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SECOND broken string?!
Well I’ve had my beautiful Lyon & Healy Troubadour harp since last November, and haven’t been able to play it nearly as much as I hoped, for a variety of reasons too tedious to go into. Nonetheless, this morning I discovered a second, spontaneously broken string, D above whatever-the-C-below-middle-C is called; previously it was B-below-middle-C that broke. At a good $20 a pop, I need to figure out if I’m doing something wrong, because it seems to me that newish strings such as these, that haven’t been played very much, shouldn’t be breaking! BTW I tune very carefully, using an electronic tuner. Sigh…
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2 Replies
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I have had the same problem this year. One thing that helps is having your harp in a room that doesn’t have extreme moisture and changing temperatures. Also, gut strings are much more prone to breakage although they sound so much better than nylon strings — richer and fuller. However, some like the bright sound of nylon which doesn’t break nearly as often. It is definitely personal preference. The glue in the gut strings begins to loosen and the tension breaks them when they get changes which is the nature of gut strings. Also, always unsharpen your levers at the end of the day or playing is what I am told. it relieves excess tension on the strings and the sound board which inevitably bows a little over time. I was also told by Atlanta Harp that they had problems with BOW brand strings breaking and are now selling Premier strings because they have had better luck with them. Also, when you break a string and order new ones it is cheaper to order the skeleton set. i.e., string before and after in a set of three. You get a little break on cost. This advice has been shared with me by others when I had the same disappointments. Thank heavens all the strings aren’t $20. just that fifth octave. This year has been tough on strings for me too. Sorry you are experiencing this too. I hope this helps. These are just my opinions, and those others have shared with me. BTW, I also have a Dusty Strings FH34 (Nylon) and I haven’t broken a string in 4 years on it…. it is Nylon. I used to play it a lot. I got a Prelude a little over a year ago — My L & H Prelude 40 is gut from Octave 3 on is the one I break the strings on most. I have broken three all in octave 4 the C, E and F. I also have an FH26 by Dusty Strings and it has broken several strings and I rarely play it. I keep my harp room with a humidifier in the winter and some heat and in the spring and summer I try to keep the a/c going enough to keep things drier. I have no other thoughts since these harps are all different and I am getting different results. Go figure! Good luck to you!
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Really helpful, Sheila-san, thank you! I’ve been considering replacing the Troubadour’s gut strings with nylon, but I was worried that the harp wouldn’t “like” this change.🤔 I know that gut strings have the reputation for mellower sound, but I suspect that at my crude level of play ☹️, the difference won’t really signify. 🤷🏻♂️
-denis
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