With thousands of moving parts, lots can go wrong on a pedal harp. But here are five things you can make right!

There is plenty to love about the harp. Clearly we’re all on in agreement here, otherwise we wouldn’t be playing the harp, or reading a harp magazine, for that matter! On occasion, though, things go haywire on your harp. That’s when we pick up the phone and make a panicked plea to our nearby harp technician to come fix the problem. But not every problem requires a house call from the harp tech. Here are five things all harpists should be able to fix on their instruments (according to our trusted harp techs).

Squeaky Tuning Pins

Ever turn the tuning pin for one of your base wires only to hear what sounds like a mouse hiding in the neck of your harp? Squeaky base pins are something every harpist should know how to cure, says “Harp Doc” Peter Wiley because, “It’s so simple to fix.”

If you have a squeaky pin, Wiley says you just need a couple of household items to fix it—Vaseline and a pointy tool to apply the Vaseline, such as a wire or kitchen skewer.

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Wiley gives this easy four-step process to silence the squeak. First you need to lower the pitch of the string with the squeaky pin, turning it a quarter revolution or enough to pull the string out of the nut. Once the string is out, apply a little Vaseline to the end of your pointy tool and dab it into the groove of the nut where the string hits it, as well as onto the base wire where it hits the nut. Put the string back in the groove and tune it back up to pitch. Wipe away the excess Vaseline with a Q-tip, and the squeak should be gone.
Wiley said this process almost always clears up squeaky pins, but if it doesn’t there might be a deeper issue causing it that your technician will be able to handle.

See it in action:

Changing a Broken String

No really, we’re serious. Changing a string may seem elementary, but harp technician and professional harpist Karen Gottlieb says she is amazed how many harpists don’t do it properly and have problems with their harps as a result. “People don’t realize how important correct string changing is,” she says. And just for the record, Gottlieb wasn’t the only tech to bring up string changing as an area where we harpists could use some work.

So let’s go through some of the common mistakes harpists make and how you can avoid them.

Clean tuning pins: Before you put on the new string, Gottlieb recommends taking out the tuning pin and cleaning it with a dry cloth. This will help avoid the gunky buildup on the tuning pin that can cause it to slip in the neck. You can push in toward the neck as you pull it up to pitch to make sure the pin holds snug.

Point of entry: “You wouldn’t believe how many harpists call me after unsuccessfully trying to change a string for three hours, and their only mistake was that they didn’t put the string through the sound board before they tied the knot.” Especially in the first two octaves, it can be maddening to try to thread the string up through that tiny hole in the soundboard, all the while holding onto your toggle and knot. Thread the string down through the soundboard first, tie knot second. Problem solved.

[pullquote]Tip: Practice tying your knots with string licorice. It’s very flexible and every time you have a successful knot, you can bite it off and eat it and tie another one. You can get five or six knots out of one licorice string.[/pullquote] Knots: “In the first two octaves, I recommend people do a second slip knot on the toggle end of the string so there is no chance it could pull out when you tune up the string. I call this the “bunny and the buddy” method.

Wire strings: A base wire doesn’t stretch, so you have to give it enough slack. “I always say you should pull the string up an octave plus two (strings) so you have enough wraps around the tuning peg. If you pull it up much more than that, you’ll have too many wraps, and it puts a huge torque on the string when it goes over the stationary nut at the top. It really isn’t a good thing for your harp’s neck. It also makes the string lie at a certain angle in the groove of the stationary nut, which can cause a vibration,” Gottlieb says.

Toggles: A toggle is just the name for whatever straight device you use to keep the knot from slipping through the soundboard. Toggles can be many different materials, but are most often gut string ends. “The biggest source of buzzes I find is string ends touching each other inside the sounding board,” Gottlieb notes. Make sure your toggles are lined up parallel to the floor not perpendicular. When the string ends are perpendicular, they can touch each other and create buzzes.

See it in action:

http://youtu.be/kSucNP_WjYQ

Changing a Broken Disc

Venus Harps technician Kurt Berg says that being able to change a broken disc is a skill all harpists should have in their arsenal. Berg breaks down disc changing in this easy-to-follow guide:

“If a disc pin has broken, first move the string out if the way. Then, using a flat head screwdriver, remove the screw from the disc. The disc can now be removed by turning the disc clockwise. It can be replaced with a new disc by turning the disc onto the spindle counterclockwise. Then the screw can be replaced in the middle of the disc. To set the proper grip, try to match the angle of the disc pins with the discs on either side of the new disc. Now the string can be placed back on the nut. Engage the pedal to check if the amount of grip is sufficient. If there is too much grip, the disc can be turned slightly clockwise with the screwdriver until the grip is correct. If there isn’t enough grip, the disc needs to be turned counterclockwise and the screw tightened again.”

