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Hi David,
Are you in the US? Have you already tried to contact Camac in France? I guess they can help you out to find dealers who can provide you with the tuning pins. Or else Camac can perhaps send them over to you themselves. I own a Camac pedal harp myself and I find they are quite helpful (do note that I live in The Netherlands, so I don’t know how that would work out in the US).
Anyway, here’s a link to a form you can fill out on their website to get in touch with them:
http://camac-harps.com/en/form
Best of luck!
MarcoYeah Mae, it makes you wonder indeed….
But I guess in this case the damaged was caused by driving too fast:
http://www.harpblog.info/.a/6a00d8341d450753ef015392324841970b-pi
Haha, ‘priceless’!
And right under the picture there’s this:
“People who viewed this item also viewed”…
Notice the 3rd item: a harp flight case, to prevent a broken neck 🙂
Hi Hannah,
Hey that looks like quite a challenge indeed! I think it’s good to have that discipline, to set yourself a goal for the (near) future…it helps you to focus.
My plans for this fall/winter are:
First of all, I’ll put the recently ordered synthetic silkgut strings on my (electro-acoustic) pedal harp; the factory strung gut strings are wearing way faster than I could imagine…I play with nails on the right hand but I didn’t expect the strings to fray so rapidly (5th to 2nd octave that is). Anyway, once I’ve put the silkgut strings on, they arrive somewhere next week, I can continue to focus on carefree playing and I’ll continue getting my repertoire together for some fall/winter shows I’ll schedule soon…at the moment I’m still working on some new pieces (I compose all pieces myself) and I’m rearranging some older stuff, which I wrote on celtic harp, for pedal harp. The show will be about an hour and a half and it also features drums, percussion, sax and pedal steel (in full line-up). For some more info and a link to the bandcamp download site where you can hear some of my work, check my HC profile.
Good luck completing your repertoire challenge Hannah and let us know how things are going!
All the best,
MarcoI thought I’d give this thread a bump because apparently I missed it when it was started…Anyway, interesting topic for me as well. I don’t have callouses on my right hand since I play with nails on the right; that does mean filing and applying a strengthening nail polish every week…it’s a routine but it feels kinda lady like 😉
I do have callouses on my left hand but I already had that before I started playing harp, because I play guitar since the age of 11. The callouses don’t need much maintenance for me, they don’t grow too big so they don’t bother me while playing.And after all, different skin types require different treatments I guess…it’s definitely fun to read what you guys do to keep your fingers in good condition.
Hi Elizabeth,
I own a Camac Mini Blue since this year and although this specific model is a pedal harp, the electric pickup system is the same as the DHC lever harp by Camac. The only difference technically is the output configuration; on the Blue type you have 4 outputs (bass, mid, treble and soundboard) for enhanced tone control possibilities, whereas the DHC light only has 1 output.
But I can tell you the pickup system sounds great! I can definitely recommend it.
Hey thanks Sherri, I appreciate it. Will check out your stuff soon as well.
Yeah and it’s the Vollenweider sound that got me into playing harp but I certainly don’t wanna copy him and try to create my own style, so I take it as a compliment that you hear the difference. I could write a blog about all this, that’s a good idea…have to find some time for that though, but I’ll see if I can make a start one of these days.
Hi Meg, that’s a beautiful harp indeed! I like the inlay very much as well, it gives the harp just that extra special touch…very nice.
@ Sherri: yeah that’s definitely the reason why I bought this harp…because it’s a serious upgrade to playing amplified. Until last year, on stage I used a celtic harp with an inbuilt DS pickup, but the amplified sound of this Camac is so much better! So yes, I will perform live with this new harp, I’m planning on doing the first gigs this autumn (you can check the link here on my HC profile page in the ‘about me’ section to hear some of my work, which I also perform live with my ‘Windseeds’ band project).
OK thanks for all your input everyone, I appreciate it. It’s interesting to read the arguments against the use of this display unit, while the harpist who developed this tool is so full of praise about it…I have to say I’m on your side, the more I think of it.
