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In addition to the “bionylon” ones, there are also “biocarbon” / “fluorocarbon” ones like Sipario / Savarez Alliance (the latter of which at least claims to have gotten somewhat closer to gut in terms of density). Some of these options are supposed to be at least somewhat better than regular nylon both in terms of carbon footprint, and in terms of durability.
Again, no personal experience, and while I am guessing many professionals would continue to use the traditional gut, many of these strings are sold by reputable sellers, and probably it would be fine for your student to try them and see how it goes, if they are really opposed to using gut and / or regular nylon. On a pedal harp, maybe the regulation might need to be adjusted.
I’m sure there is a lot of marketing hype (and there are very strong opinions on all sides), but would be interesting to hear from people who have actually tried some of these options.
I’m a long-time vegetarian, though my wife / daughter aren’t. We use gut strings on my daughter’s harp. There are alternatives out there, but gut really has the traditional sound that people are used to.
While strings do last a long time, and while I’m sure other parts of the animal get used, I’m not sure it’s entirely true that they’re just byproducts of general animal farming, as the cows apparently have a special diet:
> Lyon & Healy sources its strings from a company in England that feeds its cows a special carrot-free diet (carotene stains their innards a very un-harp-like orange). It takes the small intestines of approximately 14 cows to string one harp.(from a Chicago Magazine story; having trouble posting with links in the article, so omitting the link here)
I was surprised that it took that many (this doesn’t even factor in the waste that may come from strings which don’t even make the cut for Burgundy).
W/r/t harps that use a French polish finish and hot hide glue, I’d say that’s probably less of concern for many vegetarians, just because they’re typically vintage and have already been bought sold at least once. While some vegetarians or vegans may eschew anything that came from an animal at any point, many are fine with buying things as long as they’re not directly creating demand and / or supporting industrial agriculture.
I have had some minor dilemmas when getting a new guitar made with older construction techniques, since lacquer, bone, and hide glue were all involved.
As with other instruments, I imagine the synthetic options are getting better (e.g., the Aoyama bio-nylon ones), and will continue to over time. For folks who are very strict / pure about it, maybe this option is worth a look
Video of Volker Kempf playing the Debussy dances on Thurau’s “Art Nouveau” concert harp (with Wiener Symphoniker)
Looks / sounds beautiful.
I did this recently (had a squeak on the F pedal from sharp to natural, as well as a slight noise on the D pedal at times), and had followed Steve Moss’s Youtube video as far as how to do it (I used the type of grease from McMaster he recommends on his video; hadn’t read Carl’s note about the oil at the time, though I have seen oil used for this in the past, and the logic makes sense; will consider that in the future). For what it’s worth, the grease “worked”, at least in terms of resolving the noises I was hearing in the short term.
By the way, regardless of the type of lubricant you use, that video, as well as Peter Wiley’s video on disconnecting / connecting pedal springs were both very useful to me in terms of the basic process.
