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Update! Still no more broken Nylgut NGH strings on my Camac Atlantide Prestige! These are some of the best harp strings I have ever tried in my long career! Being able to custom design the exact gauges and scale that you want is a huge plus. Nylgut doesn’t go false like nylon can in six months, either. They continue to sound good long after being installed on the harp.
Best wishes and harp hugs,
BalfourHello Flutori!
We just realized that July was when you were expecting your pedal harp to arrive. Hope it is now in your possession and that you are pleased with it and enjoying the journey! A Salve Daphne is a sweet harp, so we wish you all the best.
Happy Harping,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)That sounds good, Flutori. Your idea of making and using the flash cards is also wonderful. I just ran across another source, PEDAL DRILL, by Denise Grupp-Verbon, which is excellent. I believe that Sylvia Woods still sells this one, too.
Best wishes for enjoying your preparations for learning the pedal harp!Harp Hugs for a wonderful day,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Glad to hear all of that, Flutori! A book that might prove helpful to you is PEDAL EXERCISES FOR HARP, by Jaqueline Pollauf. The Sylvia Woods Harp Center sells this as a pdf for $10.00 US. The item number is #p7905. Hope this helps.
Harp Hugs,
Balfour and Carol LynnHello Flutori!
We share your excitement about getting your first pedal harp–congratulations! That is a very big step, and a “big birthday” seems the perfect time for you to realize this dream.
Yes, it is possible for you to do this on your own, and online lessons could be a very nice thing for you to do. Some harp teachers will let you choose how often you take a lesson, rather than having to do it every week, every two weeks, etc. Your knowledge and degree in music can be transferred to the harp, especially from your experience with piano.
The pedals will appear to be a challenge at first. The order of them is DCB EFGA. Think “Did Columbus Bring Enough Food Going to America.” They are in a good order, despite looking complicated, ha, ha! The left foot has BCD in order from the middle outward, while the right foot has EFGA in order from the middle outward. Notice where these notes are on the piano keyboard, and it will make perfect sense. B is before the two black keys, while E is before the three black keys. It is very easy to put the pedals down for the Key of B Major–B C# D#—E F# G# A#. You will get used to this very quickly, really!
It is good that you have played the lever harp, especially a L&H Prelude, for this many years before going to a pedal harp. I have played several Salvi Daphnes that were very fine harps, and it should not be a problem going from the Prelude to the Daphne. Since pedal harps are taller, be sure you have a comfortable bench that can be adjusted to just the right height for the Daphne.
Wishing you the very best on this journey!
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Hello Jerusha!
Brook sure did know how to pick out great-sounding harps! He, Carol Lynn & I were at the same harp conference in 2015, and Brook saw and played my Dusty FH36S before I did. He loved it! He might have bought it if he hadn’t found a Thormahlen that he really wanted, so I got to buy my Cherie! Isn’t it wonderful how things work out?
Hope you and everyone here have a great day.
Harp Hugs,
BalfourThat’s wonderful, Jerusha! Knowing how much you loved your Dusty 36 was one of the reasons I got mine in 2015, so thank you for that.
Best wishes,
BalfourWhile reading through this thread again, I did want to say that the Camac levers on my Dusty Strings FH36S are one of this harp’s best features. A nice Camac lever harp would of course include these, which I feel are the best levers on the market.
Have a great day, all!
BalfourHi Mark,
I’m delighted that your New Nylgut NGH strings are doing so well! When I run out of Premier gut strings, I plan to try some more octaves of Nylgut. I am so pleased with the ones I have put on my Atlantide Prestige (she dates from 2017).
Too bad that Curtis has to try to stock all the string gauges in all three colors! Even one scale size larger or smaller places the red and black strings on different gauges. I guess that is why they tried to standardize the gut strings and sell them in packages, all gauged and ready to put on a harp. It is only someone like you and I who delve into this thing a little deeper, and we experiment with trying to make it better.
These NGH strings are just fantastic, in my opinion. They last longer, sound better with a tiny bit more sustain, are more visible on the harp, and are far cheaper than gut. Also, they stay in tune better than any harp strings I have ever had experience with. NylGUT is not Nylon, and the tone doesn’t degenerate like nylon after about 6 months. The tone is much fuller and clearer than nylon.
Happy harping, Mark and everyone else here.
Balfour
I really enjoyed that story, Alison! I’m glad you can figure out all those transpositions, especially with a B flat instrument. When I was growing up, our old upright piano was in the Key of B flat, one whole step below pitch. My sister, who played the B flat trumpet, was right at home on that piano, since she could play a note on the piano to be sure she was playing that same note on the trumpet! When I later learned how to tune pianos, I pulled that old piano up to standard pitch (12 tunings, so it was very gradual!) and I don’t think my sister ever forgave me for “messing her up,” ha, ha!
Best wishes,
BalfourThat was funny, Saul! Wonder how many folks know that there is no such key as A-Sharp? Ha, ha! (I assume you meant A-Sharp Major. There IS the key of a-sharp minor, of course!) You made my day–thanks!
Dear friends,
I agree with Gregg’s posts here. I think the Lyon & Healy Prelude would be your best choice, followed by the Salvi Ana.
My beautiful concert grand pedal harp is a Camac Atlantide Prestige, but I have never played a Camac lever harp that I wanted to buy. My lever harp is a Dusty Strings FH36S in figured cherry, and I love the differences between it and my pedal harp. Each one of the two is unique, and I have no problem going from one to the other. However, I believe that the easiest transition to a traditional pedal harp is from a L&H Prelude. The elegant harp “Look” of it suggests a small pedal harp, too.
Good luck with all of this, and best wishes,
BalfourHello Mark (and everyone!)
Upon further examination of the pedal harp stringing chart above, designed by Mark using NGH new nylgut strings, I have found that it is closer to “Heavy Gauge” on the Camac chart. (String Chart for Pedal Harps) If you look earlier in this thread, I posted stringing charts which are closer to Camac’s “Classique Gut” chart.
A column on Camac’s chart called “Nylgut” is also closer to “Heavy Gauge” on this same chart. Just as Mark said, there are gauges on the “Nylgut” chart that are NOT available from Aquila, who makes these strings. If you encounter this problem, just use the next size smaller gauge listed by Aquila. This will not place too much tension on your harp.
This is a very interesting chart by Camac. It includes gauges for Nylon Special (0 and 1st Octave), Classique Gut, English Gauge, Heavy Gauge, and Nylgut. There are also gauges for Standard Galli Wires and Light Wires.
The chart came with my Atlantide Prestige pedal harp, but I believe that it appears on Camac’s website and can be printed out. I recommend it.
Best wishes,
BalfourThanks for posting this, Mark. I’m so glad your experiments with NGH Nylgut have worked out so well. Your gauges are different from mine–sometimes thicker, sometimes thinner, for the same notes, but they make sense. Of course it is how they SOUND and hold up that’s important. I’m looking forward to further updates from you about how these wonderful strings perform over time.
My 0F second string down from the top broke after being on my Atlantide Prestige for over two years, and the new one is doing great. Only 0F and 0G have broken, since Dec. 2023!
Have a great harp day!
BalfourThanks, Phyllis. I knew that some American harp makers used to get custom made bass strings from Vermont Strings. Tragically, most of that wonderful family have passed away now, but North Shore Strings seems to be continuing the family tradition. They even furnished me with some custom bronze strings for my clavichord in about 2021, since I did a restringing job on it during the pandemic.
I’m glad Salopian came through for you! Enjoy playing that lovely Erard harp!
Best wishes from Balfour
