When Your New Harp Arrives

When your new harp arrives, it is important that its first few moments and weeks with you be just right. You will be setting the tone, so to speak, of your relationship. The most important thing to know is that which might cause actual damage to an instrument. If you receive your harp on a cold winter day, when the temperatures are in the 30's or less, do not open the harp box right away. (I know, this waiting part is really hard.) Your harp has probably been traveling in a freezing delivery truck for several days and the quick change in temperature, to the warmth of your home, may damage the instrument. Bring the cold boxed harp inside and leave it unopened until the exterior of the box feel like it is near room temperature. Next, open the box but do not take the harp out of the packing material. It is sometimes helpful to reach into the packing material and loosen it so that warm air can seep in to the instrument. Again, let everything sit in the room for a couple of hours so that it may warm up slowly to room temperature. Do not put the harp near a fireplace, wood stove or heater vent. Not only is heat damaging to your new harp, it is not advisable for any harp. Once your harp has been allowed to take the chill off, you can remove it from the box and packing and begin to enjoy it.

The first thing you will notice once you have the harp in your hands is that it is out of tune. Go ahead and tune the harp (see Tuning A Harp). If the harp has only recently been made, you will find that it will quickly go out of tune. This is normal. The strings are new and need to be stretched. Also, it will take time for the soundboard to "belly-up". This means that when the string pressure pulls on the soundboard it pulls the wood up into a little hump, which is good. When the soundboard comes up into the belly-up position the strings will go flat again because the distance between the soundboard and the tuning pin has been shortened, slackening the strings. Keep tuning the harp two or three times a day if you can. The more you tune it up the faster the strings will stretch to their stable point and the faster the soundboard will belly-up and stabilize. You will find that within a week the harp should start staying in tune longer. In a few weeks the harp may stay in tune for a week before needing tuning again. Once your harp is stable you will find that tunings may be weeks and sometimes months apart.

While you are tuning your harp for the first weeks you will find that the longer strings, in the lower half of the soundboard, will go out of tune faster than the shorter strings. This is standard because the longer strings are thicker and require more stretching and the soundboard will belly-up more in the lower half. If your harp was purchased from a store it may have been sitting on the showroom floor for months or years, being tuned by the store employees before you bought it. In this case the harp has already been stabilized and should stay in tune. If you leave your harp in a room where it gets warm in the day and changes to cold in the night, or the humidity changes due to storms, etc. you will find that you have to tune more frequently. The more stable the environment the more stable and long lasting a tuning (see Hot, Cold, Wet, Dry).

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