Harrington Harp Just Re-strung With Sugar Strings

I hesitated for a long time ordering an Irish-made harp. A big obstacle for me was the fact that carbon fibre strings don’t agree with my fingers (I previously described this in my blog). Most Irish made “neo-celtic” harps are strung with Savarez carbon strings nowadays, whereas many German harp makers have more variation in their stringing (tynex, gut, silkgut, biocarbon, savarez & kuerschner carbon).

Last year I ordered a harp from Kevin Harrington, harp maker based in Cork, knowing I might have to change the strings, but half fooling myself “maybe I’ll get away with it this time”. I found his harps very convincing, near the ear as much as listening to it at the back of the hall (someone elso playing it obviously 😉 ). Well made, and ergonomic, and a well balanced sound, very responsive and alive. Something to play “Irish dance music” on.

After 2 weeks with my wonderful new instrument I had to admit: Carbon strings still don’t agree with my fingers. In the meantime, I even had an exchange with a colleague who had encountered the same problem – sore fingers. The more you play, the worse it gets. It has to be a matter of skin type, because other colleagues I questioned about this topic had no issue at all! I must add that carbon strings respond so well, they’re so “easy to play”, without effort, that I was sad having to admit that I needed to change…

And I did some research in my old notes: It didn’t matter whether the strings were made by Savarez (rougher surface) or Kuerschner (smoother surface). I had already tried Kuerschner Carbon on my big chromatic harp many years ago (2010?).

So, what to do? My first tendency would have been to change to nylon strings. But then I had a very enlightening email exchange with Karsten Stielow (https://harfenbau-stielow.de/), harp string expert on a scientific level. He was very helpful and generous, and I trust his expertise. So I decided on biocarbon (“sugar” strings), and asked Karsten to calculate the exact gauges for me. As he was very busy (and I couldn’t wait), I started calculating myself (without the science behind it). When Karsten’s string chart arrived in my inbox two days ago, I was very excited, and pleased – my own figures had been extremely close to his calculations! But now I had the certainty that these were the correct figures to achieve the same tension.  Even more convenient was the fact that I found nearly all the exact gauges in my sugar string collection. Only in 3 cases did I go for a “near enough” gauge, until I get around to order the new strings from Aquila. I keep track of every move and change – Do you keep a string journal? I certainly do, since 2017!

Sugar strings – compared to nylon: They are “squeakier” (on my fingers). But I’ll counteract that with organic non-greasy hand cream. Their gauges are nearer to the original carbon strings, thus nearer to the feel and sound, and might match the levers better (they do). So far the verdict is that the intonation isn’t that crazy off (which I had feared), it should be an easy fix. I’ll do a job on the intonation as soon as “Harry” keeps the tuning with the new strings.

Carbon strings are stretchy, and so are Sugar strings. When putting them on, I tend to re-wind them the next day, to have less windings on the tuning peg. There is no harm having the string describing a slight angle (change of “direction”) above the bridge pin – it pulls the tuning peg tight. But too much of an angle puts sideways pressure onto the string, which probably compromises its durability. Moreover, it seems to be counterproductive once the lever gets engaged. I follow my “gut” feeling here (excuse the pun). Sugar strings aren’t slipping at all, which is a big plus.

In the picture below one can see one white string with many windings, put up the traditional way, describing a visible angle (compared to the other strings).

In this particular case, the string hole of the tuning peg is more on “the inside” (nearer to the neck) than the groove of the bridge pin. Therefore I decided to wind up my strings “the wrong way” – winding outwards, to achieve alignment of string hole and groove. One just needs to get the amount of windings right, and the string won’t slip over the edge!

tbc.