Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Mark, I enjoyed your reply. It was sent to my email, but does not appear here. For the benefit of others reading this thread, would you please post it again? Thanks so much 🙂
Sorry, Sidney, but I have not had any experience with Sipario Gold Gut strings. I use Premier gut strings from the Atlanta Harp Center and like them far better than Bow Brand, Vanderbilt, and some others I have used in the past. Maybe someone on these Forums can help you.
Have a good day,
BalfourHello everybody!
My New Nylgut NGH strings by Aquila are still doing great on my Camac pedal harp. Thanks to everyone who has posted here on my thread.
Charles, it was so good to hear about your experience with Aquila in Italy. I believe you are in the UK? I was glad to read that you got a “new pedal harp.” By any chance, was it a Camac?
Mark, I hope your nylgut strings are doing well on your Dusty Strings harps. Do you like how they perform in the middle and lower registers of your harps?
Have a wonderful day playing your harps,
BalfourSidney, my advice to you about the strings is to get yourself some measuring calipers so that you can determine the gauge thicknesses of the old strings yourself. Then you can compare your findings to modern harp strings, including the Bass wires.
I just looked on harp.com and Bow Brand lever wire strings do not go down far enough in the bass for a pedal harp, unless you could order them custom. Hope all this works out.
Cheers,
BalfourLever-gauge gut is about 3 gauges lighter, and might work on this antique L&H 22. Bow Brand lever wires are lighter, also, and might be a possibility. I agree with Charles, though–take the harp to a good harp tech first.
Gregg, in the above post, I was referring to the white or clear D, E, G, A, & B strings, Red C’s and Black or Blue F’s as the “traditional colors for harp strings.” Even those are difficult to see in dim light, especially since nylon “naturals” sometimes are very clear colored, not white enough. That is one thing I really like about the Nylgut NGH strings, the “heavy whipping cream” color! With these, you can really see the red and black strings, even in dim light.
Harp Hugs,
BalfourHannah, if you are serious about playing and enjoying the harp, I would advise you to get a higher quality harp. Acclaimed makers include Dusty Strings, Lyon & Healy, Camac, Musicmakers, Salvi, Thormahlen and others you can find on-line.
Have a great day!
BalfourHannah, I believe that you are right on track. I did not mean to go “off topic” to complain about threaded harp tuning pins! The standard tapered pins on my Camac Atlantide Prestige concert grand are WONDERFUL! I just wish Dusty Strings used those instead of the threaded ones. With the threaded ones, they DO act like a screw, and so you have to back them out before you put on the new string. It is very difficult to get this right, as the pin will be out too far, or not in far enough. With the usual tapered pin, you are correct, just pushing on it as you tune, or working it back and forth a tiny bit, will “drive” the tuning pin in a bit and tighten it.
Happy Harping, to Charles too!
BalfourThanks for posting the above information, Charles. I still have NO idea why anyone ever came up with threaded tuning pins for harps. It just confuses harpists, and they hear someone say “loosen the pin 2 or 3 turns before you put on the new string,” and they have no idea why! Personally, I hate having to do this on my Dusty. I would much rather it had the regular tapered pins! Generations of harps had tapered pins, so that is the standard.
Have a great day!
BalfourGlad to hear of your success with the NGH New Nylgut harp strings, Charles! I continue to be impressed with mine on my Camac pedal harp. Since I only have them on the top 16 strings, they stabilize in a couple of days. I imagine that the lower, longer strings would take longer to stabilize. About a month ago, I put new nylon (not Nylgut!) strings on my Dusty Strings FH36S and they have taken “forever” to stabilize. I tune that harp 2 or 3 times a day, too. I have always had this problem with nylon, more so than with gut or Nylgut, so I think Nylgut is super! Another thing that I have found is that Nylgut, unlike nylon, still sounds wonderful after being on my pedal harp for over 14 months now! Only the top 0G has broken in all of that time! I won’t restring them until they either break or begin to sound bad, just like I do with gut. I did recently order new ones from Curtis at Aquila, USA, so that I am prepared.
Thanks so much for your post here, Charles. Have a great day and enjoy playing the harp!
Cheers,
BalfourWell everyone, I just discovered that harp stringing buttons are not the ONLY stringing devices available. Look on the Internet for “guitar stringing beads.” These are not as expensive as the ones from Dusty, and may also work on harps. They even come in several different makes and colors. Has anyone tried these on a harp, or do any of you out there play guitar and may have used these? One learns something new every day, it seems!
Harp and guitar hugs,
Balfour
