How Much Does It Cost To Repair A Harp Soundboard

June 5, 2022 at 12:29 pm #250674

I noticed a surface crack on the soundboard of my older L&H Troubador today (come across photo). This musical instrument had been sitting idle for a long period of fourth dimension and I have been gradually bringing information technology dorsum up to pitch. The surface crack runs from virtually 4G to 5B, and there is no sign of the crack inside the body. I had planned to replace all the strings soon.

Whatever advice on the all-time mode to manage this? If the worst happens and the soundboard fails is it toll-constructive to pay for the repair?

This topic was modified 1 twelvemonth, 10 months agone by michael-steadman.

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June v, 2022 at 12:53 pm #250684

Judging from the picture it appears to be but on the thin surface veneer. If that is the instance there is no cause for concern; nevertheless you would be wise to have information technology examined by a professional.

If it is merely a surface veneer crack it can be repaired with a thin CVA glue such every bit Hot Shot. If you wish to try this yourself, starting time lower the string tension.

Sometimes a crack that is visible on the surface may be subconscious on the interior if, for instance, it passes beneath an internal rib. Exist safe and have information technology to a pro.

Replacing an entire sound board is non particularly difficult in theory merely information technology can exist quite expensive. I have seen some repaired using a thin fiberglass internal patch without removing the board. Purists with excellent hearing would decry this approach but well-nigh in an audience would not notice.

Biagio

This reply was modified 1 twelvemonth, 10 months ago past Biagio.

June 10, 2022 at 5:58 pm #250747

I have seen this problem with a second-mitt Troubadour that had arrived in perfect condition. Inside a year, we were seeing cracks just similar this. We thought for sure information technology was just the veneer, only it now has progressed to an obvious series of cracks that go straight through. Now nosotros are getting a caryatid congenital to hold it together from the inside. Peter Wiley knows how to make these and could transport you instructions, or perhaps you lot have a professional harp repair person near you. If you leave information technology too long, it will become unrepairable. Best of luck!

June 10, 2022 at half-dozen:10 pm #250748

Information technology'southward possible that the soundboard on this harp is actually fabricated of plywood, not a standard spruce board. It would even so be veneered with spruce, to make it await like a spruce soundboard. If that is the example, and so the principal layer of woods runs top to lesser, non side to side equally it would with a real soundboard. If this is the case, then this could exist the beginning of the soundboard ripping open. A technician might exist able to tell you what is going on.

June 10, 2022 at 6:58 pm #250752

Thank you all for the helpful information. I spent some time checking out the soundboard and have attached a photo of the wood on the inside of the body. The forest grain looks very different. Also I measured the thickness of the soundboard by using the depth of the string pigsty. Information technology is most 1/2 inch thick and sounds like there is hollow space between the layers of wood. Not sure if this is useful information but in any case I will need to think carefully about how to go along.

June x, 2022 at 7:02 pm #250753

Hither is the photo.

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June eleven, 2022 at 8:42 am #250758

Michael- That looks to me like plywood, as I suspected. So my guess is that the crack y'all are seeing on the top side is the offset of the "soundboard" staring to crack straight through. My communication would be to just keep playing information technology for every bit long every bit it is playable, since there is really nothing yous tin can do to end it once it has started. Once it fails completely, then either have a "real" soundboard installed, or endeavor to sell it in as-is status to someone who can repair it.

June 11, 2022 at 12:25 pm #250765

Thanks Carl, that is helpful. I would like to apply this instrument for teaching and volition try to manage this. Practise you think using gut strings would be better than nylon? My understanding is that nylon strings are a stronger material and tin create more pressure on the soundboard. I am planning to re-string it using the same Bow Brand strings I use for my Style thirty.

June eleven, 2022 at 12:36 pm #250766

I agree in general Carl, although it seems to me unlikely that the scissure follows all the manner through a plywood board. There are typically anywhere from v to 8 cantankerous veneered layers in such a board. If such a lath is no longer structurally sound, information technology well-nigh probable would be failing along the inner rib; I don't see whatever evidence of that.

Whatsoever: if it needs to exist replaced – again with a "ply" board – the just difficulty a luthier would accept to deal with would be carefully removing the erstwhile board and dr3essing the liner surfaces. For a harp of that tension a new aircraft grade laminate lath would cost about $170 from Aircraft Spruce and Supply.

Labor, however, could easily run to double or triple that amount. Hence, I'm with Carl. But I'd also say, if in doubt don't rely on our communication based just on two pictures; take it to a professional harp maker for inspection and an estimate.

Biagio

June 11, 2022 at ii:40 pm #250773

I just tried to post something here for Wil-Weten. Information technology has not appeared–whatever thoughts?

June eleven, 2022 at 3:06 pm #250776

From Wil-Weten: I just saw that my L&H Prelude (new in 2022) seems to have more or less the same kind of soundboard.

At the inside there'southward no clear grain visible (contrary to my Camac and Salvi lever harps which practise have a clear horizontal grain on the inside).

The within of the Prelude's soundboard seems to be made of some horizontally cut plates (their colours vary a bit).

So, if Carl is right (and I'm afraid he is) that the old L&H Troubadour has a plywood soundboard, my Prelude has one likewise. Yet, it however says on the website that the soundboard is made of Pacific Northwest/Northern Midwest Sitka Spruce.

Michael, does your harp stand in a room with a relative humidity somewhere between 45 and 55% in club to avoid cracks caused by a too depression humidity?

June 11, 2022 at iii:12 pm #250777

Thank you for posting my message, Balfour. Mayhap the link to Fifty&H proged indeed to be the problem, because now that it is left information technology out, the message did appear.

June xi, 2022 at 4:xv pm #250778

I've rarely worked on non-pedal harps for major repairs. I just never had the time with so many pedal harps to repair. But I'm grooming a young apprentice to do what I did for a living, and someone just gave him an old L & H troubadour with the lath carve up open along the center strip(where the strings exit the soundboard) from bottom to peak. And then he took the "soundboard" off, and low and behold, it was plywood. The plywood consisted of a center core with the grain running from the lesser to the top of the harp(instead of side to side as information technology does on all soundboards), and had a thin veneer running side to side nether the eye core, and over it. It's no wonder information technology separate open up. The plywood looks like maple to me. It's the same thickness at the acme end as at the lesser. Information technology had a spruce veneer on it, so you could non tell information technology was plywood. My apprentice (who is an incredible woodworker by the mode, and loves working on harps!) is going to put a real spruce soundboard on it.

June 11, 2022 at 5:44 pm #250779

Wow, that must exist an old Troub! Fifty-fifty with modernistic laminate boards they are double tapered (that is if the luthier knows what he/she is doing).

I just this winter replaced a laminate lath with spruce; the but upshot was shaping the base and sides to the new board's contours. Much more than book and resonance now!

June xi, 2022 at 7:27 pm #250781

Lyon & Healy West helped me effigy out that it is from the mid- to belatedly-70's, based on the series number. I think the whole product from approximately 1961-1979 became known as Troubador I, probably when they introduced the Troubador Two model? The harp is ebony and has a nice resonant sound. I recently acquired it and am trying to bring it back to life.