You should be able to order replacement discs from your harp’s manufacturer.

Fixing a Camac Disc

Changing a broken disc on a Camac harp is slightly different, so we asked Mike Lewis to give us a step-by-step guide to changing a Camac disc.

Step 1: Lower the pitch and string tension by rotating the tuning pin about a quarter turn.

Step 2: Move the string out of the way of the disc by lifting it off of the string post.

Step 3: For natural discs loosen the set screw counter clockwise by four revolutions. For sharp discs loosen the set screw clockwise by four revolutions.

Step 4: With your screw driver in the slot of the set screw gentle tap the set screw. Repeat the tapping and gently increase the force used until you can move the disc freely and independently from the axle. (See the technical drawing if you need to understand why this works.) (Please note: You may not have to tap at all or you may have to give a sharp blow to the back of your screwdriver. The axle/disc will make a popping sound upon separation. See my video at harpcolumn.com for details.)

Step 5: With your free hand remove the disc and screw as one piece, if possible. This will help assure that neither the disc nor the screw will drop onto your harp. I never have the drop-sees. Please see the video.

Step 6: Separate the screw from the old disc and set aside for use with the new disc.

Step 7: Place the new disc on the now empty axle. Please hold the disc in place with one hand. With the other hand place the screw in the center of the disc and begin screwing clockwise if it is for a natural disc or counter clockwise if it is for a sharp disc.

Step 8: Do not tighten the screw all the way down until you have your disc in the desired position. I like to put the harp in flat and then roughly match the angle of the disc pins to the angle of the adjacent discs pins in the flat position. (Please make sure you are comparing natural discs to natural discs and sharp discs to sharp discs as the sharp and natural discs on a Camac move in opposite directions and therefore have very different angles in flat.)

Step 9: Place the string back on string post.

Step 10: Slowly engage the pedal for the disc you just changed. If you don’t have enough grip or too much grip, repeat steps 1–4 and step 8–10, until you have the disc at the correct angle.

See it in action:

http://youtu.be/1l8gRSLR2OQ

Broken Pedal Spring

You flip your F pedal up, but nothing happens. You try again, but this time it moves very slowly and seems to get stuck before it’s all the way up.

What’s going on? Chances are you’ve got a problem with your pedal spring.

Why is it important for a harpist to be able to fix a broken spring? “Because, while you could manually move the pedal up and down with your foot, it can be fixed fairly quickly thus saving your gig and your foot,” says certified harp technician Jason Azem.

So, what do you do if you think you may have a pedal spring problem? Azem says first you need to lay the harp down on a padded surface, take a look underneath, and diagnose whether the spring is broken or it has just come loose. “If you can see that it is either loose or broken, you’ll need to position the harp so the baseboard is not resting on the ground and is free to be taken off. You can elevate it on a mattress or table,” he says. “I prefer to have the harp sitting column down and body up. You can do this with two armless chairs positioned on either side of the harp—these will support the soundboard. The top of the column will rest on the ground with a pillow or another cushion underneath it.”

Once the harp is positioned, you are ready to go to work. Azem explains the process: “You will need some eye protection, a tuning key, some grease (bike grease with Teflon will do) and a pair of parallel jaw pliers. A pair of gloves might be useful if you’re worried about your hands. Springs are specific to the right or left side of the harp, (so make sure you have the correct spring). Springs have two ends, one fits into the pedal bar and the other in the spring stud. The notched end will go into the spring stud and the smooth end into the pedal bar. Loosen the base bolts holding the base to the body of your harp with the tuning key and remove the base. Remove the broken spring. Apply a small amount of grease onto the smooth end of the spring and insert it into the hole in the pedal bar. Put a little grease onto the notch of the spring. Now comes the moment of truth. Grab the spring with the pliers where the spring bend makes an L, making sure to leave room for the notch to go into the spring stud hole. It takes a fair amount of pressure to compress the spring enough to get the notched end into the hole in the spring stud, so don’t be shy. You may want to use the palm of your other hand to help push and guide. Push the end of the spring inward toward the spring stud and into the hole. Make sure it goes in far enough that the notch catches in the spring stud hole. Now relax, the hard part is over. Apply some more grease to the coils of the spring.  Try to place the pedals back into position as well as possible and put the base back on. There are small metal pegs on the base that line up with holes in the body. Screw the base back on being careful not to overtighten them. Stand your harp back up and resume harping!”

This process might sound like brain surgery if you aren’t looking at the open base of a harp while you’re reading. But tear out this page and stick it in your gig bag so you’ll have it the next time a spring breaks. You’ll be glad you have a guide to walk you through it! •