When a string breaks during performance

[patricia-jaeger]

To remark about what Carl said, in his message, 7 posts from the top, about pulling a string too high at first and gradually ease down into pitch to help the string prefer to rise when tuning, instead of it tending to go flat, and therefore tending to remain better in pitch: Growing up, I was taken to quite a few Jascha Heifetz violin recitals, since then I was a violin student. When he sometimes altered the tuning on stage, he would  always tune the string too high on purpose and gradually lower it to the intended pitch. That taught me to always tune my four violin strings in the same way, so the strings had a kind of “memory” for wanting to return to a sharp situation where they once had been, slightly stretched and therefore would tend to remain on pitch rather than tending to return where previously they had been only used to an inert position in the string envelope in the store. The reasoning of a master violinist!

[teifiharps]

Hi all, pre-stretching the string usually helps alleviate string slippage (be careful not to pull too hard!). This is effectively the same as tuning higher than the designated pitch but gives the advantage of you then being able to tune up to pitch rather than down from a higher pitch (we would not recommend this as it gives tuning pin less of a chance to grip)

Regards

Owen

[balfour-knight]

Owen,

I tune the string slightly sharp, like Carl said, to let the new string acclimate, then when I get ready to actually tune the string for the performance, I lower the pitch, then TUNE UP to the actual pitch, which keeps the tuning pin tight in the normal manner, pressing in toward the harp neck while I tune.  I have never had a problem with slipping pins, since they are tapered and can always be pressed in to maintain a good grip.

On the other hand, my Dusty FH36S has threaded pins, which have always maintained a good grip through string changes.  I have not yet had a string break on the Dusty.  I changed all of them this year when the harp turned one year old, since I take this harp out very often to perform on.

My L&H pedal harp did have four broken strings this month, having four Christmas concerts which I have just recently completed.  Thankfully, none of them broke during the performances, and I had time to deal with them between concerts.  They were all in the second octave, which makes me understand completely why many harpists string this octave in nylon, like the top “first” octave.

Hope all of you are enjoying a wonderful Christmas Eve, and good luck to all of you who are playing for services tonight!

Harp Hugs,

Balfour

 

 

 

[teifiharps]

Apologies Balfour – I had missed that detail.

I agree that this is a sensible approach. Bear in mind that it might not be such a good idea to do it to every single string if you are doing a complete re-string as it might overload the instrument (particularly on older harps which were not built to deal with modern concert pitch).

Regards

Owen

[balfour-knight]

Thanks, Owen, that was a good point about being careful not to overload the tension on the harp!  When I restring, I always just tune all the strings to standard pitch, not sharp.  I also tune the new strings up to pitch several times each day until they finally stabilize, which can take WEEKS.  The new strings on my Dusty FH36S are now staying very well in tune since the restringing in October, 2016.  Also, no more strings have broken on my L&H pedal harp, and the new gut ones are stable now.

Best wishes to all of you in this New Year,

Balfour

[Biagio]

We must always be aware of the things we love, right?  I have repaired harps where it was evident that the owners just cranked them up when it suited, and some when they were tuned often but the owner took then out  for a gig fin reezing cold.

Here’s a tip: take care of your harp no more nor less as you do yourself, tune it daily, and it will probably be played by your grand kids.

[Barbara]

Im echoing other people on some of this, but you can try stretching the new string before you put it on, and you can also try stretching it once it’s on. Depending on the repertoire and setting, avoiding that string can be a good option…especially if you like to fly by the seat of your pants.

[Barbara]

carl-swanson wrote:

Jeesh! I must be really lucky. I almost never break strings. I leave them on my harp for years at a time, both gut and nylon. If a gut string breaks at one end or the other, I patch it and get a couple more years out of it. Because I am a harp repairman, I have a big box of old strings(so did Mildred Dilling!) and I fish around in that for replacements when I need them(so did Mildred!). I don’t pay any particular attention to string brand, simply because my sound comes from how I play the instrument, not from the brand of strings I use. But that’s just me…

By patching the strings, do you mean knotting two strings together (like in Salzedo’s Method)?

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