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I’ve heard that Camacs do tend to break easily- you have to be really careful that you don’t lay the harp down on the levered side. Check your case and make a mark on the side with the levers so this doesn’t happen again. I know from personal experience that you can install Truitt levers by yourself with a drill and a little patience, but I’ve heard Camacs are not something you want to attempt to install yourself. My advice would be to call the harpmaker, maybe he or she will have a few suggestions. So sorry to hear of your problem, hope you can get them fixed quickly!
Karen
I don’t have one I could share, per say, but Laurie Riley has a nice version of this song in Mel Bay’s Celtic Music for Harp. There are many other nice tunes in this book as well, such as The Butterfly Jig, The Water Is Wide, and the little known but beautiful Orange Rogue, to name a few. Well worth the $$.
Karen
I have a Limerick lap harp that I help secure with a leather guitar strap. I just tie it up around the knee block and down by the base of the pillar.
Karen
Yeah, I just read that blog as well. Pretty nasty, and pretty ballsy to come back on this forum crowing about not only your harp blog but also your rented harp, which you are still requesting money for. Sheeesh….
Debbie Truitt? Are you sure it wasn’t Betty Truitt? From Truitt levers, right? Did she have a daughter or relative take over then?
I
Oh, oof, apparently I need to pay more attention! I see you stated they broke just under the tuning pin. Check for a rough edge around the hole in the pin. Also, be sure that the string is centered on the guide pin, and in line with the tuning pin.
Karen
Yes, the remaining strings will tend to go sharp as they are compensating for the additional pressure. I would de-tension the strings slightly to the left and right of the broken string to alleviate the strain. If the entire course is sharp that could be weather related as well.
There has to be a logical explanation for these two particular strings to repeatedly break. Where
Another thing we have in common, Deb! I learned from this book too, and didn’t know bass clef or have a piano background. Since then I have met harpists who have had piano before learning harp and they were far more advanced than I even though we had been learning for the same amount of time. Learning the bass clef slowed me down a lot, plus the whole two-handed approach. Sylvia’s book was great to start with, but my only complaints were that it progressed rather quickly and didn’t spend enough time demonstrating proper hand/finger technique. I fell into some bad habits because of this, and had to re-train myself, which set me back even farther. At this point I should be into upper intermediate/advanced music, and I’m more or less upper beginner/lower intermediate. Of course, I could have avoided all this by getting a teacher, but that option wasn’t available at the time I started learning.
If you can get a teacher, I strongly recommend it. Even if it’s only for the first few months, with check-ups afterwards to make sure you are progressing and not falling into bad habits.
Karen
Ummmmm…..excuse me, but I do teach harp. Please don’t make snap assumptions about the posters on this forum. If you had done
Wood glue might be an easy fix here. If you can squirt a good layer in between the split and clamp it overnight, you might be in luck for a while longer. It is worth a try. And it is the most cost-efficient method that I would use myself if I were to fortify the neck of this harp. Where there is a will, there is a way…
Karen
On the picture of the back of the neck is that a crack? I’m a little worried about the neck- it seems to have a bit of a warp happening, but not sure from the pics if that’s just an optical illusion of sorts. Otherwise for what you spent it looks to be in remarkably good shape. Not fond of those nails/levers though, but I suppose you could switch them out if doing so wouldn’t compromise the strength of the neck. You might want a tech to check it out before you add any bass strings, just to be on the safe side.
Karen
Yes, definitely post pics! $400 is a darn good price for any harp, and if it lasts for a few years, why not enjoy it? Was there a reason that the soundboard would come out or the back fall apart? Is it a structural flaw? That’s too bad if that is really what you can expect to happen. I wouldn’t let that discourage you though- I had a lap harp I built from a kit that was still perfectly sound after 20+ years, but then again the soundboard was laminated birch, not spruce. I wonder if there might be a way you can restring it at a slightly lower tension? This might help keep it longer…
Karen
Jessica,
I’ve noticed that, but since I already bought my Dragonheart before they did that and mentioned my interest in the Serenity I was told it was doable. It’s not like they throw away the blueprint. I believe they are concentrating on the CF harps right now- and the response has been phenomenal. So to keep from being completely overwhelmed they have had to drop a few other harps from the lineup, like the Serenity & Dreamweaver.
Karen
