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04/01/07
Okay. I've gotten a lot of questions about the individual parts of the harp. It appears that, like my Baldwin, these instruments are usually bought with a number of parts missing or broken. Before I go on I need to say that I don't sell parts and I have no idea where to get parts (outside the rare eBay auction). If you do know where to get anything for the harp please let me know and I'll get that info out to everyone.
Please note, this page will be ongoing. I'll try to get more images up with measurements. If you have specific request or photos you'd like to add please email me via the contact page.
I'm going to start off with a 'schematic' of the wiring diagram for the harpsichord. It's not really a schematic but, honestly, the electronics are so simple that this diagram will make it all clear. The one thing the diagram doesn't show is what the pots on the volume pedals are rated at.
Groovy image eh? Well let me show a few of parts. If I label these incorrectly please let me know!
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| Here is one of the thumb screws that the music stand slides under. |
Notice that rounded edge, that's what keep the screw high enough for the stand. |
Tuning Nut or Bridge Nut. Seems that, like my nuts, most people's nuts are rusty...no pun intended. |
From this view you can see how fine the threads are. It appears that the female portion of this part is simply an unthreaded plastic guide hole. It fits snug around the Bridge Nut. That snug fit and the very fine threads mean you have great control when tuning each string. |
If anyone has any great ideas for removing rust from the various parts of the harp let me know. There are a bunch of people who are interested in that knowledge. If there's some magical 'as seen on TV' product that will remove grease from steel I'd be keen to find out about it. Also, if anyone sees thumb screws like the one pictured I'd like to know. I only have one, I want several more.
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| The Tongue and Damper. |
The Tongue close up. You can clearly see the Plectrum and how fragile it is. The damper appears to be a regular peice of piano felt that's just squished between a couple of copper holders. |
This shot shows the screw that allows you to adjust the strike angle of the Plectrum. When the screw is driven inward the plectrucm moves backward. When it's unscrewed the plectrum should move forward*. |
Another view of the parts of the Tongue, Plectrum and Damper assembly. |
*It should be noted that in addition to the fragile plectrum there's a second extremely fragile peice of plastic on the tongue to watch out for. On the back side of the assembly is a small arched piece of plastic and I beleive its job is to push the plectrum forward. But it seems that over the years this critical peice of plastic can lose its tension. This is bad because then the plectrum isn't pushed far enough forward to strike the string with any force. You can swap them around to find which plectrucm hit which strings the best. That's the best quick fix solution.
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| In this image you can see that the plectrum can be removed and replace. What you see here is the backside of the Tongue and the slot that the plectrum slides into. I haven't tried it yet since I worry about breaking the assembly, and I haven't needed to (My plectra are all intact). It looks like you could take a very thin guitar pick and an exacto knife and cut a new plectrum. Probably delecate work but it's par for the course on old gear like this. |
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| This is the damper pedal. It attaches to the right front leg and has a stiff wire that runs up the leg and attaches to the damper assembly. When you push it down you get a nice sticatto sound. I hope to replace the damper felt because it's all warn down and doesn't dampen the bass strings very well. |
This is how the rear leg attaches to the harp body. At some point some parts were lost on my harp and now the holes on the rear leg are nearly destroyed from being attached improperly. |
Stereo output jack on the main metal truss on the bottom of the harp. |
Bottom of 1/2 of the key bed. |
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| View of the inside of the pickup selector or preamp. |
Another shot of it. Now that I understand what it does and how it works I'm still somewhat confused by why it does what it does to the sound in some settings. It's versetile but weird. Color me stupid but before I had that schematic I had no idea there were 4 pickups in this thing! |
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| All lined up in a row looking cool. Notice my one busted string... |
More On The Way!!!
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