A Perpendicular Harp

For nearly 300 years the triple harp has been the national instrument of Wales.

It has three rows of strings; the two outer rows are tuned in unison with the middle row being the semi-tones. The sound produced is quite unique and in the hands of an accomplished player no other harp possesses its possibilities.

Of all the harps none is more beautiful; its slender neck soaring towards heaven. Unfortunately, because of the traditional design of its neck, there are very few original instruments capable of being played today.

The traditional necks were cut from one piece of wood, usually maple or sycamore. A strengthening band of iron was fixed underneath. The local blacksmith who would have also hammered out the tuning pins on the anvil made this. Weakened by over ninety holes and the strain, the necks invariably cracked at the short grain. As all the strings were hung from one side, a lever action was exerted and the necks developed a terrifying twist. The strings were hung directly from the tuning pegs and were not guided by bridge pins, therefore over winding could alter the span across the width between the strings. As the outside strings could vary as much as four inches in length, difficulty was found in the gauging to ensure unison tuning.

There was a desire amongst Harpists to acquire a harp, which possessed none of these faults. It was the dream of John Weston Thomas to design such an instrument for many years. Eventually he found the solution by laminating the neck with multi-laminated beech veneers. Underneath this he fixed a brass channel with bridge pins for the outer rows and tuning pins for the semi-tones, therefore making the thrust vertical and entirely eliminating the side twist. As the harp is more stable it stays in tune longer. This became known as the Perpendicular Harp. I have since improved this by increasing the laminates and changing the adhesives to strengthen the neck further.

These images show the two methods. The traditional method is shown on the left and the perpendicular method on the right.