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Great point: I guess I had assumed the stairs were inside.
I agree fully, fourteen is a lot. And saying you “managed” to get up four steps to a stage is not encouraging.
Are you strong enough to just pick the harp up and carry it across a room?
Steep steps, especially with narrow treads can be treacherous. There is _no_ stopping for a rest halfway, especially with narrow treads.
If you’re not fit/strong enough, pass. Damaging the harp is bad enough, but they’re replaceable. What if you fall with it down the stairs? How much will that cost?
A few things to consider:
Do you have a proper harp cart _with_ straps? (or can you get one asap?)
Will you, each and every time you move, think ahead, not be rushed, and always, always take the time to properly tie the harp to the cart?
Will you wear shoes with non-slick soles so you will have enough traction to pull the harp up? This is especially a problem in wet weather.
Are you strong/fit enough to do it safely and by yourself? Having others help will, sooner or later, end up with you, them, the harp, or all three hurt.
What about the harp: concert grand? semi-grand? 40-string? And I’m assuming you have only the one harp, so you would be moving it in and out.
Are the stairs unusually steep or with narrow treads?
What about the turn at a landing (if any)?
I move weekly up and down six steps in and out of home. Doesn’t bother me, but I’m male, fit, and strong.
Hopefully, this may help you think it through. If you’re going to dread the move or be uncomfortable every time, think about a different place. Or read the article in this month’s Harp Column and assume it just “goes with the territory”
Can you give some details about the harp? Different makes use different pins. Would hate to give advice about a tapered pin if you had threaded pins.
If a photo is easy, one straight on looking at the pin end, and one looking down the plane of strings might help also–but if that’s not easy we can start with the harp details.
Charles Nix
Looks like a DragonHeart from Dave Woodworth/Pamela Bruner at Heartland harps. They only make carbon fiber harps now. The Delight 38 is the carbon fiber version of this model.
Advantages are that you can sit under it without tilting back on your shoulder, and the curved soundboard straightens out the harmonic curve in the neck.
Light to medium tension. Well respected, quality builder in the lever harp industry, now located in North Carolina. Still in business and supportive of their models. Strings usually come from Northshore or Vermont strings.
Would any other information be helpful?
Charles Nix
Click on the general licensing tab.
Neither is illegal. Both _may_ require a license, depending on details and exceptions (like religious services, and “concert” music, which is specifically defined).
General public performance for profit of current copyright music requires a license by someone. Whether it would ever be enforced against an occasional performer with the small crowds likely is a different question.
As I understand, if the venue is a business and is hiring you, even as a subcontractor, they are responsible for obtaining the necessary licensing. If you are selling the tickets yourself, then you need the license.
There are also three licensing organizations in the US: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. It is not clear to me whether they pass the proper royalties on to each other, or if the license from each only covers the writers/composers who are members of that organization
Posting videos may require a license because it is both recording and transmission–and those are different licenses.
This post also covers some of youtube issues:
What could it hurt to just call one of the organizations and ask?
Charles Nix
Am away from music at home–so from memory here are a couple:
Easiest one is from Carolyn Bame, Christmas volume (#3?)
Barbara Semmann has an arrangement in one of her two Nativity Carols books.
By slightly the hardest is Ray Pool arrangement in Carols from Around the World, Vol 1, I think.
All three are very different. Difficulty varies from advanced beginner to early intermediate.
Charles Nix
Jerusha, you are absolutely correct. Strings become grooved and won’t regulate. “False” notes can occur even on new strings. If there is any inconsistency in diameter or density along the length of the string it will not vibrate in a regular manner. Overtones may not be in tune with fundamental, or it may have beats when played by itself because it is trying to sound two different pitches at the same time.
The time to stretch out fully varies with string material and tension. I have mostly worked on lever harps, of all tensions, but stretching is stretching, whether lever or pedal. Almost all of my clients want me to install the strings, tune it for the stretching out period, and then regulate. If they need the harp for use, I suggest they can do the daily tunings–almost no one takes me up on it.
Lower tension harps take longer. If a harp is played daily, they will stretch faster. Tuning new strings at least every day is a requirement for the times I will give. Also note that these are much longer than often quoted–but I like things really settled–to get the most precise regulation possible. Especially on a lever harp, it may not see a regulator again for years, so I want it really dead on. These are the times I tell clients; YMMV.
Wires are usually through moving in under a week. Guts take two weeks to get close; four weeks to really settle in — if you don’t have a sudden humid period. Nylon four weeks. Fluorocarbon six weeks; it seems to stretch forrreeevvveeerr. This is for harps tuned daily, but not regularly played. Playing would probably decrease the time. This is also until things are really stable; you could probably halve the times — but it would be a lot more work for the regulator, and the result might not be as accurate.
Ultimately, regulators, who are often only passing through town briefly, have to work with the harp and strings in front of them and do the best they can. Any advance preparation harpists can do will help the quality and accuracy of the job they will receive.
Charles Nix
Bow Brands have been working fine for me, too. They replaced any and all I had, and I hardly ever have a break on current ones, even 2nd octave.
Your rental agreement should cover what you each agreed to. But when thinking of renting anything else, the owner pays for repairs and maintenance. In theory, this cost should be built into the rental price. You should be paying for replacing strings you break. That would mostly be because of humidity changes or improper tuning, which the owner has no control over.
