Spock's Harp

[Duquesne]

It may not be immediately obvious, but the existing plans are somewhat
flawed. It took me a long while to work out a better template to make a harp/lyrette with a 24" neck and a 14" wide body.

I keep having problems with the neck so far but I have made an almost decent harp out of walnut. The wood is indeed expensive, but the harp is going to be playble when finished. It also took a long while to work out all of the woodworking techniques involved (routing the back is a major achievement), but I think the effort is worth it. My prototype harp to date really looks good!

I've tried mahogany, birch, ash, cherry, and maple but walnut seems to be the best wood for a Vulcan harp aside from teak, which is rather scarce these days.

This is just getting into things: the frame is walnut and the top panel is mahogany plywood. When I really get started, both the frame and the top panel will be walnut (a polished walnut frame and a bleached walnut top panel), the back will be a high quality birch sound board, the tuning pins are black zither pins, the control panel will be grey plastic (not traditional white), and the lyrette will use 19 nylon harp strings.

And like the "true" Vulcan ka'athyra, mine will also be electronic with built-in amplifier, sustain, and tremelo circuits rather than the outdated chip called for in the plans (such as they are). It took a long time to suss out all the details and to learn a few intricate woodworking techniques, but when I get going onto the final version sometime next month or two, it should only take about a week to get the whole thing finished barring any fatal mistakes.

I had to set the prototype up against some boxes because it won't stand by itself; I'll have to make a special stand for it too after it's done as well as a carrying case. Even without the electronics, this is one hefty instrument. :lol

 

[Angelus Lupus]

And like the "true" Vulcan ka'athyra, mine will also be electronic with built-in amplifier, sustain, and tremelo circuits

^ This is exactly what I always imagined a decent replica should be. Why make it non-playable just because the original prop was?
Taking it even further, have you seen the youtube videos of the person who has made vulcan harps that also include sound modulators to give weird effects? YouTube - sagittariiproduction's Channel
That's a little extreme (do you reach, brother?) and more than likely too expensive for me, but it's still cool. Your idea sounds great, as musician myself I'd be happy with a lyre/harp that I could actually play tunes on.

 

[Funky]

^ This is exactly what I always imagined a decent replica should be. Why make it non-playable just because the original prop was?
Taking it even further, have you seen the youtube videos of the person who has made vulcan harps that also include sound modulators to give weird effects? YouTube - sagittariiproduction's Channel
That's a little extreme (do you reach, brother?) and more than likely too expensive for me, but it's still cool. Your idea sounds great, as musician myself I'd be happy with a lyre/harp that I could actually play tunes on.

Normally I would agree with you, make an idealized version of the prop. Tricorders didn't have sound, they were added in post. Works great on screen but it sucks for a collector. So we make one with accurate sound. Cool.
With this I actually prefer that it just be a non-working prop. First off, it would be significantly cheaper. And really, am I going to actually try and learn to play this thing??? Of course not. What am I going to do, run down to the next Trek convention and set up in the lobby so that everyone can sit around and listen to the musical sylings of planet Vulcan? :lol
I'll hang it on my wall next to my other Trek items.

 

[Angelus Lupus]

I fully appreciate your point of view, and the cost aspect is one that's never far from my mind. On the other hand, I play guitar, etc, and have long had an interest in unusual instruments (I'd like to have an Anglo-Saxon rote/lyre). So I would probably be one of the few who would "try and learn to play this thing"

 

[Serafino]

The problem is, there are several aspects of the design of the original which contribute to the look AND would have to be changed to make it playable. One needs a certain amount of space between strings for playability, for instance, and the strings really must have individual anchor points at both ends (yes there are instruments where multiple strings for the same note are doubled around a pin but this is a different situation).

 

[Angelus Lupus]

By altering the angle of the arm/neck piece so it came further over the body, I think you could space out the strings without deviating too much from the original shape. If you had the strings secured under the large roundel then you could anchor each separately, but they'd still look like the were all heading to the same point.

 

[Duquesne]

By altering the angle of the arm/neck piece so it came further over the body, I think you could space out the strings without deviating too much from the original shape. If you had the strings secured under the large roundel then you could anchor each separately, but they'd still look like the were all heading to the same point.

I would give my right arm for a good reference book or reliable source of information. Unfortunately, that 411 is as sarce as hens' teeth. The only thing available are Perry Wright's badly screwed-up plans.

According to the plans, the harp would be composed of four main pieces glued together. This method has many advantages but it has the major disadvantage of the neck being immensely difficult to make.

I went another route: I glued two 9-1/2" boards together and cut the entire harp out at one time. This solves a lot of problems but it means that any changes you want to make in the overall design is gonna take an awful lot of work starting at the template stage.

In the prototype, I found that while I liked a big neck, it created a problem or two. For one thing, I had too much space: room for at least 28 strings easily and probably a few more. So, after spending hours at the local Kinko's store trying to get the scale right on their large format copier, I finally managed to get a template for a 24" which is just about right for 19 strings. This is a compromise between the 12 strings on original V. harps and the 28+ strings on the TV version & the ones being sold for big bucks these days.

The neck can be slightly altered through sanding with a belt sander and some really coarse sand paper, but basically, once a design is settled upon, it's pretty much locked in for good. My version of the harp has a narrower body than the traditional design. Usually the harp has a wider body, but the version seen in The Way To Eden has a narrow body and long(er) neck. So basically when the harp is done, the neck is more or less right over the centerline of the harp.

