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Barbara- Moving the bridge pin in or out is one of the adjustments available on most levers. It’s more effective in the treble area than lower down. But there’s only so much you can do with that adjustment. On the Loveland levers for example, the string really has to sit exactly half way between the tip of the unengaged lever and the bar that the lever pushes the string against. The string can’t be too close to either one(in the lower octaves) without causing problems. And so it is those lower octave levers that need a longer slot to adjust the lever assembly up or down.
I just looked it up and the web site of the American Harp Journal. According to the Journal, he was born March 20, 1925 and died June 22, 1985. I didn’t realize until just now the he and I share the same birthday( March 20, not 1925!)
The three types of levers you mention are all excellent levers that work by pushing the handle of the lever up to engage the string(raise the pitch a half step) and pulling the lever down to disengage it.
The loveland lever is a good basic lever with a simple mechanism that is reliable. The handle(the moveable lever part) is made of some sort of plastic. It has a tendency to dull the sound of some strings very slightly when it is engaged.
The Truett lever works much like the Loveland, but I believe all of the parts are metal. It is also very dependable and because of the all metal construction, the string sounds as bright when the lever is engaged as when it is not.
The Camac lever is the most sophisticated construction and is beautifully made. It is very dependable and also gives a very clear sound when the lever is engaged.
What I don’t like about the Truett and Camac levers is that there is virtually no adjustment available when you want to regulate them. The screws that hold the lever to the neck are in slots that are simply too short to slide up or down to correct regulation problems. If the lever has to be moved up or down to correct the regulation, then the only option is to drill new holes for the screws. The Loveland levers have longer slots, although I wish those were made with even longer slots too. I use the Loveland levers on my Swanson Lever Harp because they are dependable and relatively inexpensive. I don’t know what the cost is of the Truett levers. The Camac levers are the most expensive partly because of their much more complex construction and partly because of the exchange rate. Camac levers are made in France.
There are many older lever designs that were made over the years that are no longer made. A lot of them are now so old and worn out that they really don’t work properly anymore. But putting new levers on an old lever harp is a big deal and quite expensive. Aside from the cost of the levers there is the cost of installation, which can be as expensive as the lever itself. Unless the (old) lever harp is in really good condition, it’s probably not worth the cost of taking all the old levers off and putting new ones on. The screw holes in the neck that held the old levers in place will not work when installing a new lever. They’re probably the wrong size, and they’re certainly in the wrong place.
Mike- The slight bowing of the board is not a problem. It is always most pronounced around the 4th and 5th octave area. A good gauge of how pulled up the board is is to look at how those strings are centered through the sharp and natural disc. As the instrument ages and the board pulls up more, the string will be more and more left of center, mostly in the sharp disc. There comes a point eventually where the board simply has to be replaced because the strings are too far left of center, and also because the string lengths have shortened so much that it is impossible to regulate the instrument. But I don’t think your harp is there yet.
The cracks in the finish are in all likelihood due to the harp going through 15 yearly cycles of humid to dry conditions, without the benefit of humidification during the winter months. There are several other threads here about this issue. The cracking in the finish you mentioned is just one of the things that can happen to harps when there are big swings in the relative humidity levels over the course of the year.
I wonder where the rumors started? The first I heard of this was on this thread. I’m really glad you’re staying on there Kathy.
Mark- Don’t buy this to make some money. it won’t work. It won’t be worth the money you have to pay. You can do that with 20th century instruments, but not 19th century harps.
Mark- I bought Richard’s Erard harp. I placed the winning bid on Ebay. The only reason I was willing to bid on it is that I had a chance to go examine it in person before it went up on Ebay. I wasn’t absolutely sure that I would be able to make it playable without massive amounts of work. But at least I knew for certain that there was no worm damage, that all of the parts and decoration were there and in good condition, and that the action, while it could barely move, was not rusted.
As it turned out, I was able to get the action working like new again without having to take it apart, I spent several thousand more to have my gilder do conservation work on it: basically, solidifying and reattaching all of the plaster decoration and some minor touch up. I managed(with my heart in my throat the whole time!) to regulate it perfectly, and while my gilder was working on the column, I restored the finish on the body shell, which was very badly alligatored and crackled.
Had I not been able to examine it first hand myself I would never have bid on it. Pictures simply don’t convey the technical information I need to make an assessment. If I were you I’d be very very careful about buying this one. The best would be to have a qualified technician look at it for you. If you do buy it, I strongly advise you to send it to someone like Howard Bryan or myself to put it into working order, even if it does not need any major restoration(neck and soundboard).
I paid $6,000 for mine. I paid my gilder another $2,500 for her work, and the finish repair I did would have been charged to a client at around $1,500 to $2,000(including taking the instrument apart and putting it back together again). The regulation of an Erard is nothing like regulating a 20th century instrument. NOTHING!!! It can take days, and at any time you can break or jam something that complicates the job terribly. While I charge $160 to regulate a 20th century harp at my shop, I would have to charge a client $600 to $800 to regulate an Erard. And that’s with nothing breaking or jamming. So you see, I paid in cash and labor, about $12,000 for mine. But to me it’s worth it. All of the parts are in like new condition, including the soundboard. It plays beautifully and has a gorgeous sound, unlike any 20th century harp. And I have since found out that it was completed on May 6, 1892. So it’s an original 1892 Paris Erard Gothique.
