Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Even if Markwood doesn’t have your instrument on file, if you can measure the vibrating length of each string they can calculate a string chart for you. A micrometer helps: you can also measure the diameter of each string, and
measure your soundboard width and thickness.Kevin,
Not having seen and tried a Pixie harp I’m not sure if you could raise its pitch by a fifth, which would result in tension increased by a factor of 2.25. Laurie Nielson at Markwood may be able to help rescale the strings because she takes into account all the soundboard measurements as well as the speaking lengths of the strings. Besides, new strings would keep the proper colors for Cs and Fs. The makers of those instruments have been redesigning them, probably to reduce the number of returned broken ones, so it’s hard to say what you’ll be able to string yours with.
My new Xythara has arrived. The workmanship is the same thorough job as with my Melody 26. It seems to take some time seasoning, though. Those who like the photo of this cross on the Blevins web site, note this: while the photo shows round corners with a flat section in between, making it fairly easy to handle while tuning it, the design has silently been changed. The new Xythara has one big curve on the bottom, Paraguayan style, so it rolls around when held on the floor for tuning, and needs to be steadied with legs, feet, or whatever. Maybe Blevins wanted to sell more stands?
Liz, I noted that rosewood is used in this instrument. You can expect many to recommend some other make, the Harpsicle family in particular, for better sound quality and greater durability, for the amount you are willing to spend. If you do buy the one you linked to, you may want to restring it with some help from Laurie at Markwood Heavenly Strings, to get better quality nylon for clearer tone. Good luck.
That may be true, but nonetheless I do not recognize “Well I went to MIT” a valid counter for any argument by itself. The luthiers who could offer some substantial content in a discussion are too busy making harps — as they should be.
The levers on my Melody 26 make possible a glissando in whatever key I have set up. It’s nothing more than diatonic levered harp. As for the levered X harp, were all strings levered or only the diatonic course?
Hi Sherri,
Sharping levers on a X-harp? I never saw that; who is offering that option? Are you sure it was not a double harp you saw?
Some popular 5×7 harps are availble in 6×6 arrangement. To me, 6×6 is a niche with its own proponents. The advantage is the six keys will all feel the same to the hands, and so will the other six keys, so transposing is easy with minimal practice, while the disadvantage is that it is a whole new system not like the keyboard. or any diatonic scale system.
Aaron, as soon as I could get my first cross-strung harp to stay in tune, I went to work on Vince Guaraldi’s “Christmastime is Here”, the most chromatic tune I could think of. You’re right about the advantage to each kind of harp, and it really is necessary to have both levered and cross-strung if you want the optimal harp for each kind of music.
Thank you, Herb. I should have waited longer before sending a deposit in to Blevins Instruments for a new Xythara! What are you asking for it? How far from Boston are you, for shipping purposes?
I’ve restrung a couple of Mid-Easts with varying results. The Caitlin cross-strung is already under-designed in terns of soundboard strength, so a rescale by Markwood has shortened the soundboard’s life somewhat. The EMS roundbacks, on the other hand, I’ve rescaled twice because it’s built like a battleship. Most of your improvement would come from replacing lumpy strings with uniform ones.
The longer the string is, the more tension is required to bring it to a given pitch, so one solution would be to restring the harp to have lower range. The heavier a string is, also, the more tension is needed to attain pitch, so you could restring it with lighter strings, which Laurie at Markwood Heavenly Strings could help you with. With lower tension comes reduced energy capacity, so expect less volume capability from any thing you do to reduce tension. I don’t know what luthiers build good low-tension harps with thin spruce soundboards the way James Cox did in the 1980s but that would be a way of getting low tension with minimal sacrifice of volume of sound.
Good luck,
William WeberJerusha, have you considered Markwood Heavenly Strings and Cases? They list a case for your size of harp (36 to 38 strings) at $320 plus shipping. That must be an excellent dust cover, if a bit of overkill.
If the harp is small enough, it can fit the guitarist’s footprint. That would be a selling point for someone walking into a restaurant carrying an Esabel or a Xythara or other such chromatic. You do make a good point about range, though — the guitar is more compact for its low end.