I play celtic harp for many years now and I made the switch to pedal harp since last year so I have to develop some more muscle memory regarding the pedals, but it’s getting there. One thing’s for sure: the pedal harp definitely adds new dimensions to my compositions.
Hi Carl, what you’re saying is more or less what I mentioned in the last paragraph of my previous post…and the more I’m coming to think of it, the more I agree with you. Practically spoken it’s also quite an expensive little apparatus, plus you have to drill a hole in the base of the harp to connect it…. But when I came across the website where I saw this, it seemed like it could be a handy tool and I was just wondering if it had found its way to contemporary harpists; apparently not 😉
That’s my point as well Tacye; looking at the pedals is what we avoid in the first place, and also with this display. Of course the display won’t make your actual pedal changes easier, it’s just there to let you know where the pedals are. And I think it just takes more time to run over all the pedals and feel what position they’re in than to look at that display. A glance at the disks can give you the info of course, but then you’d still have a bit more ‘calculating’ to do if you ask me.
One could also say that an experienced harpist won’t need a display like this because he/she is supposed to be familiar with the pedals and their positions at any given moment, but during music pieces with lots of pedal changes a display like this could really come in handy I guess…
Hi Paul,
Hey that’s cool info there; I didn’t do any further research on this ‘tool’ yet, but it was likely somebody came up with this idea before. The South African harpist who invented the display didn’t mention this Dizi harp…maybe she didn’t know that her idea had already been invented somehow. So this harp display unit is somehow a modern version of that window system, that’s funny.
I’m not sure if I agree that a foot-check would be faster than the display though. After all, a quick glance at the display unit (reasonably comfortable at the base of the harp) tells you which pedals are in what slot and before you have that info by looking at the pedals, you have to either lean back or tilt the harp forward to get a good look at ALL the pedals, especially E,F,G and A. And don’t forget dim-lit stages where you can hardly see the pedals…in these settings, the display would be quite handy I think.
The idea of mounting the display on a music stand is a good idea. The same display unit, but with a remote controlled connection to the pedals must be possible with the current technology if you ask me.
Hi Elisa,
Since I noticed Tacye was wondering about nail players…the pedal harp player who plays with nails: that’s me 🙂 I guess Sherri and I are the only nail players on the forum, but then Sherri plays wire strung harp and I’m the celtic/pedal harp player… but I don’t play classical stuff though. The style I play is inspired by Andreas Vollenweider, which requires nails on the right hand but not on the left. It features staccato chord patterns and melody lines with the right hand and bass lines (like a bass guitar) with the left hand.
So I can understand your student somehow Elisa, but the reason she’s reluctant to cut her nails is a different one than mine I guess, since I have them on purpose because of the style I play….for the stuff she’s playing, I guess nails are not really ‘fashionable’ 🙂
Anyway, I hope you can work it out with her, because I understand she’s a good student musically…it would be a pity if the nails continue to be an issue here.Hi Sylvia,
Have you thought about something like this? Check out the link:
http://www.zzounds.com/item–AKGWMS40FLGB
Although the site says it’s not availabe anymore, I saw it for sale on ebay…I have the previous version of this system and I’ve used it for guitar on bigger stages (not much anymore these days since I focus on the harp now). But I’ve tried it on my celtic harp once and it worked just fine…maybe it’s an idea? The unit with the jack plug is the part you plug in your harp of course. You still have to hook up a cable from the receiver to the amp, but you don’t have cables lying around your harp….
There are more systems like this available, but this is the most practical system for harp if you ask me. Hope this might help.
> of course this is a system which has to be used with an already installed pickup, don’t know if that’s good enough, or are you specifically looking for a pickup with an inbuilt transmitter?
Hi Natalie and Lyn, thanks for your enthusiastic replies. It took a while to get back to you because I was sick, but I’m ok now…just a little flu which unfortunately kept me ayway from the harp, I just didn’t feel like playing. I do play again now, what else would one do with such a nice harp!
It seems like I created some expectations here, right? I’m not sure if I can meet them right now, haha…but I’ll see if I can get someone with a proper camera to shoot a decent vid with good audio. The only option I have myself is an iphone cam and that really doesn’t do justice to the sound of the camac.
Will keep you posted ok?
