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As someone who works at Dusty Strings, I thought I’d offer two more things to think about: One is that on a double-strung, there is an extra row of tuning pins taking up space on the harp neck, which leaves less room for bridge pins and levers unless you make the neck wider. I can’t speak for all double-strung harps, but on a Dusty 26 double, there actually isn’t room to mount Camac levers, since they have a longer base than the Lovelands. They would hang off the bottom of the neck in some places. Another consideration is that the more holes you drill in a harp neck, the less structural wood is left to bear the tension of the strings. This doesn’t mean that swapping levers should never be done, but it’s something we’ve hesitated to do for that reason. We just don’t know what the impact would be. (And of course, as others have said, it is a lot of work, and expensive!)
I know this is a bit late, and it sounds like you’ve already found a solution, but I thought I’d toss in another potential solution in case anyone else has the same question. (Full disclosure: I’m an employee of Dusty Strings.)
Because the feet on the FH34 are such a complex shape, they are only made in one height – about 5 inches. But there is another option, although maybe not as elegant, which is to substitute the stand for the Crescendo 34 model. It will fit on the FH34 the same way the regular stand does, and it has four tapered interchangeable legs that are available in either 5″, 8″ or 12″ heights. The slightly less elegant part is that it’s only made in sapele wood, so it wouldn’t be a perfect color match with a different species of FH34. But the legs aren’t what people mostly look at anyway, and this might be a worthwhile visual sacrifice to achieve a comfortable playing height!
I would try just pushing the eyelet in first. If it seems loose, or if it pops out when you put tension on the string, then you can use a tiny ball of putty epoxy to fill in the elongated section of the hole so that the new eyelet is a snug fit. You can find epoxy putty at a hardware store and it’s just like rolling a little ball of playdough – much less messy than liquid epoxy or other types of glue!
I can’t speak to the styrofoam mold question, but I work at Dusty Strings and can maybe help with some of the other questions. We do occasionally ship harps with no cases, and as long as there’s adequate padding around the harp, that shouldn’t be a problem. We do ship them in plastic bags to protect against moisture if (heaven forbid!) the shipping company were to leave the box sitting out in the rain. We’ve never had an issue with plastic bags melting in our 30 years of shipping harps, but that’s not to say it couldn’t happen! If it were my harp, I would feel more comfortable with a layer of fabric right next to the harp – even if it’s something thin like a sheet.
We can sell someone a box and our custom foam pieces as Biagio suggested, but it costs the same to ship an empty box as it does a full box, so very few people ever opt for that unless they live close enough to drive to Seattle and pick it up in person.
Sometimes large boxes get outrageously expensive by UPS or FedEx, so it might be worth also checking with a freight company to compare rates. Or if you’ll be traveling with your harp, you can call your airline and see what their size limits and fees are for oversize baggage. Sometimes it’s actually cheaper to check your harp on the plane than to ship it separately. Just make sure you pack it up well!
I see what you were saying, and I agree that it would be wonderful to demystify subjects like regulation, types of strings, lever functions, etc. It’s so rewarding when someone learns that doing their own harp maintenance is not so scary after all!
Hi! I work for Dusty Strings, so I thought I’d just chime it to confirm that that on a Dusty harp, the old style and new style Loveland levers are the same overall size, and have the same tone and function. The only difference is that the newer style has a longer and wider surface for your fingers to grip, and a larger area for the red and blue paint that we add to the C and F levers. I believe the new style came out around 2012.
I also have to disagree with Biagio a little bit on the issue of Lovelands being touchy. Aside from the occasional need to replace a handle that has cracked from many years of use, there’s really nothing that gets out of whack with Lovelands. Harps do need regulation periodically, but the reason is because they are gradually changing shape under the tension of the strings, and the relationships between levers, bridge pins and string lengths are subtly shifting. This throws the levers out of tune, but it usually has nothing to do with the levers themselves. Often, you can regulate a harp without needing to touch the levers at all. (Sorry, I know regulation was not the subject of this thread, but sometimes there’s a lot of mystery around the subject, and I try to clear things up whenever I can!)
