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Hello Manon Thuillier,
I just read your question about your ‘pakiharp’, and I have a good answer for you. Yes, they can be improved, and I will tell you how and what I’ve done to make it happen.
As you may have understood, these harps are hardly real instruments, they are more like toys or nice exhibition objects because they look nice. I have come across a few of them on my path, and when people ask me if they should buy one I normally say; – no, it’s a waste of money.
But this summer I have experimentet on some of those harps and ended up with surprisingly good results. I have removed all the strings they come with and put on a whole new set of strings made of nylon fishing line in different millimeter-sizes.
I use good quality fishing line, they are soft, strong and give a sweet, sharp, nice sound, in addition to being very cheap. The string color is white/neutral and for the red and blue strings I use a marker. It works just fine. The sound gets radically enhanced. The result is far better than with the horrible strings they are sold with.
I have done this on pakiharps with 12 strings, 22 strings, 29 strings, and even on one with 36 strings! My experience is that the bigger models with 29 and 36 strings easily get twisted in the neck, partly perhaps because of the deep bow in the middle of it, and I don’t recommend bying any of those because of this trait. But I have done the stringing job on them for others.
But the smaller ones with 12, 19 and 22 strings keep their frame position well (in my experience this far), don’t get twisted, and make really ok beginner’s lap harps with the new strings of fishing line. They keep the tuning well, sound well, and bring a lot of joy in addition to being very beautiful and cheap!
There are different models and types of pakiharps, and some of them have levers that really don’t work at all. On one of them the levers wouldn’t move at all, they were stuck in one position, impossible to get up and down. Remarkable that they can sell products like that. I tried to repare them, but ended up removing them and painting over the marks on the neck to make it look nicer.
Levers are ok only if they will move, of course. And if they do, and they aren’t that precise when it comes to the tuning, one can ajust the string a little bit to make the string in tune. But playing a 22-stringed lap harp without levers isn’t a bad thing, I’m used to it and find other ways of getting modes and scales.
Another thing is that when I put new strings on them, I start the lowest string on G, instead of C. This way I get good base chords for the playing, which I really like and prefer. A 22-stringed harp tuned from G to G is perfect, in my view. I’ll rather have that than tuning from C to C.
As a matter of fact, I am very satisfied with my experience whith these stringing jobs, so much that now I even recomment buying one (the three smaller models, on condition of me exchanging the strings on them), for newbeginners who don’t have much money and don’t even know if they will be good players, who just want to try it out. For about 300,- dollars/euro’s/pounds you can get an ok 22-stringed pakiharp that with new fishing line strings will potentially bring a lot of joy.
I just helped a friend, who has no musical skills whatsoever and works in kindergarden, to get a 12-stringed pakiharp. I put on new strings that I tuned pentatonic for her. She doesn’t intend to be a good harp player, she just needs this tiny instrument to sooth a disabled child she works with. And she loves it!
Manon, it’s been a year since you wrote your question and I don’t know if you still have your pakiharp. But if you do, and if you would be interested in my assistance on how to replace the strings and perhaps make your harp playable, – I would like to help you with it. You can send me a private message and we can exchange contact information on how to talk on skype or messenger (I live in Europe).
And if there are others reading this who would like to have my help in this regard, just send me a private message. An unplayed pakiharp standing alone in a corner is an unhappy harp. It needs a little TLC, and ‘voila!’ – perhaps it may blossom and bless it’s frustrated owner for the first time!
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