Squeaky levers

[madeline-davis–2]

Hello everyone, I would appreciate your advice on a harp problem. I am currently trying to sell my Prelude lever harp(ideally locally, being south TX). A professional harpist in the area that I contacted was interested, and we took the harp over to her house, so she could try it out(we’re a bit less than an hour from her house, but as she’s older we brought the harp to her.) She kept it for several days, and said she liked it but some of the levers were making some noises. I thought I knew what she was talking about, but upon getting the harp back, heard the levers make a sound I’ve never heard before in the three years I’ve had the harp. Since getting it back, theses same ones have sometimes but not consistently made this noise when being moved. They are all either a’s, b’s, or e’s, so perhaps the strings need to be changed? But some of these are fairly new(changed within the last month or two) and some are the originals. Perhaps ot os the temperature? My dad(who delivered the harp to her as he works nearby) noticed that she keeps her house cooler, and perhaps that is drying the strings out and causing the friction? Is there some sort of lubricant that should help without otherwide affecting the harp? Perhaps it is the levers? In which case, how much should that cost to fix? I also noticed that they are all gut, and there’s no such problem with any of the upper octave nylons. Sorry for the long post, but I would really appreciate your help concerning this, Thanks!

[robert-hanson]

Graphite is a good lubricant that is inert, dry and will not effect gut strings. Besides harps, it is used on violins, lutes, classical guitars etc. where the strings contact the nut and the bridge. Take a pencil, which is your source of graphite, and roll the point in the groove of the lever depositing a small amount of graphite dust at the point where the lever touches the string. Also rub the pencil point on the string at the point where it contacts the lever. Bees wax can also be used. That should solve your problem.

[Madeline Davis]

Thank you so much, it worked!

[harpcat]

The beeswax works perfectly! I just used some of my burt’s bees beeswax lip balm. I tried the pencil first, but it didn’t help. I’ve been using pencil on sticky violin pegs for years, but it doesn’t seem to be enough of a lubricant for my harp levers. Thanks for the beeswax tip!

[harpcat]

I used a qtip to apply the beeswax. I’m so glad I found out how to fix squeaky levers because I have a performance coming up and I was afraid I’d have to relearn parts of the songs in order to mute the strings before I used the levers. So glad I don’t have to do that now and can just play normally (the squeaks were really loud)!

[Sylvia]

Madeline, Where are you in S. TX? I live in S. TX also.

[madeline-davis–2]

Thanks for the great tips- the graphite was just the thing. Sorry, I should have updated this! I was able to sell the harp (traded in with Venus harps, actually).

[Author]

Posts