Fearghal- The point of study books as you call them(etudes) is to develop muscle memory for a particular pattern. If one etude for example has nothing but three note chords in many configurations and in different parts of the instrument, then if you learn it really well, you have implanted that muscle memory pattern into your harp technique. You should never have to play that etude again. If you learn a collection of etudes, like any of the Bochsa, Dizi, etc. and learn them really well, then you should have a whole selection of muscle memory patterns at your disposal and there is no need to keep going back to those etudes. You’ve learned what they had to teach you.
The problem with trying to learn technique and muscle memory patterns from repertoire, orchestra parts, etc. is that no pattern appears often enough nor in various configurations over a large enough range of the instrument to learn it as a point of technique. So, with a lot of practice, you learn your piece or orchestra part, but with no really useable muscle memory patterns that can be transfered to anything else.
I’ve taught numerous students that have transfered over to me from other teachers, and the most common problem I find is that they can play a few pieces fairly well,(which I later found out they had worked on forever) but don’t really play and learn at the technical level of those pieces. So they end up struggling with each new piece they learn. If I then work them through the Bochsa 40 easy Etudes, then they have a whole arsenal of muscle memory patterns and can learn music at their level quickly and accurately.
Again, Etudes are not something that you constantly go back to again and again. They are a vehicle, a means, of raising your technical abilities, and if you learn them well, you never need to go back to them again.
Thank you both for very informative posts. I think that those of us who went the professional route can forget that not everybody shares that same goal.
Thank you both for very informative posts. I think that those of us who went the professional route can forget that not everybody shares that same goal.
Thank you both for very informative posts. I think that those of us who went the professional route can forget that not everybody shares that same goal.
You may be a control engineer, but I’m a harp repairman with over 30 years experience in what happens to harps under various conditions. I’ve seen thousands of harps of every conceivable make and age in every conceivable climate, and I’ve carefully observed what happens to instruments.
When a harp is in an environment where the yearly cycle goes from moderately humid/very humid during the summer, to dry/extremely dry during the winter, then all kinds of damage shows up. At the very least, such instruments go out of regulation when the humidity change occurs. The finish can alligator, crackle, or fracture(depending on the type of finish on the harp), glue joints can open up, and laminations, such as are found in the hoop where the pedal slots are, can delaminate. I’ve repaired all of this damage many times.
The problem of base frames coming out the bottom of the instrument is epidemic in a certain make of harp, and I’ve repaired hundreds of them over my career. While the company whose harps do this screwed up the engineering many years ago, setting the base frame up for failure, still, I never see slipped base frames in climates where the humidity is 40% to 60% year round, nor where people humidify their harps in the winter months. My own Lyon & healy harp, serial number 300 and built around 1898, which I completely rebuilt about 23 years ago now, looks brand new, with a shiny uncrackled finish, because I’m very careful to humidify every winter. The base frame on that harp, which had to be replaced as part of the rebuilding, is in exactly the place where I installed it, again, because the harp has been in a humidified environment.
No harpist is going to put a cover on the harp every night and stick a soap dish inside. And even if they did, what is going to happen every day when they take the cover off? The harp will go from a 15% to 20% humidity during the day to 40% to 60% at night. That may work for an accordion, but not a harp.
Quality musical instrument wood is dried to a 5% to 8% moisture content in the United States, and is probably the world standard now. If you buy such wood in your area, let it sit around for a reasonable amount of time, build an instrument out of it in that climate, and keep it there, then the instrument is in a very stable(dry) environment year round. The wood is very dry, the climate is very dry year round. No problem. What do you suppose is going to happen to a harp built in a humid summer environment in Chicago or Europe for example and then shipped to a very dry climate like yours? Despite the best efforts of the manufacturer to keep things dry, I’m sure there will be changes to the instrument with the move.
I was not attacking you or your scientific measurements. I was simply pointing out that it is impractical and in my experience falls far short of what is needed to keep a harp in good workable condition.
I think the most important qualities for any harp cart are that it be light(and easy to throw into the back of a car), that it have a large enough shelf to securely hold the harp feet(at least 6 inches wide), and that it have large enough wheels to roll up and down stairs and over curbs. It would be nice if the K2 had even larger wheels(with the 2 wheel arrangement), but the wheels they use are adequate. I would not order it with the 6 wheel arrangement(3 on each side in a triangle) because it doesn’t go around corners easily with those wheels, and it also snags on carpeting, particularly oriental carpets and throw rugs.
I can’t believe they are still making the K2 with the very narrow shelf. The wider shelf, which you can special order, should be standard. But overall, the K2 is an excellent cart, and given the high cost of the harpo, much of that due to the terrible exchange rate, I’d go with the K2.
