[john-strand]

Hi – I have a feeling that your daughter’s teacher is not referring to upper octave string spacing, but the amount of room in the top octaves to get your hand in to play those strings – it doesn’t seem to be standard and an extra half inch distance between soundboard and the mechanism can make a great deal of difference in playability especially players with larger hands or longer fingers – somewhere on the discussions, Carl Swanson has talked about increasing that distance when he re-necks a harp and what the ideal distance is – David Williams put a shim in my harp between the neck and body of about 1/4″ and it made all the difference in the world getting up into those upper registers –

[john-strand]

Carvin Stagemate – battery or AC – 4 separate channels (mic or instruments) with separate controls plus Master – available with effects built in – separate outputs for extension speaker(s) and amp out for plugging directly into a venue system – I have two of them – been using them for years with both solidbody electric concert grand harp and fishman pickups on my other pedal harps – only sold through the company in California – unfortunately my latest catalog does not list it and it may have been replaced with a newer model – you might find one on ebay –

[john-strand]

how about one of those folding stadium seats? use it on a chair? I’ve seen them with different seat thicknesses depending on padding – and they fold into a compact and easy to carry size –

[john-strand]

Hi – I agree with Paul and the others who recommended switching to lever gauge strings – I’ve talked about restringing my concert grand with all lever gauge strings elsewhere on the forum – and about two years later still very happy with the change – I have nylon lever gauge on the top 3 octaves and lever gut on 4th and 5th – I recently changed the first and second octave on my other harp to lever gauge and like the improvement very much – you don’t mention whether your harp is straight board or extended, but either way I feel an 80 year old harp would benefit from lighter tension strings – you can order light gauge concert length wires from Vermont strings –

As to more room in the upper register you might think in terms of putting in a 1/4″ shim in the joint between the neck and body next time you have a full regulation and change strings or have a harp technician do it for you – both mine have shims installed by David Williams and it makes a great deal of difference – Carl Swanson has talked about this before on the forum –

let us know how it all plays out –

John

[john-strand]

Eliza – it is good to know that you are in touch with Basel regularly – he is often in my thoughts especially as I hear the awful reports on public radio concerning the dire situation where he is – I hope he knows how many friends he has around the world who think of him often and hope for some solution to the horrors going on there – and please keep us all up to date with what information you are able to get, especially if there is anything we could do individually or as a group to help him – thank you –

[john-strand]

00 refers to the octave above first octave on the harp – the highest F on a 46 string harp – 00F, the highest G on a 47 string harp would be 00G, and for your 48 string harp 00A –
the Chinese harp which belongs to the San Antonio Symphony also has a 00A

[john-strand]

I would suggest that you back it off at least 3 steps till you get a reading on it from a technician – its my understanding that harps of that era were lighter tension – also, watch carefully for any signs of stress between the base and board – also up where the column and neck join – I saw an old Wurlitzer split apart there from the neck twisting from string tension – its a lovely old harp –

A while back I tried some of those high tension strings – they were indeed louder, but the board pulled up and I was afraid it was going to blow – I switched to lever harp gut and the board “relaxed” by about 1/4″ – the sound is lovely, but not so loud –

[john-strand]

Hi – glad you got the top layer off – in your picture it looks like your harp has a gloss finish – once upon a time LH had a really great pink polishing/rubbing compound almost like a jewelers rouge – it was not a polish like furniture polish but it was great for putting on a really deep glossy shine after first using some fine grit auto rubbing compound – I tried to get a refill a couple years ago and they told me they didn’t have it anymore – last year I found some stuff at an auto supply store called “Mirror Glaze Professional Show Car Glaze” manufactured by Megular’s of Irvine California (800-347-5700) – it really restored a deep glossy shine – every 7 or 8 years, I do a major cosmetic overhaul along with a complete string change on both harps – take all the strings off, take the tuning pins out and chuck each one in an electric drill individually and polish both ends with some medium rubbing compound so they get all shiny again – also, when all the pins are out it is easy to really give a good thorough cleaning/polishing to the entire neck (yes, since all the strings are off at one time instead of changing just a few at a time it does take a while after restringing to get everything back up to pitch and stabilized – so you need to allow extra bench time for this) just don’t try to do anything more to the action/discs or brass plates than dust with a stiff brush – you will likely find that this show car glaze works better after you have used a rubbing compound to prep the finish – have fun and post a picture!

