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Hi Gretchen,
Yes, I have Bow Brand tarnish resistant wires on now. Over the years I’ve tried standard and coated, Bow Brand and Vanderbilt. I agree with your description of Vanderbilt wires feeling lighter, but didn’t notice a difference in playability. I have a LH 85CG and was blown away by the difference in resonance the first time I strung in non-coated wires. On my harp, the difference is that quantifiable. It’s funny because it had been years before I tried non-coated and wires because my teachers and regulators said it really made no difference in sound. But every harp and harpist is different, so one never knows until they try it out. Every harpist knows their instrument best 🙂I live in the Pacific Northwest which is why I initially went with coated wires. Previously I lived in Los Angeles and the tarnish was not an issue as long as I changed out wires yearly. I don’t gig currently, so my harp is in a room with controlled temperature and humidity. I will have to adjust back to the copper C’s and F’s, but I’m sure it will be fine. If it’s a huge issue I can always change out the 5th octave wire F to a colored string. I’ll let you know how it sounds, I should get them in tomorrow!
Quick update: Turns out the Vanderbilt standard wire set with colored C’s and F’s include tarnish resistant colored wires. I misunderstood the description! So I went with the standard set with copper C’s and F’s.
Thanks for all the replies!! I really appreciate everyone’s opinions.
I used to play professionally and would always use standard (non-coated) wires because I believe my harp sounds better with them (I would also string my first and top octaves with gut but that’s another debate 😀 ). I’m with Saul, in that the sound difference of coated strings is inferior. I used tarnish resistant wires on my last restring just for kicks and now that it’s time to change them out can’t wait to rip them off!
It’s been a while since I’ve looked to see what is new in the world of harp strings and hadn’t heard of colored non-coated wire as an option. I might just give the Vanderbilt brand a shot and see how they work out.
Thanks again guys <3
I had my 85CG regulated and restrung last month after not being played for quite some time. I’ve had to change 2 broken strings so far. One in each of the first and third octaves. I also changed a false second octave string out. I’m not concerned about it unless I see some type of pattern. In addition to the advice already given, my advice is to keep the temperature and humidity as constant as you can. If you don’t have a thermometer/hygrometer combo yet, I recommend one. It’s recommended to have the temperature as close to 70 degrees as possible with humidity around between 40-60% depending on location, but aiming for 50%. My harp tech says if you are comfortable then so is your harp.