If I were to rent a harp, I would expect it to be in proper condition for rental (with reasonably recent strings and good regulation) when I rented it. If you rent a car, would the rental company ask you to buy the parts, and they pay the mechanic for regular service or tune up? If you rent a house, you expect it to be in livable condition, and to be kept in proper repair. You would pay for damages, but not normal upkeep like painting or roof repair or seasonal HVAC service. If you rent a tool it is supposed to work properly for the job–if it doesn’t they bring you another one.
Are harp rentals somehow different?
Now, if you got this as a favor, or at a discounted rate, or it is some short-term month-by-month arrangement, maybe it is fair to ask you for part.
Charles Nix
I can’t say they didn’t use it, but music wire would seem an odd choice to me. First, it would be undersize for M2.5 threads. Second, it is very hard tempered, which would make it brittle, and subject to breaking with repetitive stress, and which also makes it “challenging” to thread. Are you sure it isn’t just 2.5mm cold rolled low-carbon rod? A micrometer is necessary to tell size for sure, though cold-rolled isn’t particularly accurate. Any machine shop will have a thread gauge, so you can find out for sure. M2.5 x 0.45 is a standard thread, but I wouldn’t assume it is standard. You can also lay a M2.5 x 0.45 bolt beside the threaded end: if the threads line up (nest with each other) then they are the same pitch. A grinder spark test on the original will give some idea of the hardness/temper/carbon content, as will the visual appearance and the feel of the rod’s stiffness. Also, 0.0045″ below size for the thread major diameter is a _lot_ of slop in the rod coupling, assuming the coupling is threaded M2.5 x 0.45.
The thread tolerance needs to be closely fitted. Standard tolerance M2.5 x 0.45 may be too loose. The adjustable threading die, or lathe, if they do it that way, will need to be set to make it just loose enough to turn by hand when threaded into the rod coupling, but with no looseness in the threads, or you will have lost motion at the beginning of the pedal action chain. Too tight, and you won’t be able to screw it in by hand.
Once you find the exact thread, you can always have it made slightly oversize and use an adjustable die to shave a little off until it fits exactly right in your harp, if you don’t want to take your harp to the machine shop to test.
Charles Nix
If it is broken, and if you plan on replacing it yourself, why don’t you just remove the old rod (both pieces) and give that to a machine shop for a sample. Would probably take 15 minutes for them to make one from a steel rod with a threading die. They might want the rod coupling from the pedal as well to be sure they get the threading tolerance tight enough to have no slop, but not too tight to move by hand.
Have you had an evaluation from a good harp repairman? It is hard to tell from the photos how bad the structural damage to the neck is. It is also hard to see how far the soundboard is pulled up. All pedal soundboards are pulled up somewhat. Yours looks significant, but maybe it will still regulate for a few years.
Will the harp regulate? Is the action noisy? Is the base frame separating? Is there a wide crack on the left side of harp above the D pedal below the soundboard?
Depending on what kind of music you like to play, you may be better off overall repairing what you have. Then you won’t have to transition to lever, and back to pedal later on. Only an in-person inspection from a trained repairman can give you a good idea.
Agreed–what kind of music you love is the most important. I moved from lever to pedal. I have no problems switching back and forth resulting from string tension. What was and is an issue for me is string spacing/octave distance and position of the harp on your body, as in “How far do you reach for middle-C?”.
I would also say that there is vastly more difference in tone color, playing position, string tension, and every other variable between any two lever harps than any two pedal harps. You really need to be sure what you love to play and listen/play before buying to be sure you are getting the instrument you need. If you are not sure, I would certainly recommend trying out a number of instruments. Personally, I am a big fan of used instruments that are well-maintained because they will have already developed their voice, and you know what you are getting. You can also buy one that has already depreciated somewhat, and be able to get most or all of your money back if you choose the wrong one.
The levers chosen also have a big influence on how well the harp sounds. They need to be easy to keep in regulation and not affect the tone too much. You will be playing, on average, with half of the strings levered at any one time. Camac and Truitt levers are my favorites among the big brands. Loveland and L&H Performance, less so, but still acceptable. Many lever harp builders offer a choice of levers.
First off, I have no experience with that particular harp. However, at that price point, which is a fraction of most new harps, one is suspicious that they are Pakistani (or other far east) “harp-shaped objects”. Note in their text that they are careful never to claim anything but design and set-up in Ireland, not manufacturing.
The levers are clearly designed to mimic Truitts–but they aren’t. The levers alone would cost as much as the harp.
All that being said, others have posted here that they have been satisfied with some Pakistani instruments–but there have been horror stories as well.
Personally, I wouldn’t buy any harp without listening in person–or having a local harpist go with you.
There are several respectable US builders making entry instruments. I am sure this is true for other countries, as well. At a similar price is the Harpsicle. Harpists have them for portable instruments. Blevins harps also builds a number of simple models. Major builder Dusty Strings makes the Ravenna 26 at not much more money–and if you can turn one pre-owned, you might be very similar in price.
Charles Nix
Not that it will help you in this situation–but it is commonplace for church organist written contracts to stipulate a wedding fee, and that the music must come from a standard repertoire list. There is an extra fee for purchasing and learning new music specifically for one wedding–just as Jerusha said above.
My business partner, who just retired after 60 years on the organ bench, once priced a particularly difficult-looking bride’s service at 10% of whatever she was spending on the florist and caterer. He didn’t get the job. I guess music wasn’t all that important after all. It was just as well–not worth the stress. But then, playing wasn’t his principal income source.
Charles Nix
