The birth of a harp

[Audrey Nickel]

Uh oh.

[Liam M]

Audrey, that should not be a problem, Muis cross grains when he laminates the arch and your zither seats in the center piece of the sandwich. Clarsita has the same hairlines and there has been no impairment.

[Liam M]

Yes that is what I was referring to, I have asked and am awaiting response to find out what I need to do further… I still do not have access to even read the posts…

[Karen Johns]

And I could be the devil’s advocate with my opinions on playing the strings with fingerpads….this could get spicy….LOL

[Audrey Nickel]

Liam, a chara, that’s good to hear!

[michael-rockowitz]

Audrey, Liam,

Hi. I been following some of your postings here.

[Liam M]

Michael,

I wonder……. For other reasons, I plugged my zither holes with spruce and then redrilled the spruce dowels to accept the zithers. That could be a positive factor in my case. But I have seen no progression of the hairline cracks and the Trinity that I am restoring has the same cracks and does not slip that I know of.

This is a picture of Clarsita, the Druid, where you can see the fine cracking. I do not have a picture of the Trinity showing it’s fine cracks, but they are similar. The laminate is biased grained to the face piece we see, so I would expect any further cracking there to be inhibited considerably.

Audrey, tell Tony plugging would always be an option. I sincerely do not

[Audrey Nickel]

You know, I wonder if the shape of the harmonic curve creates some kind of weakness in this area?

[Audrey Nickel]

Michael…I wonder if the difference in the types of pegs might make a difference.

[michael-rockowitz]

Audrey,

That’s certainly true about the wedge-shaped friction pegs, which for the violin puts an additional stress on the hole.

[Audrey Nickel]

Actually, on the cherry harps (such as my Bard and Liam’s Druid) the laminate is three-ply.

[Audrey Nickel]

Sorry…I really messed up that embed!

[michael-rockowitz]

Hi Audrey,

Yes, I see that that’s 3 ply laminate, with each ply being – 1/2″ or so?

I had this idea – just speculative, based on observation – with a harp with levers, you have the bridge pin bearing some of the stress from the string relative to the neck.

[Liam M]

You are correct Micheal, the laminate is ~1.5cm each. and the stress on the pin is exactly correct as well. My pins are seated quite well as you can see, so the second ply is definitely engaged. The cracks are not deep, <1mm. I have relaxed my strings and run my zithers in further to reengage with a deeper depth.

Part of the issue is the arch facing piece grain is perpendicular to the axis of the strings, however the sandwich piece is parallel to it. I strongly suspect had the facing piece grain been oriented parallel to the string, this cracking would have never showed. But not sure that asthetically that would suit. it would require quite a wide cherry plank or multiple pieces such as my sandwich piece is.

Audrey is quite coreect in the mahogany Trinity being multiple laminates.

[michael-rockowitz]

Liam,

As long as it doesn’t cause you or Audrey structural problems (or progressive structural problems over time), that’s the main thing.

[Author]

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