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Sounds interesting. Could never sell my own script “The Hearpe” to Hollywood, and partly because I’d left the Arizona.
I’ve just tuned my souvenir uke- and yes the levers needed tightening by the screws you say you can’t move. My knobs are really cheap plastic as are my tuners- I can’t offer much but to advise taking care NOT to compromise the phillips head screws with a bad or wrong sized driver. What usually works best is the largest that gets a good grip on the head, but still large for the mechanical advantage of gripping it. I’ve wished for years they’d make these with a square shank like they make some god slothead drivers, so that you can then get an adjustable wrench on the shaft to help turn it-
P.S. oops- sorry – getting levers and tuners confused- looks like Caswell offered 4 lever options- so I really don’t know
Hi Katia-
First of all- if you have problems that you don’t want to mess with, SELL IT TO ME!
You are fortunate to have one of these- Unfortunate that Chris passed on before more of these saw life !
Anyway- NO WD-40- that is for loosening screws in contact with metal- NOT wood- it will rot it if too much is absorbed.
The levers are, or similar to- ukulele friction tuners, no? These are unusual and there is a trick to tightening them- as I have only one uke- a cheap souvenir soprano with friction tuners- I can’t recall exactly how they work.
You ,ight want to find a uke with them and experiment a bit- or order a cheap set to look at. I’m not implying that they are cheap- I think they are an inspired use of them to keep a harp light, and that the problems may not be as bad as it seems- don’t do anything too drastic yet- I think they rotate as a whole base to tighten or something- I’m going to look at mine now and see if I have any ideas.
Can you put up a picture or link to a picture of the harp? I’d love to have a look.
To add to the post above w/o editing- posts have been known to vanish!- I just wanted t mention that enlarging the sound holes has also facilitated access to the strings on the underside of the sound b0ard – and that helps those of us with big hands.
“@ Harpe, that seems like a lot of work to tweak a harp. Have you estimated how much these changes ended up being?”
Well Molly-
Outside of replacing strings, the changes have cost me only 50 cents worth of sandpaper- although I have used some wood and metal files I already owned.
Mostly I’ve sanded the inside of the sound boxes- tho not the soundboard side- and enlarged the sound holes a bit- Both harps have internal box bracing that I find probably too heavy and blocking of longer sound waves, especially near the top-
On the small 27 Saffron (mistakenly I called it a 26 earlier- I’ve also tapered the pillar and top peg board piece- a little bit like a Triplett clarsach, but the work is still in progress- I sand more whenever I feel and not sure at what point I’ll be satisfied.
And so between thinning the materials and giving slightly more inner volume and more space for the sound to exit- if you compare pictures with other harps, the Mikel holes are relatively smaller- the sound has improved, and every loss of material also makes the harps just a bit more manageable.
The rounded sound box material is quite sturdy- so it’s my own risk if it falls over- neither harps ever leave the house.
I’ve done this same but with guitars through the years and can always hear the improvement- but I warn you! This can be a CURSE of DISATISFACTION- knowing you can always get a little better sound- At some point we may all be better off simply PRACTICING.
I’m sorry the Mikel didn’t work out- I’m glad you have options and hope you find a harp worthy of your ambitions.
Hello
The strings breaking on Mikel harps has been one of my own complaints- although they were mostly bass nylon wound strings that broke in the first month or two after. And yes, the harps are needlessly heavy, with a really very thick double base- I’ve removed the attached base on my smaller 26 harp- and they have a very thick and heavy pillar. I had none of the custom order problems- I got the 34 years ago for under a grand when they first put it up on ebay- the lowest octave have all been converted to steel strings to match the Dusty Ravenna configuration, which is where I bought the replacement strings, since Mikel doesn’t stock them (!) I’ve since grown not terribly thrilled with the sound of wound steel, but don’t want to spend much money or effort and time to convert the back to nylon wound, and not sure if I can find them in the correct lengths.
The 26 I got for a real steal right after the holidays about 3 years ago has been all converted to monofilament. Both harps sound fairly decent- I’ve tweaked the sound boxes a bit thinner and lightened the frames, but I’m glad I got them at lower than cost prices and I’ve been thinking about putting the 34 up for sale because I don’t play it much and a bit of a wrestling match in my advancing years.Good luck Molly, I hope you get some satisfaction from this
It’s probably pretty good.
Is it like a Harpsicle which seems to be their money making base, or like the other harps above that?
Really getting into “Tara’s Theme” from Gone With The Wind- mostly just playing it by ear on violin and sat down at the piano today working some of it out. When I saw this thread, I had to go and pluck it out on harp. Don’t have a sheet, but it starts most phrases with an octave jump- so in “C” that’s from C to C, and later F to F is in there too- great versions on youtube. I recall it from “Saturday Night at the Movies” on TV back in the ’50’s and always thought of it as THE Hollywood song, cause I didn’t know where it was from then.
I’m down here in the south just sorta waiting to die and trying to catch a moment of serenity whenever I can and this just touches me.
It shouldn’t be a problem- if you don’t break the string in the process and that just means: be careful. Unwind the string gently, then take it out of the pin hole and unwind it some more to take the unwanted length out You should watch to see how much the peg moves with each turn to help you gauge this. Then put the string back on- and wind it carefully back to tension.
Arpeggios and open chord patterns have really helped me. If you feel confined by the written piece, play the same notes elsewhere. Move it all up or down jus for fun and to see how you like it.
Not enough- and spread too thin- got another intermediate level classical guitar edition, and not spending enough time on ANY instrument, as I continue my “homeless with a roof over my head for now” lifestyle- call it “guerilla practicing” ? Spending too much time on the net too because somehow that’s all my poor tired body wants to do. On the other hand, I’ve found and have been replacing a small collection of childrens books I had accumulated before the flood where I lost it all back in ’09.
I’m officially 65 now, so your gibberish about my work is more likely to go in one ear and out the other two. AH!
Hey Biagio-
I just read your last post and was coincidentally just exploring again putting at least some brass strings on such a said Musicmaker Limrick-
I have both string charts on adobe file (Trinity Queen Mary and Limrick steel string) and was flipping back and forth between the two comparing lengths and gauges.I’m a little confused by what you said about “dropping the range four steps). That would, I guess make the low note F instead of the current C- but which way? An F LOWER is what I think you mean, or is that you mean putting the higher F lower but the same octave it is currently. In general the Limrick harp strings are about 1/4 again LONGER than the Trinity harp)
I’ve just been listening to some Siobhan Armstrong recordings and I can hear that the brass seems to have a broader resonance somehow in the same range if I play my steel strings alongside- mine are more “clippy”, not as long sounding or ringing. I’d love to get that brass sound, but getting more confused all the time. So would my low C string be an F below the C or is it then the higher F brought down lower?
The Trinity harp of course has 29 strings and my Musicmaker only 26- I was planning on still probably having some wound bronze wires at the bottom- currently guitar string types it appears, and maybe even leaving steel in the very high range, but it seems the better part of 15 strings would be replaced.
