A 2.20 Your Lowest Note

[balfour-knight]

John, that made a mess out of my gauges for the First and Second Octaves, ha, ha!

Here they are again:

First Octave in Nylon
E .56
D .58
C .61
B .64
A .66
G .69
F .71

Second Octave in Gut
E .66
D .70
C .74
B .78
A .82
G .86
F .90

[balfour-knight]

Nylon Gauges:

2nd Octave:
E .74
D .76
C .79
B .82
A .84
G .88
F .94

3rd Octave:
E .99
D 1.05
C 1.10
B 1.14
A 1.18
G 1.25
F 1.32

4th and 5th Octave Nylons are not recommended!
Hope all this helps.
Balfour

[John Leclerc]

Thanks, I should be good to go!
Soon I can mount soundboard, I will pre drill holes every 2 inches, I’ll brush titebond on both surfaces, it will get messy lol.
Not looking forward to custom made rub rails, that’s going to be tough, maybe not.
Have a merry Christmas!

[John Leclerc]

Here’s a mock up, thinking about color of rub moldings, natural stain, wood is light poplar, black like soundbox???
Or fluorescent green.

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[balfour-knight]

Ha, ha, John! My friend Gregg on these forums would say the green, of course! My wife says, unless your wife says “green,” go with the natural or black. You can see what it looks like and then decide, after you install the moldings. If you put some natural varnish on, just to see what it would look like, and decided you all didn’t like it, then you could cover that up with black–just our thoughts. Thanks so much for posting these updates. Merry Christmas to you folks, too!

[John Leclerc]

Good idea, if imperfections , satine black is good at hiding it.

[balfour-knight]

That’s right, John, a black finish covers up a multitude of imperfections, ha, ha! My gorgeous grand piano is satin black, and it is so easy to repair a little scratch on it.

By the way, those nylon dots you made look so good in that photo you posted. They will be easier on the strings than eyelets would be. One of my former pedal harps had metal eyelets on it, and that place is where each string would break. My current pedal harp, with the nylon dots and nylon eyelets, does not have that problem. The strings break in the normal place, where the discs contact the strings.

Good luck on your soundboard installation and side moldings!

[balfour-knight]

John, I should have said “when the strings eventually break once in a while, they break where the discs contact the strings.” Sylvia Woods has always said “harp strings break when they feel like it!” So, some breakage, especially from old age, is to be expected.

[John Leclerc]

Thanks everyone and Balfour for all your help!
So finished Christmas 2022, came out pretty nice I must say, took me about 4 1/2 months , lots of labor on it, have temp strings set up and will leave it for several months to see what soundboard will do, used a few new strings I found in the back of 30 string Clark harp, the soundboard rings nicely when strummed, then buy strings for it hopefully.
Looks very nice in the antique room and wife loves it! maybe this summer will start on Clark harp repair.
Its New Years Day so hope everyone has a great year!
Last video #14

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by John Leclerc.

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[balfour-knight]

John, thanks so much for posting your video today! My wife and I were wondering how you were doing on your big project. We watched the video, and WOW, now you are done! My wife says to tell you she loves what your harp looks like in your antique room in front of that pretty window–it is perfect! We know why your wife wanted you to fix this harp and place it in that nice room.

Be sure to keep even tension on it with those temporary strings, from the top to the bottom. You don’t want the soundboard to ripple or anything!

We hope you will post your working on the Clark harp this summer. We would love to see your progress. You have certainly learned a lot about repairing a harp, so the Clark should be much easier!

Happy New Year, 2023!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour and Carol Lynn

[John Leclerc]

Thank you, so glad it’s done now I can do my regular chores lol.

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