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Posted this yesterday but when I clicked submit it disappeared, figured it would take a while to post so waited overnight and this morning still not posted??? must be static worms lol.
So reposting.
Update, still at it lol, glueing soundboard slats together, getting some warping , wood was dry as a bone, think the PVA glue may be at fault,it does contain some moisture plus very hot here humidity is at 15 percent , I glue 2 slats together ,clamp and put heavy weight on top while it dries.
Did call Titebond manufacture and asked if their glue will stick to wood putty, Frank said yes but will be a weak joint, so removed all putty on soundbox side where soundboard will be glued, he told me redwood and Sitka spruce are very similar in nature, both light and not the strongest wood,Frank started doing all kinds of calculations lol and came up with Tight Bond before it breaks has 750-800lbs of pulling strength every 2 inches for redwood, Sitka is around 900
Been searching for bits I will need like eyelets for the strings, found out the brass ones can crack and ruin the string, plastic can break also, so I’m thinking nylon? what guitar picks are made of.
They must use those dots for bass strings because how big they are, no eyelet could survive them.
I did find a harp site that sells all the correct size eyelets , but made of brass.
Next couple days soundboard slats will be completed, so far its 1/4 at bass section and graduates to 1/8 at top , final sanding needs to be done, then glue 2 reinforcement strips on back side so ithe whole mess doesn’t fall apart on me, after that glue top veneer on , then center hardwood strip front and back, drill holes for strings, install eyelets and dots.
That should keep me busy for a month!
Thanks, good going on the masters! My dad was a engineer inventor, worked for Bell & Howell, he knew how to fix everything, so I inherited his skills, I’m better at electro mechanical than wood, but I enjoy playing with wood! I messed up on the knots, not thinking, planes don’t like knots lol.
This is my first attempt at a soundboard, if it fails I’ll just make another one, kind of a trial run .I’ll try to video that Clark harp soon, it’s in pretty bad shape and super old, so far I’m still working on the slats, time consuming for sure, no wonder they have to charge alot for harps, it’s a lot of labor!.
I did see a lot of L&H harps use plastic eyelets not brass, I may electrify this harp? wait and see.
Also I found I can remove veneer from Stanley’s soundboard using a heat gun, he used contact cement to glue it on and that comes off easily with a eraser.
Made another video, why? mentally it makes me want to do a good job! plus if I goof up I can go back in time and see where I went wrong.
I have a youtube channel for my Mercedes cars also and video all the repairs on them, have about 750 subscribers, who would have thought lol.
Thanks will do!
Chipping away at building the soundboard, fun but time consuming! here’s my setup, lots of cutting ,sanding, checking fit for every plank.
Forgot to mention I not only have one damaged harp but two! why is this happening to me lol.
So another free harp it’s a Clark Irish harp ,think it’s around 1920.Good to know, that makes life easier! found some images, so there are about 4 different size eyelets, small, medium, large,extra large, ,I found a Harp site that sells them how do I khow many of each size to get? the harp has 40 strings.
Thanks again!Up date , so emailed Lyon and Healy last week and got a reply yesterday, about that metal spline and they said it’s interesting but they would have never put one in .
They said to repair it properly they would replace sound box and sound board, not cheap! pass.
As far as string spacing template they can’t release that info, top secret!I’m going to build a new stronger soundboard, the one Staley made is kind weak, only good thing he did was copy the spacing for strings and transferred it to the sound board he made, I will use that.
This harp so far will be a decor piece but I’m still going to make it look good and maybe play, my wife wants to keep it??
I made a video with more info for your amusement lol.
What a nightmare, when I saw those videos I put the cover on it on walked away, funny earlier I sent some pictures of that bar to L&H and asked, did you guys put this in? HaHaHa.
At this point I can make it look pretty and sell it as decor piece, so far only have $7 into it.
Or part it out? ebay? hassel, what would parts even be worth?When I saw the video I was half asleep, then said to myself wait! that looks just like my harp! it is my harp!
Why would he do that? it looked like it was in perfect shape.Stay tuned for Johns harp from hell!
Plus the soundboard he made I have it! so weird, Stanley Chang is his name and my son said the name on the big box it came in said Chang on it.
I did make a long post but for some reason it disappears once I submit?
Anyways I did find out who butchered this harp, its on youtube lol.
This guy was experimenting on making a floating soundboard and modified the harp I have.It’s weird I’ll post something and it doesn’t show up?
Tell me more about the lever harp strings, or those harps under less tension?
If so that may be the way to go?Here it is when it arrived at the music store, you can see my son laughing, it had a weed joint wedged in at turners and dirty socks in soundbox lol, he described the 2 guys as sketchy, owner of music store ran the numbers on it to see if it was stolen, nothing came up, if the harp could only talk lol.
Thanks for any info, I tried to post pictures but file size was to big, will see if I can reduce them, This is the first harp for me to work on, I spent a few weeks reading everything I could about pedal harps and construction techniques.
I know about the tremendous pulling force of a large harp and the sound box/ sound board integrity.
This harp is 64″ high, 7 pedal, the mechanical part of it works perfectly and clean as a whistle.
Not sure why someone cut the back of soundbox ??? why didn’t they remove soundboard from the front?
anyways they did make a replacement sound board , it’s made of multi layer plywood very light in color ,1/4 thick , it should be tapered, but it can’t tapered because of ply construction, , they cut it exactly to fit sound box, and they did drill 40 pilot holes, holes are offset to the left so strings will align, the hole spacing is wide at bass strings and graduate smaller all the way up, so they must have copied the original sound board, they did glue a nice veneer on top of it, and decorated it with nasty looking music notes! there is no reinforcement strip down the front/back or ribs, what’s strange is at the bottom of the soundboard there what looks like a 1.5″ wide aluminum/ metal? strip embedded in the plywood, must be for strength, don’t know how far up it goes lol.
I may buy some Sitka spruce and build a proper sound board but having 2nd thoughts.
This thing was abused pretty bad, to do it right a whole new soundbox and soundboard needs to be constructed, don’t think I can accomplish that, I don’t think its worth it.
With the price of strings( 300-500) for this harp and cost of new sound board, could be expensive and in the end a inferior harp? waste of money? I don’t know at this point, but I do enjoy fixing things!
Here’s a video if it helps.
