Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to building your harp and questions you have about necessary hardware for your project. We’ll try to answer as many of your questions as possible, and add to this page as new questions arise.

WHAT ARE TUNING PINS (PEGS) AND HOW ARE THEY USED?

Tuning pins/pegs have been around for as long as we have made stringed instruments. Their function is to change the pitch of a string by winding some of the string on the pin as it stretches the string tighter or looser. It must also keep the string tension constant and not slip. There are two standard ways of doing this on a harp. One is by screw threads, as used by zither pins, piano pins, and special threaded through pins made by Dusty Strings. The second is the older method of a friction held tapered tuning pin as used on standard concert pedal harps, and many of our modern made folk harps.

The advantages of a threaded pin is that it usually only requires one operation of drilling a set sized hole for the pin that is slightly smaller than the pin. Then the pin can either be spun in with a key or drill driver, or hammered in to the desired depth.

The disadvantages of a threaded pin is that it is cutting threads into the wood as you use it, and sometimes the pin can become loose and need to be reset, or even filled in and drilled again to repair it. It also is more vulnerable if the pin is ever hit sideways strongly and it damages the wood around the pin, resulting in a more difficult repair. Another thing that needs to be kept in mind is that if you replace a string you need to “unscrew” the pin back several turns before replacing the string, since the pin will continue to “screw” itself deeper into the hole the more the string is tuned. This can result in different heights of the pins through the neck, which can pull a string at an odd angle if not kept an eye on.

The advantages of a tapered pin is that it is only friction held and will just pop out if it suffers a hard blow, without hurting the harp. It doesn’t “screw” itself in, and will maintain its depth in the neck fairly consistently. If the player is not happy with the tension of the pin, they can push the pin harder into the neck while bringing the pitch up to give the pin more friction. If it is too tight they can loosen the string and push the pin back out the key side and reset it back to what tension/friction they want. This is not something a threaded pin can do easily.

The disadvantages of a tapered pin is that it requires more effort to originally install them. It requires not only a drill bit to start the hole, but a taper pin reamer to originally ream your neck holes on a drill press and then used again for the final fitting of the pins during the final assembly. Taper pins are not always exactly the same size, and harp neck woods are not always the same density, so you will spend more time getting the pins all exactly the same depth and tension in the holes than with a more simple screw type pin. If you are using a “plated” pin then you might also have to sand the middle of the pin to rough up the slick center area that goes into the wood. Modern pedal harps actually sandblast the centers of their pins because they use nickel plated steel pins which are very slippery.

Different kinds of threaded tuning pins. We only sell one kind of threaded tuning pin and that is zither pins. They are commonly used on hammered dulcimers, psalteries, and many small harps. They are a great, easy, and inexpensive way to build a small harp if your are new to harp building. They don’t hold up well for bigger harps with longer wound strings but are fine up to 22-29 string harps depending on the string lengths. The other 2 types of threaded pins are piano pins that can be bought through piano supply stores, or Dusty Strings threaded through pins. The Dusty String pins mimic a taper pin, except they use threads instead of a taper, and you can buy them through their website. It is worth noting that all three of these kinds of pins require their own sized tuning key. Zither pin key (.0160” or #10 clock key), Piano tuning key/hammer, and Dusty Strings (.175” Dusty Strings key, #11 clock key, or Robinson #4 key).

Different kinds or tapered tuning pins. Tapered harp pins come in 2 different tapers. One is Concert Pedal harp - European taper 1:50, and the other is American taper pin standard 1:48. Concert harp pins are all the same diameter at the key side of the pin and are about the equivalent of a #5 1/2 in American taper pins. We don’t sell Pedal harp pins, but often people will replace them with the standard American taper pins that we sell using #5 and #6 pins.

WHAT KIND AND SIZE OF TUNING PINS (PEGS) SHOULD I ORDER FOR MY HARP?

HOW DO I INSTALL MY TUNING PINS AND WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED?

WHAT ARE BRIDGE PINS AND HOW ARE THEY USED?

WHAT KIND AND SIZE OF BRIDGE PINS SHOULD I ORDER FOR MY HARP?

HOW DO I INSTALL MY BRIDGE PINS AND WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED?

WHAT ARE SOUNDBOARD EYELETS?

WHAT SIZE SOUNDBOARD EYELETS DO I NEED FOR MY HARP?

HOW DO I INSTALL MY SOUNDBOARD EYELETS AND WHAT TOOLS DO I NEED?

HOW DO I MAKE A WOODEN TUNING KEY FROM A CLOCK KEY OR STEEL SHAFT KEY?