Tightening the New String When Changing Harp Strings

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Jesse Sparhawk on behalf of Expert Village. I can be reached at myspace.com/jessesparhawk. This is the final segment of harp string replacement. You want to pull this string back just slightly, maybe three strings, maybe less, just to make sure that you enough wraps as you tune the string on around the bridge pin, so that you have a good fit. The next thing that you want to do is start turning the tuning peg with the tuning key, as you can see back here. Start turning it and you have slack, so that you are actually going to create several wraps. Now when you get it to this point, even just a half turn or a quarter turn, you want to feed the rest or the slack of the string, behind the part that you have begun to tune, because that will lock the string around the tuning peg. So I have got that slack, I am just going to let go for the moment. Put this string end behind, as you can see it’s behind the string. Try to reach the end. This is basically so that as you are tuning now, as you continue to turn the key, it’s going to wrap around itself and lock. You want to pull that top, pull that part top. Continue to turn so you have the slack. The next step is to just continue to turn the string. Now make sure with every consecutive turn of the pin that the wraps are going behind and not out. That way you are wrapping the string so that it is coiling towards the neck of the harp rather than away, because if you begin to coil the string away from the harp it will just slip right of the end of this pin. We have got the string locked. Now we are ready to tune and gently stretch the string. We are leaving that slack. It will get in your way, you might want to put it behind and loop it through a few neck pins or tuning pins so it is just out of the way or it will come back. You will hear that sound if you haven’t tightened the bridge pin completely. So we have got the B string tight on the end pin and we are bringing it up to tune very slowly with the B that is an octave down. It will take some doing and some stretching, but once you have got in tune, you’ve just replaced a harp string."