The Making of Siobhan's New Harp
The wonderful South Australian harp maker, Tim Guster, is making Siobhan a new harp. Her harp will have 36 strings,with a full set of Camac levers, and be of the McFall (Celtic) style. The overall height will be approx 1.4 metres and will have a solid, curved pillar and veneered body and neck. The timber used is Rock Maple (Acer saccharum) from the USA, and the laminate is plantation grown Hoop Pine from Queensland.
Click on the photos to see them full size.
1)
Marking out laminate for bodies
2)
Laminate cut out - 3 harp bodies (one of which is Siobhan's)
3)
Marking out necks
4)
Roughly cutting around the necks
5)
Rough cut necks
6)
Cutting out necks
7)
Necks cut
8)
Gluing necks
9)
Laminate and Maple veneer ready to glue
10)
Laminate and Veneer glued to make the body shell
11)
Cutting holes in the body shell
12)
Sitka Spruce pieces ready to make sound-board
13)
Spruce glued together for sound-board
14)
Sound-board with tone-bar glued to the back
15)
Sound-box with the sound-board
16)
Sound-box with sound-board attached and screw/cover strips on
17)
Harp neck, base and pillar in their rough form
18)
The neck and pillar positioned next to the body
19)
The body, neck and pillar being aligned
20)
The harp base
21)
The harp with carving and almost a full set of strings!
22)
The finished harp on her first gig at Glen Innes Standing Stones
23)
Close up of the carving