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I tried it again this morning and it worked with no problem. If you have trouble with it I suggest you go back later or the next day and try it again.
If they’re brass then you must mean tarnished. Leave it alone. You can’t polish them without removing them from the harp or the polish will damage the finish. Also, the eyelets will just tarnish again quickly without a protective coat of finish on them. So it’s not worth the aggravation.
The numbers didn’t show up on mine either. When I get home I’ll ask my computer geek guru what the problem is.
Saul- As I think you’ve figured out, thicker felts will make the discs on that line grip the string tighter. But it won’t change the relationship between natural and sharp. Only adjustments like making one disc grip more and the other less, or altering the diameter of one or both discs will change that relationship. Often, compromises are the only answer, like making natural slightly flat so that sharp will be less sharp. This is the problem with older instruments.
I’m sorry you’ve had to have so much work done to your harp. I’m the person who invented the baseframe repair. It has since been copied by others, including the big companies. But they haven’t copied it exactly and so their repair comes apart again. I recently repaired the baseframes of two of New York’s finest harpists, and they had both had a large company do it twice before. The third time they sent it to me. It won’t come apart again, short of falling off a truck, in which case the baseframe will be the least of it’s problems.
Jennifer- You may not have an option. I don’t know what kind of harp you have, but you may have to use a very low tension string there. I suspect that the issue is that the wider the swing of the string when it is plucked, the greater the distortion of the pitch. This is why Sam noticed this in the lowest strings on his pedal harp and why it is generally less of a problem the higher you go on the instrument. The harder you pull that string, the more it is going to distort the sound.
Sharon- I just realized why my email would not go through. I’m not home right now, I’m at my brother’s house and am using his wireless connection. I can receive emails on my computer here, but I can’t send them. I’ll be home Sunday night and I’ll send my private response to you after that. Sorry.
Bernhard- Your explanation makes sense. I have noticed the same effect that Sam describes but frankly never worried about it. It’s just one of those things that happens on harps.
I use a strobe tuner to tune and regulate harps, and depending on how hard I pluck the string, the pitch can initially read high then settle to something lower. This is why it can be tricky regulating a harp. I always like to have the harpist check things afterwards while I am still there. If her/his touch is very different from mine, the regulation adjustments, particularly in the upper octaves, could be different. Plucking a string in the first octave for example either softly or loud can produce very different pitches. It’s even worse if the tuning pins are too far from the string bridge(as one major company did for many years) resulting in a “dead” string length(the section of string between the string bridge, or string nut, and the tuning pin) that is longer than the “live” string length( the part that you pluck). On those instruments, if you pluck a first or second octave string hard, the pitch will drop by as much as 1/4 step and has to be tuned up to pitch again. A technician regulating such a harp can’t regulate out that problem. Several times over the years I’ve had to replace what were otherwise perfectly good necks because of this problem.
Hi Saul- As harps age and the board pulls up and the neck down(which you really can’t see but trust me, it happens) the string lengths get shorter than what the harp was engineered for. For a while it’s possible to correct flat to natural by lowering the adjustable nut(the shorter string length means you need a shorter distance between flat and natural positions). But the distance between the natural and sharp disc is not adjustable. So as the overall string length gets shorter, the distance between the natural and sharp discs is too big and the result is that sharp is too sharp. Often WAY too sharp.
In the upper octaves that can sometimes be corrected by putting a smaller diameter disc in the sharp position, or even a larger disc in natural AND a smaller disc in sharp. In the single prong disc range, you would replace the disc with a larger disc. But you can’t always do that. If the string is too far off center then a smaller disc will cause a buzz when it’s not engaged(the string will hit the lower prong of an open sharp disc). So it’s complicated. Putting smaller discs on in the sharp position is not really an option below the third octave because the string lengths are too long for that to have any measurable effect. Also the greater sweep of the string when it vibrates will almost certainly hit the lower prong of a smaller sharp disc when it is in open position. For all of the above reasons, it is sometimes necessary to replace the board and neck even though they are not broken just so you can return the string lengths to their original lengths and get them centered again through the action.
Felts are not going to correct any of this. In flat position the action is not even engaged. In the two positions where the action is engaged(natural and sharp) you certainly want good felts on the instrument. But you are not going to effect the intervalic relationship between natural and sharp by having thicker or thinner felts. The distance between natural and sharp will be the same, and you will have to use some or all of the tricks mentioned above to alter the intervalic distance between natural and sharp.
