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The new levers came with threaded bridge pins, but the problem is the diameter is smaller than the existing hole. I did examine that the cut bridge pin still has a tad more than half of its length below the surface as suggested.
I finally got the courage to start this project. What I ended up doing is cutting the bridge pin shorter. Do you think this is acceptable or would drilling the hole deeper be preferred for a particular reason?
Hi there, I can’t help you, but I’m the one who put out a call a few posts earlier for Salzedo teachers. It seems us Salzedo harpists really like our method and want to know who also is Salzedo style. Membership lists should let us put an S or something next to our name so we can easily identify our peers.
I’ve now got this piece and have had to do some substantial enharmonic changes to make it work on just one harp. So in the future, harpists contact me and I’ll share my edits.
Yes, 50% is probably unrealistic. For my personal instruments, I have a humidifier set at 45% right now and it seems to struggle to get it to 30 something on it’s electronic screen. A separate hygrometer in the room does still read around 45%. My understanding is that it is very hard to accurately gauge humidity and the error of any basic (cheap) hygrometer is probably around +/- 5 or 10 percent anyway.
A student who practices on the instrument daily would be in charge of dumping water into the reservoir.
As for harp moving, it would almost always be returned within 24 hours to the same location. Lessons would be taught in the same location. Orchestra rehearsal would be another room, but no longer than 4 hours. The only 24 hour moves would be for concerts on the stage (same building). Perhaps once every 3 years, it would be moved to another theater or go on tour. Any harp would have issues with that and you just do the best you can.
Carl Swanson has indicated that it takes longer than a typical gig time for the wood to dry out, so I feel, except for the last rare case of going outside of the building, the harp would always return to around 45%.
Summers though? I don’t know how high the humidity gets. That’s a different story. I can visit that senario at a later time. Now, I’m just at least getting the lower extreme moved closer to the upper extreme.
Ah…. Here’s the context. These are CHEAP harps! I am renting out 4 Fireside cardboard harps and can see the fleet of harps increasing to 10 in the future. They have proven fantastic for beginner instruments and have made it possible for me to build up a studio of harp students since instrument rental can be very affordable. In this context, dropping a wooden key on cardboard is not a problem. I also have group lessons so keeping track of tuning keys is even harder. It would be awesome to have the pink key go with the pink harp and the blue key go with the blue harp, etc.
I have expanded the basic Fireside Kit harp. I have taken off the zither pins and reamed the holes for standard tapered pegs. It didn’t bother the students to tune with the zither pins, but it really bothered me. The zithers are on the wrong side of the harp and they are actually threaded opposite of the “forward sharp, backward flat” direction. I just ignored the threading, and strung it the “right” way, but could see that over time, the pins were going to work themselves out of the wood. I have been talking with Backyard Music and shared my experience with converting their kit to use tapered pegs and they are indeed looking into discontinuing the zithers themselves. Pretty cool! I’d say when comparing low budget end harps: Fireside v. Harpsicle….if Fireside does convert to tapered pins…that puts them ahead in my opinion.
The cardboard has proven AWESOME! After three months of renting, one cardboard box has already been damaged. The father put the harp in a bad location, then the brother stepped on it. If the box was wood, it would have been a super expensive repair if not total loss. The cardboard replacement cost $20 plus the time to paint and glue.
So after digressing, to get back to the tuning key. I want to make wood tuning keys that match the rainbow of cardboard harps that I have. I would of course go for something longer lasting than brass if it’s available, but if I need to change out the brass after so long, then that’s okay too. I don’t already have a set of rubber keys for each harp as I’ve just installed the tapered pegs myself. The plain rubber key is pricey anyway. So if I can make my own custom keys from $5 or less clock keys with a little effort, that’s the way to go. I also like the idea of my uncle turning the handles as a fun project for us to work on together.
Ah ha! After some googling, I’m pretty sure the size to try is a #12 clock key. That size is gauged to fit 4.8mm. If anyone has calipers and a standard peg available…. I’m away from my harps for a couple weeks so I can’t measure. My travel harp has zither pins and the best I can do is assume a grandfather’s clock key which I have handy is a #12; it looks like the right socket with my eyes and it is too big for zither pins, which is also true for a pedal harp key.
Still if anyone has a better source for an appropriately gauged socket that is easy to insert into wood, let me know.
