Opus 1
I saw my first wind harp at the Toklat Gallery in Ashcroft (near Aspen) Colorado.
The sound they make is very intoxicating. I couldn't afford to pay for the one they had so I decided to try and build one myself. That's what you see here.
The unit has 12 nylon harp strings (.06 diameter) all tuned to more or less the same note. It's 45 inches tall and the strings are each between 32 and 36 inches. It works but it isn't nearly as efficient as it needs to be.
The sound box is made out of a 16 gauge steel trailer fender bought at Tractor Supply Co. The fender is cut in half and welded together to form the
diamond. I suspect that the reason it doesn't work so good is because of the "rigidity" of the sound box. I'm going to make another one. The next one will have
modifications that I'm hoping will make it perform better.
Opus 2
This is a shot of opus 1 beside opus 2.
Where Opus 1 was made from one fender cut in two and welded together, Opus 2 was made from 2 fenders welded together. Plus, Opus 2 has a flat soundboard instead of a arched one like Opus 1. In addition Opus 2 has 24 strings where Opus 1 had 12.
Opus 2 works much better. I put it out today for the first time and even a mild breeze will activate the harp. Clearly I'm on the right tract.