 

[Duquesne]

I fully appreciate your point of view, and the cost aspect is one that's never far from my mind. On the other hand, I play guitar, etc, and have long had an interest in unusual instruments (I'd like to have an Anglo-Saxon rote/lyre). So I would probably be one of the few who would "try and learn to play this thing"

That's what I thought, too. I woke up one day and realized that I had turned the big five-oh and I wanted something special to celebrate. Since I couldn't find a Vulcan harp, I decided to make one. Some time before I had made a working sonic screwdriver from not much more than just a picture, so I figured the harp would be a lot easier. A long while later, I realized that-- as Spock once said-- I could be wrong. :lol

 

[SurferGeek]

I think the differences you're seeing in the "different" harps are only due to angles of the camera and the prop as it's being held. Looking at all the caps of the harps... I see only one example.

 

[Duquesne]

^ This is exactly what I always imagined a decent replica should be. Why make it non-playable just because the original prop was?
Taking it even further, have you seen the youtube videos of the person who has made vulcan harps that also include sound modulators to give weird effects? YouTube - sagittariiproduction's Channel
That's a little extreme (do you reach, brother?) and more than likely too expensive for me, but it's still cool. Your idea sounds great, as musician myself I'd be happy with a lyre/harp that I could actually play tunes on.

Yeah; I've seen that. It's a beautiful piece of work! But for $1,000 it should come with an onboard amplifier. Twenty-- even ten years ago-- it wouldn't have cost nearly so much to make the harp, but some monster in disguise came along and ruined the economy before disappearing (right, Bush?) and now it takes almost an arm and a leg just to get a few walnut boards. There are cheaper woods to use, but none quite look so good.

There's a guy who has made a few acoustical Vulcan harps that sound pretty good even though they are made of plywood. These sound pretty much like a standard acoustical guitar, though they tend to lose tune fairly quickly over time. I figure my harp would be a compromise from low end acoustic to high end signal processors; I'm just using simple basic guitar circuits that use easy to find transistors that could probably be gotten from Mouser for ten bucks or less.

 

[Angelus Lupus]

$1k?! Dang. I'll certainly be keeping an eye on your project. 'Compromise' it may be, but it seems like it will be far more practical/useable and a much better price.

Of course, if I ever win the lottery...

 

[Prydonian]

Amazing to see this prop getting so much love. I, er, have nothing helpful to contribute, I'm just browsing through people's current projects and came across this. As a classic Trek fan, it makes me happy indeed.

I'm stunned that Roddenberry had working models made... Must re-watch part 5 now...

 

[Duquesne]

I think the differences you're seeing in the "different" harps are only due to angles of the camera and the prop as it's being held. Looking at all the caps of the harps... I see only one example.

On TV, they probably settled on just one design, but in the various publicity stills, there are a few different variations.

There are these [photos] and I wish I had the one of the harp Wah Chang made for his wife seen in the Star Trek Sketch Book. They are easier to compare when all of them are printed out but it is possible to see that the harp Uhura has in Conscience Of The King is quite a bit wider than the one Spock plays in The Way To Eden; note the thinner neck too.

The picture of Spock playing in the Rec Room shows a harp with a wider neck and an unusual bird-shape at the top which I think is kinda cool...


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[feek61]

The ones Roddenberry had made were NOT for the show.

 

[Funky]

Working, non working, wood, plexi, fiberglass, I don't care. Again, I want a wall hanger that looks the part.

 

[SurferGeek]

On TV, they probably settled on just one design, but in the various publicity stills, there are a few different variations.

There are these [photos] and I wish I had the one of the harp Wah Chang made for his wife seen in the Star Trek Sketch Book. They are easier to compare when all of them are printed out but it is possible to see that the harp Uhura has in Conscience Of The King is quite a bit wider than the one Spock plays in The Way To Eden; note the thinner neck too.

The picture of Spock playing in the Rec Room shows a harp with a wider neck and an unusual bird-shape at the top which I think is kinda cool...


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All three photos you posted are of the same harp... just that it's turned inwards causing the body to look thinner in two of the photos.

 

[feek61]

Yes they are the same

 

[Duquesne]

All three photos you posted are of the same harp... just that it's turned inwards causing the body to look thinner in two of the photos.

No... not exactly. Funny thing about this forum's system: I can't re-post a picture I had put elsewhere. But if you could put the Uhura picture side by side with the one from Way To Eden, one ould see the harps aren't the same; the body is wider on Uhura's and it looks like the harp is made of solid wood.

Also, the harp Spock is playing in the Rec Room has a different neck. Print that one and look at it carefully: the top of the neck at the curved hook part looks like a bird's beak. A cygnus design.

The diferences are all minor but they are different. Nobody usually ever notices. I was the only one who ever saw that round disk on the back of Spock's harp that's probably a Vulcan speaker, heh heh. Odd, that it's not in the Technical Manual though. Oh, well...

 

[Serafino]

Duquesne, linked below is a montage of 4 photos from the scenes under discussion. When judging something like this you have to take into account things like perspective, lighting, field of view, body scale, resolution effects, and optical effects resulting from partially obstructed views.

Taking such things into account I do not see strong evidence of differences in shape, and I see no evidence at all for the difference in head shape you mention. I do see specific random marks which appear in multiple photos, showing that the greatest likelihood is that these are all the same prop.

4 Photos in one (link).

 

[Duquesne]

Duquesne, linked below is a montage of 4 photos from the scenes under discussion. When judging something like this you have to take into account things like perspective, lighting, field of view, body scale, resolution effects, and optical effects resulting from partially obstructed views.

Taking such things into account I do not see strong evidence of differences in shape, and I see no evidence at all for the difference in head shape you mention. I do see specific random marks which appear in multiple photos, showing that the greatest likelihood is that these are all the same prop.

4 Photos in one (link).

Have it your way...