My Harp Has a Buzz

At sometime or another you may play a string and hear a buzzing sound coming from your harp. Many times the buzz may be heard when you play only a certain string. The buzz is probably caused by something on the harp being loose or by two parts that are barely touching and which vibrate when you play a certain frequency. Sometimes the buzzing sounds like it's coming from the harp when it is actually something vibrating in the room. Before trying anything else, take your harp into another room and see if you can still hear the buzz. If you have established that the buzz is coming from your harp, you will need to find out what is causing the problem and take care of it. A buzz can be hard to pin down and sometimes the spot where you think the buzz sounds the loudest may not be the area that is actually causing the problem.

Ninety percent of the time a buzz comes from the knot tied in one of the strings that is resting on the midrib brace inside of the soundbox. A loop in the knot or the end of the string can touch the wood of the midrib and rattle against the soundboard. Now which knot is it? Who knows? What you need to do is reach into the access hole of your harp, grab each knot, pull and bend the loop of the knot and the end of the string away from the midrib, making sure they don't touch. Repeat this with each knot, even those that look just fine. The wrapped metal bass strings won't have a knot but will have a metal ball or button. Grab the ball and wiggle it with a little twist. This will help to seat it firmly against the midrib. Play the strings that activated the buzz and see if the buzz is gone. If it is still there, repeat the same procedure again but this time add a little quarter twist to each knot. Check to see if the buzz is gone.

If the buzz persists, check the sharping levers next. Play the buzzing string with one hand and with the other hand grab each sharping lever one at a time with a squeezing motion holding the whole lever firmly. Touch the screw that holds it to the neck of the harp. If the buzzing stops, the problem is that sharping lever. It could be a loose nut or screw. Tighten them. If the lever has a rivet, take pliers and squeeze the rivet tighter. In some cases the sharping lever may need to be replaced. For more information on levers, see Tuning A Lever and More on Sharping Levers.

If the buzz is not a sharping lever, check the connection of the pillar and neck to the soundbox. Many harps are joined at this place with a screw, bolt, nut and washer. These may need tightening. If that joint is tight, the next thing to do is to take your hand and firmly hold every possible part of the harp; the feet, legs, back, shoulder, base, sides, everything. There may be a crack or a loose brace that is vibrating. If you hold that part firmly and it stops buzzing you have found the culprit. Depending upon the severity of the problem, you may need a repair person at this point.

Sometimes a wrapped string may be defective and have a vibration in itself. Before you change the string thinking that the string is bad, tune the string next to it to the same pitch as the string that has the buzz (Example: If the F string buzzes, tune the G string to an F and play it.) If the G string, which is now tuned to F, also buzzes, it's not the F string that is bad, it's something else in the harp. (If this is the case, go back to the procedures in the above paragraphs and keep looking.) If it doesn't buzz like the original F string, it might be a bad F string. Change it!

One final note: occasionally, the problem is not the harp but the harper. A harp which is being overplayed will buzz like a hive of honeybees. Different harps are built for different touch and technique. I once watched while a well known, professional harper played one of my more lightly strung harps so hard that the strings were actually pulled off the sharping levers! Do not purchase a harp which is too light for your playing style. Harp strings are not bowstrings! A harp must suit you in both tone and touch to be the right match. If you are playing on a friend's more lightly strung harp then, it is you who must adjust. Harps are built to have a nature of their own and none can be other than themselves.

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