Home › Forums › Harps and Accessories › Pedal Stresses on a Harp
- This topic has 15 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by Jessica A.
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June 15, 2011 at 6:40 pm #71673stan-guyParticipantJune 15, 2011 at 7:16 pm #71674catherine-rogersParticipant
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.
June 15, 2011 at 7:18 pm #71675andy-bParticipantCongratulations, Stan! What are you getting?
Cheers,
AndyJune 15, 2011 at 7:21 pm #71676kay-listerMemberYES – WHAT ANDY SAID???!!!
Kay
June 15, 2011 at 7:35 pm #71677stan-guyParticipantAndy, Kay, et al —
June 15, 2011 at 7:39 pm #71678carl-swansonParticipantYou’re right Catherine. It doesn’t make any difference.
June 16, 2011 at 1:51 am #71679SylviaParticipantDear Stan,
That was me.
June 16, 2011 at 1:35 pm #71680stan-guyParticipantHi, Sylvia —
June 16, 2011 at 4:35 pm #71681SylviaParticipantHi Stan,
I didn’t get an email from you.
June 19, 2011 at 5:09 pm #71682Saul Davis ZlatkovskiParticipantI 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.
June 20, 2011 at 6:12 pm #71683TacyeParticipantHowever, 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.
June 21, 2011 at 2:05 am #71684Saul Davis ZlatkovskiParticipantIt must depend a bit on the make. With a Lyon & Healy, there is no reason to worry about using any of the pedals.
June 21, 2011 at 3:22 am #71685carl-swansonParticipantI 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.
June 21, 2011 at 8:44 pm #71686Misty HarrisonParticipantand is that because harps were smaller then, or something else?
June 21, 2011 at 10:29 pm #71687carl-swansonParticipantNo, 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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