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Old 10-21-2017, 04:46 AM
philjs philjs is offline
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Location: Halifax, NS, Canada
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Carbonius View Post
That's a good idea. I forgot that the string doesn't have to be in a straight line all the way from the tuner the saddle. I'm very new to the harp guitar realm but I've certainly seen many of them that have a post to the left of the tuner.

Since the Timberline wasn't designed to have posts, Would the harp side headstock be able to handle that much lateral pressure? I don't know how many pounds of tension are on a harp string, but I would be concerned about splitting the headstock if the post has a lot of pressure on it. I see the prototype Timberline that Jamie is playing in the video I linked does have the string at quite an angle around the post. However there also seems to be some buildup of wood in that area. Definitely need the expertise of a good luthier on the installation.
I'm new to the harp guitar, too, but have lots of experience with harps (my wife is a harper). The basic thing to know is that ALL sharping levers need a nut post, otherwise the lever will just push the string down the tuner. The post itself is literally just a nut so there is no pressure involved. If the head is solid wood then it's just a 3mm (1/8") or so diameter screw-in hex post with a groove near the top.

In the harp photo below the tuners are at the top with the string wound around them (harps traditionally use a tapered fit tuning pin), the nut pins are between the tuners and the sharping lever. The nut pins have a groove that keeps the string from "traveling" up and down the tuner when the lever forces the string up or down.



So the nut pin literally acts as a nut, meaning that the scale length of the string is from the saddle to the nut pin, not to the tuner. The sharping lever is pretty much a moveable "fret" that is critically placed to shorten the scale length of the string (which is why they have slots for mounting) to the desired pitch AND provides a solid connection to the string so the string sustain is not impeded. Note, too, how close the pins and the lever are to the tuners in the photo...

Hope this helps, eh? (<-- blatant Canadianism only understood by other Canadians)

Phil
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