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Pedal Stresses on a Harp

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Home Forums Harps and Accessories Pedal Stresses on a Harp

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 16 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #71673
    stan-guy
    Participant
    #71674
    catherine-rogers
    Participant

    I read that, too, but if the harp is properly regulated (including the pedal rods or cables), it shouldn’t make any difference to the harp. After all, the pedal mechanism is made to be fully used. If the action is “tight,” sometimes it feels more difficult to put the pedals in sharp than natural. Sometimes with older harps you have to find a happy medium (when adjusting the pedal rods) between preventing overmotion and being able to get the pedal into sharp.

    #71675
    andy-b
    Participant

    Congratulations, Stan! What are you getting?

    Cheers,
    Andy

    #71676
    kay-lister
    Member

    YES – WHAT ANDY SAID???!!!

    Kay

    #71677
    stan-guy
    Participant

    Andy, Kay, et al —

    #71678
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    You’re right Catherine. It doesn’t make any difference.

    #71679
    Sylvia
    Participant

    Dear Stan,

    That was me.

    #71680
    stan-guy
    Participant

    Hi, Sylvia —

    #71681
    Sylvia
    Participant

    Hi Stan,

    I didn’t get an email from you.

    #71682

    I am sure you can take Carl’s word over your teachers. There is no greater stress on the E and B pedals, and you can take back your E# and B#. The spring and pedal stud can be moved to adjust the tension.

    #71683
    Tacye
    Participant

    However, another technician pointed out to me that the links in the main action are very different shapes for the different pedals, and so while the force applied to the linkage is pretty equal the resulting stress up there is different.

    #71684

    It must depend a bit on the make. With a Lyon & Healy, there is no reason to worry about using any of the pedals.

    #71685
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    I suppose that idea that the stress is greater on the inner rods is because they sometimes have to go through more of a bend as they exit the bottom of the column and connect to the pedal bars. All of the rods have to go through a curve as they exit the column and this puts stress on the threading on the lower end of the rod, where rods always break.

    The bottom end of the column should be hollowed out in such a way as to minimize that bending. But that doesn’t always happen and so rods occasionally break. They break more on some harps than on others, again, because of the way the bottom end of the column is hollowed out.

    Years ago Lyon & Healy tried extending the brass tubes in the column from their standard 3 foot length so that more of the rod was protected within the brass tube. But that only made things worse, because the required curve that the rod had to go through had to happen over a shorter distance, thus concentrating the stressed area even more.

    The current pedal coupler design, which completely covers the threading, has helped to eliminate broken rods. By the way, I don’t know of any pre-World War II harps, or Wurlitzer harps that ever broke a rod. The same is true of Erard harps.

    #71686
    Misty Harrison
    Participant

    and is that because harps were smaller then, or something else?

    #71687
    carl-swanson
    Participant

    No, it’s because they minimized or eliminated the curve that the rod had to go through to reach the pedal bar.

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