Problems with strings 

1. Pitting at the disc contact area (see Figure 1)

Most harpists tune with the natural discs engaged. This means that the flat pitch will not be in tune when the string hangs up in this pitted area and stretches out in a non-uniform manner. For your added annoyance, this pitting and the resulting non-uniform stretching causes the pitch to vary (generally flatter and flatter and flatter) as you play loud passages.

2. Thinning at the finger contact area (see Figure 2)
The parts of the strings that you play the most are, as you might imagine, the parts of the strings that wear most quickly. As the strings wear away and become thinner in these areas, they will not sound as true or clear as new, uniformly constructed strings. Thinning strings also present regulation problems. Harps are regulated to the mass and diameter of the strings, so if your harp is regulated to a thinning string and you change that string a month later, your regulation will be out of whack.

3. Hairy or frayed strings (see Figure 3)
Once your strings start fraying or looking hairy, they'll start sounding that way. While you can clip the hairy areas, I recommend just changing the string.

4. False strings (see Figures 4 and 5)
Each note you play contains many "overtones." Each overtone is above (or over) what we techies call the "fundamental." The fundamental determines the name of the note, for example "5th octave C." The overtones add life and character to the sound of the note. But, when the overtones are out of tune with the fundamental or with each other - which is what happens when the string goes false - life and character quickly turn into chaos and cacophony.

Want to see if a bizarre-sounding string is false and provide your friends and family with hours of fun and entertainment? Place hour harp in front of your TV set, turn the TV on to any channel, and dim the lights. Now pay that 5th octave C string and, looking directly at the string with the TV in the background, watch how it moves! Pretty cool, huh? If your string moves in a uniform sine pattern (see fig. 5), it's in good shape. However, if it moves around in a jumpy, jagged way, it's false.

5. Old strings
"My 4th and 5th octave strings have been on my harp for five years, I think, or maybe eight." In terms of harp string life expectancy, five years is ancient!
The minute you purchase strings, their life expectancy clock begins ticking. Harp strings, like food, have a shelf life. In my humble opinion, the shelf life for strings is one year for gut, five years for nylon, one year for wires. Even well packaged strings dry out, rust, lose their resiliency, and, as a result, lose the tonal qualities gained by replacing an old string with a new one.
"Once they're on my harp, how long will the strings last?" Until one of these six string diseases gets to them. "How long is that?" Until one of these six string diseases gets to them. If you play your harp with any regularity, the strings will generally succumb to one of the other five diseases before they succumb to age (the only exception being bass wires).

6. Broken or dead strings
I know harpists who believe that if it ain't broke, you don't fix it. Their strings are like old friends; they never really notice them growing old or see their faults. You need to take a new look at an old friend! These friends have a way of letting you know at the worst possible time. When a string has succumbed to one of the diseases listed above - change it!
I encourage every harpist to keep a string log. This log should include the date you received a new string, the date you placed the string on the harp, the reason for placing string on the harp (i.e., which disease killed the previous string), and the type of string (gut, nylon, or bass wire). This way, you know exactly when each string was replaced, and you and your technician can identify any string breakage patterns.

Do new, unused harp strings deteriorate in storage? How should I store them, and what is their shelf life?

I don't know how long strings remain good in the package. I do know that somewhere between being manufactured and turning to dust there is a legitimate point of saying they are useless.

Recently, I was working for a well-known harpist (name withheld to protect the guilty). She had restrung her harp's top two octaves with some old new strings. How old? Some of the string packages were from Vanderbilt Music with a New York address. The strings were dull and brittle sounding or false. Her restringing job was wasted effort.

My guess is that gut strings will maintain their maximum value for one year. After two years, pass them on to students, and retire them at five years. Bass wires have about two years maximum value; four years -- pass on to students; retire at seven to eight years or sooner. Nylon, plastic, or composite strings -- three to four years max, with pass-on to students after that; retire at seven to eight years.

So what can you do with strings that would not satisfy my standard but you do not want to pass on to students? Keep them in your gig bag as backup strings or place them on your "picnic harp." Use the backup to get you through the gig, leaving a long tail to remind you that you need to replace it and order a new one or take one out of your Fresh String Reserve.

What is a Fresh String Reserve? It is a new set of strings you keep somewhere away from sunlight, heat and moisture.

THE HARP COLUMN November/December 1996