string ?

[kay-lister]

Just wondering . . . I am familiar with the Merlin harp as I helped a friend sell his and the harp is strung so that the lowest string is D (I believe).

[kay-lister]

Hmmm – I’m surprised no one has responded to this one.

[holly-bowron-hainley]

Hi Kay:

I asked this one a couple of days ago and the jury is still out as you can see from the link.

[andy-b]

I had thought the range

[kay-lister]

Andy,

Your exactly right, it is the B.

[jessica-wolff]

I sorta doubt it. Reason: judging from the website, he’s calculated things pretty exactly, what with three different kinds of strings and an odd-looking harmonic curve. Some while back I asked Pam Bruner about the Vesta, no longer made, a 32-string instrument, whether the lowest string (E) couldn’t be lowered to C. She said no, that someone had insisted on lowering it to D, but that the C would mess with the tension too much. I imagine some harps are more forgiving than others on this score.

But look, why don’t you ask the maker himself? And while you’re at it, find out why he chose such an odd range (with B instead of C as the lowest string). I wouldn’t be inclined to tinker with a harp that sounds as good as that one does (I was just floored by the middle and the bass), and at least you DO have the C two octaves below middle C.

[kay-lister]

Guess I could ask Rick Rubarb but I was asking this as a general question, not just about the Merlin.

[Tacye]

I have been thinking about this from the physics point of view some more.

[kay-lister]

Tracey,

Interesting – so I would think that it could be done on a harp such as a Merlin because strings would be moved DOWN a space and the tension, I would think, would not be that different as far as creating additional stress on the harp or the performance of the string.

[Tacye]

I just went to my L&H and played with the 4th G.

[Author]

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