Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Hi Balfour,
I can’t tolerate the sound of nylon or carbon (PVF) strings in the first octave and have been making do with gut, so I’m really interested in your experience with Nygut.
It’s been a long time (somewhere around 15 years) since I tried Nylgut on my Camac Blue. They stretched out immensely and became quite fragile/false within a few days. At the time I recall Mimmo Peruffo (owner of Aquila Corde) telling me that at that time Nylgut was not formulated for “high tension” but rather as gut alternative for historical “low tension” instruments. I also had to dye the red and black strings by hand which was a huge mess.
Were these for your Camac Atlantide? I’m happy to hear that they are holding up as last time I put them on a on my harp it didn’t work too well because I used them for something they weren’t designed for at the time.
Aquila also makes a bio-plastic string that they call Sugar Strings that are supposed to to have a sound somewhere between gut and PVF.
Ugh! Too many choices! ;^)
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Steve
Bow Brand Heavy and Light gauges are available in the US from http://www.harpconnection.com – their customer service is superb.
The original formulation of Perlon was created in 1938 to reproduce the properties of Nylon 6,6 without violating the patent, which is held by DuPont. Perlon is currently made in Germany by Perlon Monofil GmbH. The 18th edition of the European Plastics and Rubber Directory lists 27 distributors of Nylon 6 and 25 for Nylon 6,6 in Europe versus only 1 for Nylon 6,12; so it is quite likely the European string makers use Nylon 6 or Nylon 6,6 for their strings. While the only company that has specifically stated that they use Perlon in harp strings is Pyramidsaiten, it is probable that Pirastro uses Perlon for their harp strings. A great many of their products for bowed strings utilize Perlon cores, although I have heard that they use their own special blend of polymers.
Hi Ian,
I have had Camac harps since 1995 and there are indeed differences due to their design. “String Theory” is an obsession of mine and I have written three articles for the HHS about strings . After eight years of research I now use a completely custom set of strings that I designed specifically for my Camac. Bow Brand makes a huge variety of diameters of gut strings, so that part was relatively straight forward. Bow Brand was a joy to deal with; their customer service is simply outstanding. They graciously put up with all of my requests and delivered exactly what I specified very quickly. Convincing string makers that my wound string designs would actually work was another thing!
I have tried to answer your questions in order below. I hope that the answers are clear enough.
1) The reason for the different string gauging is that the string scale length on a Camac is different, rather than any homage à Érard. If you want to maintain the same string gauges as Camac it’s going to be a bit of work because Bow Brand strings are scaled very differently, as you have seen from the list of standard gauges. Bow Brand Standard strings are similar to Camac Classique from 4th E down (but not exactly the same). Bow Brand Light corresponds to Camac Classique from 4th E up (but not exactly the same). Bow Brand Lever gauge is lighter than Camac English gauge. There will be a difference in the string-to-string feel from that of Camac Classique, but it is still workable.
2) Bow Brand Light is significantly thicker than Bow Brand Lever –approximately 10% to 11% thicker. That is considerable when you consider that a 5.9% change in diameter is equivalent to a semitone. Try tuning a few strings up or down a half step and you will get the idea.
3) Bow Brand Lever gauge strings are basically the same as Standard Pedal gauge a fourth (in some cases a fifth) higher. A Bow Brand 3rd octave F in Lever gauge is the same diameter as a Bow Brand 3rd octave B in Standard pedal gauge. Nylon strings can be tricky because there is more than one formulation for nylon. For the most part nylon 612 (Tynex) is the most common, but some string manufacturers use different formulations such as nylon 6 (Perlon) . 1st octave Bow Brand nylon has a diameter deviation of approximately 2% (thinner) than Camac, which is not too bad, and they are easy to get.
4) Bass wires are extremely complex – exterior diameters are irrelevant because of the way bass wires are constructed. Even if the strings are made with exactly the same size core, wrap and winding; different alloys of the metals used will affect the tension and response. That said, Vanderbilt bass wires worked nicely although I have used Bow Brand wires quite successfully.
5) I believe this can be adjusted by regulation. I had the same issue and was told the weight felt on the pedal is the cumulative result of how firmly each disc in the chain is gripping the string. Even my Salvi Arianna had a very heavy pedal action until the late, great Dale Barco adjusted everything. The difference in pedaling after Mike Lewis regulated my Camac was very noticeable. The harp will need to be regulated to correct the intonation anytime the string diameters are changed significantly. Why not ask the technician if they can adjust the pedaling issue?
Howard Bryan advocates using lever gauge strings on Camac pedal harps. For the most part it works very nicely, but there are some significant variances that are really noticeable in the 4th and 5th octaves, as well as a few strings that are simply too light/heavy in comparison to the surrounding strings. Part of the reason for this is that Lever gauge is optimized for tuning in Eb, so the half steps are in different places. It is particularly noticeable in the Lever gauge bass wires.
Hope that helps!
Steve
I bought my “berger-mobile” back in the 80s from Steve Berger. It clamped on the back feet of the harp and had a C-clamp that went into the E pedal slot. The advantage was that it was very compact and perfect for going across a flat surface. When I got my Arianna its feet were too short to securely clamp. I tried many other trolleys to replace the “berger-mobile”, including the huge rigs that the entire harp was strapped into, before settling on a McKay Harp Cart.
I used the McKay for many, many years before it finally broke. I loved the concept of the Harpo trolley but at the time it was too expensive. Eventually I selected the Harp Trolley from The Harp Shoppe in Colorado which has some of the advantages of the Harpo Trolley – the wheels can be removed quickly and the frame comes apart using a quick connect system. The tires are pneumatic and are designed to be inflated with a bicycle pump. The tray does not fold up like the Harpo and the trolley will not stand on its own without the use of the kickstand, however it was very reasonably priced ($225 + $25 shipping) and works quite well.
I personally have found the 6 wheel variety of harp cart difficult to use for the same reasons that Carl stated, although I know some people that swear by them.
“And if the old Classic strings were so fabulous, why did they go belly up?”
Classic was the brand name of strings
I just received an email from Camac confirming Berhard’s belief that the strings offered are simply plain nylon gauged to be the same tension as gut.
Hallo Bernhard,
An email has been sent to Camac regarding the origin of the Nylgut strings they offer.
It is very likely that they are indeed Aquila Nylgut as that is what was used to string a friend’s Electro30 that was given to her by Joel Garnier.
Steve