[john-strand]

here’s a little trick you can use to get your tuner to read more “true” – and especially as you are getting a new harp to settle in – take a strip of cloth and thread it through the wires and up through 4th octave (several standard pedal felts are perfect)- then tune the upper octaves – when you get down to the 4th octave, start pulling the cloth off just a couple of strings, tune those, then pull the cloth a couple more strings and tune those etc etc – that way you are not getting overtones from the out of tune bass wires throwing your tuner off – an alternative is to use cloth wound through all the strings and start pulling them away from the bass wires to tune first and work your way up the octaves – once you have tuned the wires, use the cloth to damp the wires as you tune up – also somebody mentioned that a contact mike will also help to isolate the tuner from ambient sound – I also think that the more you move a new harp and tune it in assorted temp and humidity conditions the more stable it will be when it ages – remember the board is pulling up and adjusting itself on a new harp

[john-strand]

Hi – just recently ran across this site as I was looking for details on “silkgut” strings that I have seen listed recently – this site specifically discusses the kinnor strings –

http://www.ancientlyre.com/ancient_musical_string_technology/

also check out this site for some fascinating information about silk string manufacture and their historical use –

http://www.silkqin.com/03qobj/strings/raykovstrings.htm

[john-strand]

Check out NPR’s Click and Clack website – they often get calls about removing odors from car interiors – one of the worst was someone who had left a car in summer in outdoor storage and there was a stick of butter in the glove compartment that melted and turned rancid – I don’t remember what they suggested – you can also try carpet cleaning places – they should have various items to take care of pet odors –

[john-strand]

Vermont Strings has several varieties of light guage wires – give them a call and tell them what you need – I believe they are now offering light guage wires in a concert grand size – I would think if you have light guage strings on the troubadour there would be some extra out-of-balance tension on the board where you switch to standard guage wires –

[john-strand]

I currently have 3 Venus harps – all concert grands in the 25-30 year range – all have a wonderful tone – no problems structurally or with the action – in fact, my blue and gold harp and I were on the way home from a job the first of May and my van was broadsided by a driver who ran a stop sign – my van was flung around into the oncoming lane and I ended up straddling the median facing the opposite direction – my van was totaled but the harp and I were both strapped in and both of us survived without any damage at all – I have been keeping an eye on the harp for any latent damage to show up but so far everything is completely sound – I attribute this to having 4″ foam padding on the floor, loading the harp in on its column and using the center seatbelt around the neck and the rearseat belt around the base- so I think you can certainly trust the reliability and durability of Venus harps – they are great!

[john-strand]

and if you tie a 5 foot string to the doorstop, you don’t have to bend down to pick it up – after you go through the door just reel it in LOL

[john-strand]

My Venus Paragon is approaching 30 years old and was built for me with a lighter than usual soundboard for great sound – which indeed it has – however, I have been concerned the past few years about the probable lifespan of the board – so I decided to restring with all light gauge strings –
My major problem was in finding appropriate light gauge bass wires and I considered all sorts of substitutions etc etc, but none seemed to really be right – I noticed some posts here about Vermont Strings and ended up getting a set of Erard “gothic” gauge wires from them – also got bow brand lever harp gut for 4th and 5th octave and lever nylon for top 3 octaves – my understanding is that this combination will give about the same tension overall – I was concerned that the 5th octave A, B, and C lever gut might not be long enough for a concert grand but they were – although the A was pretty close –
I also wanted to check the soundboard before and after, so measured the distance at the 5th octave G though the soundhole – then removed all the strings for a couple weeks while I did some other maintenance and some gilding touchups – during that time the board “relaxed” right at 1/4″ – on restringing with light gauge and after slowly pulling up to pitch over about 10 days, I found the board had only pulled up 1/8″ inch and, although I didn’t think to measure it, I am assuming that the neck will be less likely to continue to twist –
The strings seem to have taken a longer time than usual to stabilize, but I chalk that up to the whole instrument readjusting itself to about half the tension he has been used to – the wires are copper wound with red C and Blue F’s and have a “feel” to them that is very much like my classical guitar bass strings – there is a bit of a “twisting” feeling to them that you don’t get with the steel core wires – the lighter tension overall is different than I am used to but about the same difference when i switch back and forth between classical guitar and electrics –
The sound is very similar to before, but there is a noticeable difference in sustain up in 1st and 2nd octaves especially when the pedals are in natural and sharp – overall, I would say that the sound is just a bit softer, but with a very “sweet” quality to it – I don’t think this is a solution for orchestra harpists who have to pull hard, but seems like it would be quite acceptable in a solo situation or small group –
Overall, I am delighted with the sound and of course, the prospect of saving the board which was my first concern – Vermont Strings were great to deal with and I recommend them – It also occurred to me that for those folks out there having trouble with arthritis or hand problems, the light gauge would be a help in being able to stay with the instrument longer

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