I have rebuilt the DIY humbucker aeolian harp with a number of improvements:
1. I have painted the wood with a couple coats of rustoleum paint to reduce or hopefully prevent a soaking rain dampening the harp resonance. So far this appears to have worked well.
2. I have improved the string anchoring by moving from a “through the body” solution to a hook similar in concept to a sitar peg to anchor the strings.
3. While zither pins are cheap and work satisfactory my experience has been that they work loose and corrode – thus I have switched to guitar tuners mounted in polycarbonate that are liberally covered in vasoline to reduce corrosion by being a moisture barrier.
4. I redipped my pickups in wax just to refresh the protection.
5. I have installed glued string guides at both end of the harp.
6. I retained the very effective granite bridge pieces.
Click on any picture to see it full resolution. I have sound examples below. the very last sample has a spectra that clearly shows the wind “raking” the strings of the harp if viewed at full resolution. (I have more on the prepared aeolian harp with the old design. Reference 1 Reference 2 Currently I need to review the data for the most interesting sounds.)
The above graphic is the audio spectragram for the below file:
141008-142745 – date time format Tuning B
141008-154521 Tuning B
141008-144343 Tuning B
141008-135052 Tuning A
141008-132232 Tuning A
Leave a Reply