harp pickups

I am a newbie to this group, but have been doing home recording of my wifes harp for about 4 years. Just recently I heard a recording done by Kim Robertson ( http://www.gourd.com/amainframe.html?134A.HTML&2 ) that was done NOT with mics & preamps, but with a pickup per string (34 in all). I was really shocked at the clarity of this, and am having the urge to try modifying one of my wifes harps.

So the question is, where can I buy the pickups where (i presume) the string passes through the pickup. And does anyone know of the best glue or attachment techniques for this.

Its also possible to have Dave Kortier Harps do this, but at $800 + shipping and crating its currently beyond my means.

--thanks for any advice you can offer

do you have any info on the work the guy you mentioned does?

Kinda hard to imagine that the pickup would output line level, but I suppose anything is possible.

If you go to a guitar shop, there are several types of pickups designed for acoustic guitars which you could look into, one in particular mounts beneath the bridge, you could see about attaching a few to a harp and running them into a direct box. I think youd neeed to pay attention to how they get mounted (they are held into the guitar by the pressure of the strings down on the bridge) as they are going to react to the vibration of the wood so if you glue them you might actually damp the frequency response (which could be either a good or bad thing).

those things arent cheap though, if that dude installs 34 independant pickups with amplifiers you might find yourself speanding at least that much money on a DIY project to achieve similar results.

have you ever tried using boundary mics on a harp? Ive never done that but might be worth a try if you can find one that is quiet enough, mount them on a big piece of plexi glass and move that right up on the harp, could be a worthy experiment in the meantime while you work out the particulars.

welcome to the lab by the way, you just found the coolest place on the internet.

dave

google for harp pickup lots of info comes up.

this company makes a pickup for a cettic harp

http://www.schattendesign.com/ch.htm

barcus berry 4020 harp pickup

http://www.fullcompass.com/products/pages/SKU--35048/

Another pickup this one using piezo elements

http://www.dustystrings.com/building/harp_pickup.shtml

thanks for the pickup links. I have tried using a couple of pickups mounted to the inside soundboard, but this never gave anywhere near as good a sound as a well positioned mic. I figure that if he is doing 36 pickups for $800, that the pickups cannot be more than $10 each as he also includes a preamp that mounts inside the harp. But I have never seen piezo-electric pickups for that amount. They also have to be very small.

This is definitely a cool forum. Its interesting to see the types of projects people are tackling.

Something like this might suit the bill, would be quite expensive and the string pressure would have to sit on the pickup head. Stunning results on acoustic guitar, one pickup per string, great seperation.
http://www.rmcpickup.com/acousticgold.html
Vikki(uk)

Vikki, those polyphonic bridge pickups do look nice, lets see, 250 * 6 = ouch! Definitely interresting

I think you can buy piezo co ax type cable that is used in piezo guitar pickups, the Highlander is one. If you could purchase a length, that may do the trick. I think someopne posted a link to the manufacturer but i can't seem to find it. The guy who makes the Highlander pickups Rick Turner is the guy to ask, he posts on some of the acoustic guitar forums and he makes the Renaisance range of guitar. Hope this helps.
Vikki(uk) :thumb:

Dave makes his own piezo pickups, I have been told second hand how he goes about it, but do not really remember the proccess. I am going to be right by his shop tomorrow and I have been meaning to stop in so maybe I should stop in. If he is ok with sharing some of his tricks I will let you know, or maybe I can get him to stop in here and share these ideas.

adam

You can buy peizo discs for like $0.25 each at some electronic supply places.

There are schemos around for your own piezo pickups. I had one at one point, and I was going to make a few, but I lost the plans. I still have a bag of piezo elements and some resistors that I know were part of it, email me & I'll send 'em to you gratis.

Hey, I remember while sleeping where I found the schemo:

http://scotthelmke.com/Mint-box-buffer.html

Perhaps someone here can comment on changing the circuit for a bunch of piezo elements. I really think more than 1 for every two strings would be overkill. It would be interesting to split the circuit into 2 or 4 parts to enable clever stereo or surround effects, perhaps even switchable between high/low or groups of strings, or even alternating strings. Also you want to keep the cable runs to the buffer as short as possible.

I have the elements, 10M resistors, 4M7 resistors, the transistors, and battery boxes laying around that haven't been diverted to other uses, and since I've lost interest in piezo, I'm happy to get rid of 'em.