I should mention here that on old instruments where the board is very pulled up(and the neck down) you will usually see that all of the adjustable nuts are pushed as far down as they will go. And that may not be enough to correct flat to natural. When I was designing my own Swanson harp, I started by copying exactly the Wurlitzer concert grand action(which to this day is the best action ever built!). But then as we started building instruments, I noticed that most of the adjustable nuts were in a kind of middle position, with room to go either up or down. They were never going to have to go up, only down. So I recalculated the position of the screw holes that hold the adjustable nut in position and moved the screw positions down. When we started using those action plates, all of the adjustable nuts were as far up as they would go, with a lot of room to come down as the instrument ages. When I regulate a brand new Swanson, all I have to do is push all of the adjustable nuts up as far as they will go and it’s pretty much regulated.
I want to end this long winded essay by saying that it is all well and good for every harpist to know how the instrument works, to be able to do minor emergency repairs(with my book in one hand!) and to fix buzzes. But any harpist who thinks he or she is going to regulate his/her own instrument ought to have his/her head examined. I carry about 40 different disc sizes with me when I regulate, just to be able to improve the type of regulation problems described above. I also carry a huge supply of the different screws used, springs, taps and dies, etc. I’m sure the other technicians do the same thing. And these all have to be available to do the job right. Regulation is not just a matter of having a tuning machine and a screwdriver. It’s far more complicated than that.
Stephanie- There are several threads up here that have dealt with this question in the past. But they are difficult to find, so don’t worry about asking again. The short answer to your question is: The K2 is a great harp cart, BUT, you have to order it with a longer shelf to set the harp on. The standard shelf is just too short(I don’t know why he continues to make it with that short shelf). It costs extra money but is well worth it. I personally don’t like the three-wheels-on-each-side arrangement because: 1) I have no trouble getting a harp up and down stairs with one large wheel on each side, and 2) the three-wheels-on-a-side doesn’t go around corners easily(because there are 2 wheels on each side touching the ground) and it snags on throw rugs and oriental carpets. But that’s just me. If your main concern is getting up and down stairs, the three-wheels-on-a-side is definitely the way to go.
Kay- Check each of your wire strings. When they break, it’s usually just the inner core that breaks and the outer windings stay intact. So it looks OK but is as loose as a rubber band. If its not that then we’ll have to hunt for something else.
Barbara- By adjustable pin I’m assuming you mean that the bridge pin can be moved in(closer to the neck) and out(further away). I think Camac has a machine screw threading on its bridge pins so that to make that adjustment you screw the pin in or out.
With Lovelands, the hole in the neck for the bridge pin is supposed to be quite a bit deeper than the length of pin that will be in the neck. So you just tap it in with a hammer, or grab it with visegrip pliers and twist and pull it out.
As I said above, that in-and-out adjustment is the principal way of regulating in the upper octaves. But below about the third octave it just can’t be used effectively.
Here’s a little digression. The basic principals that govern harp regulation, both pedal and lever, are these: You can alter the distance of the disc or lever from the bridge pin, or you can alter the tension exerted on the string when the disc or lever is engaged. HOWEVER, each of these works better in different parts of the instrument.
Altering the distance of the disc or lever from the bridge pin(or adjustable nut on a pedal harp) is effective across the whole range of the instrument. But it becomes the only means of regulating in the lower octaves. Altering the tension(by making the disc close more or less on the string, or the lever push harder or lighter on the string) is not effective in the lower octaves, but becomes more and more effective the higher you go on the instrument. In the first and second octaves, altering the tension when the disc or lever is engaged is probably more important than altering the distance.
In the lower octaves, the string length is so long and the tension so high that
a certain minimum tension is needed when the disc or lever is engaged to keep the string from buzzing. It would take too much added tension(because of the long string length) to raise the pitch at all. So adding more tension in the lower octaves is not an option.
In the upper octaves however, the string lengths are shorter and the tension lighter. So very little added tension when the disc or lever is engaged can have a huge effect on the pitch of the string. Hope this makes sense.
These are great responses. Thank you all. Keep them coming! And how about something from college harp majors or pre-college harp students?
These are great responses. Thank you all. Keep them coming! And how about something from college harp majors or pre-college harp students?
