I'm SO glad you like it! Actually, the idea came to me from a post you made here several months back. The search feature is failing me, but you did a fairly detailed cataloging of your harps and mentioned the Witcher and it's thuddy bottom string.
I have an Argent Fox 26. The lowest string is the B below the C an octave below middle C. I NEVER used that note, but found that in A minor pieces it came in really handy to lower that one string by one whole tone to get the A. And in G or D Major pieces, lowering it another whole tone to the G was just what the tune needed. But I didn't like the thuddy sound I got from it. For the last several years, I've been hearing about the experiments that a couple of very serious wire-strung harpers had been doing with soft, heavy metals... which also happen to be the precious metals. Last summer, I attended the Ohio Scottish Arts School (http://www.ohioscottishartsschool.org/harp.htm) where Ann Heymann (http://www.clarsach.net/Ann_Heymann/biography.htm) and I tried a little experiment by swapping out that lowest brass string for a "Screaming-Hard Silver" string. The sound was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!
When Gwen made mention of her thuddy string, I couldn't get the improvement Ann had made in my harp out of my mind. I actually bugged Gwen about it before I knew I was coming to England. I was hoping the silver would arrive before I left, but by my last night in England, I'd given up, so I spilled the beans. Gwen was playing the Witcher (quite beautifully, I might add) and I was showing J a spreadsheet that I've put together. I'd measured all the strings on Gwen's harp the previous weekend.
Here comes the neepey bit. Sorry if it makes your eyes glaze over. Feel free to skip ahead if need be.
So I've been fooling with this spreadsheet for a while now. I've measuered some Ardivals, Argent Foxes, Hobroughs, Triplett's and now a Witcher. I've come up with some interesting results.
First some definitions: "Tension" is the pull on a string. "Stress" is the pull on a string divided by the cross-sectional area of the string... in other words, the amount of pull shared among the molecules that make up the string. "Ultimate Tensile Strength" (UTS) is the stress at which the string breaks. It's constant no matter how large the wire is, because if you make it fatter, it gets stronger and takes more tension to break it, but that tension is spread over a larger cross-sectional area, so your stress is back where you started, more tension divided by more area makes the same stress.
A string's note is inversely proportional to the tension... looser strings are lower. The string's note is inversely proportional to the diameter (actually, mass per length, the linear density) ... fatter strings are lower. A string's note is proportional to its length ... longer strings are lower. Here's where it gets interesting: If you change a string on a harp to a larger diameter, it takes more tension to get back to the same note. The stress hasn't changed.
OK, I've made some interesting correlations with this spreadsheet, even if I don't fully have the theory worked out, yet. Here's the most interesting one. Harp string sound thuddy if the stress is less than about 30% of the UTS. I dunno why, but they all seem to behave that way. But putting on a larger string of the same material doesn't change the stress, so it still sounds thuddy. What you need is a material with a higher linear density (heavier material) and a lower UTS (softer material).
(OK, those of you who skipped the neepery can join back in now)
And I was just at this point of explaining this little quirk of physics to J when I turned to Gwen and said...
"Something like the Sterling Silver string I've ordered for you that hasn't arrived yet would be perfect."
Gwen's face about exploded as she yelled at me "You did WHAT?????"
After convincing her it wasn't really THAT expensive and that she could consider it an experiment and take it off if she didn't like it, she calmed down a bit.
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branchandroot
Neep Alert!
Date: 2006-03-28 06:34 am (UTC)I have an Argent Fox 26. The lowest string is the B below the C an octave below middle C. I NEVER used that note, but found that in A minor pieces it came in really handy to lower that one string by one whole tone to get the A. And in G or D Major pieces, lowering it another whole tone to the G was just what the tune needed. But I didn't like the thuddy sound I got from it. For the last several years, I've been hearing about the experiments that a couple of very serious wire-strung harpers had been doing with soft, heavy metals... which also happen to be the precious metals. Last summer, I attended the Ohio Scottish Arts School (http://www.ohioscottishartsschool.org/harp.htm) where Ann Heymann (http://www.clarsach.net/Ann_Heymann/biography.htm) and I tried a little experiment by swapping out that lowest brass string for a "Screaming-Hard Silver" string. The sound was BEAUTIFUL!!!!!!!!
When Gwen made mention of her thuddy string, I couldn't get the improvement Ann had made in my harp out of my mind. I actually bugged Gwen about it before I knew I was coming to England. I was hoping the silver would arrive before I left, but by my last night in England, I'd given up, so I spilled the beans. Gwen was playing the Witcher (quite beautifully, I might add) and I was showing J a spreadsheet that I've put together. I'd measured all the strings on Gwen's harp the previous weekend.
Here comes the neepey bit. Sorry if it makes your eyes glaze over. Feel free to skip ahead if need be.
So I've been fooling with this spreadsheet for a while now. I've measuered some Ardivals, Argent Foxes, Hobroughs, Triplett's and now a Witcher. I've come up with some interesting results.
First some definitions: "Tension" is the pull on a string. "Stress" is the pull on a string divided by the cross-sectional area of the string... in other words, the amount of pull shared among the molecules that make up the string. "Ultimate Tensile Strength" (UTS) is the stress at which the string breaks. It's constant no matter how large the wire is, because if you make it fatter, it gets stronger and takes more tension to break it, but that tension is spread over a larger cross-sectional area, so your stress is back where you started, more tension divided by more area makes the same stress.
A string's note is inversely proportional to the tension... looser strings are lower. The string's note is inversely proportional to the diameter (actually, mass per length, the linear density) ... fatter strings are lower. A string's note is proportional to its length ... longer strings are lower. Here's where it gets interesting: If you change a string on a harp to a larger diameter, it takes more tension to get back to the same note. The stress hasn't changed.
OK, I've made some interesting correlations with this spreadsheet, even if I don't fully have the theory worked out, yet. Here's the most interesting one. Harp string sound thuddy if the stress is less than about 30% of the UTS. I dunno why, but they all seem to behave that way. But putting on a larger string of the same material doesn't change the stress, so it still sounds thuddy. What you need is a material with a higher linear density (heavier material) and a lower UTS (softer material).
(OK, those of you who skipped the neepery can join back in now)
And I was just at this point of explaining this little quirk of physics to J when I turned to Gwen and said...
"Something like the Sterling Silver string I've ordered for you that hasn't arrived yet would be perfect."
Gwen's face about exploded as she yelled at me "You did WHAT?????"
After convincing her it wasn't really THAT expensive and that she could consider it an experiment and take it off if she didn't like it, she calmed down a bit.
I'm SO glad the experiment worked :)