This is a WIP (and finished) thread, dedicated to what is considered by many (myself included) the Holy Grail of Star Trek Props – The Vulcan Lyre aka Harp.
As far as I am aware, there are 3 sources to get one of these – an inaccurate, way undersized and low quality one from eBay, give $2000 to Roddenberry … or make one yourself.
Option 1 failed, option 2 is no way Jose, so a few days ago I decided that option 3 is the obvious winner :lol.
I wanted to go for a Harp as faithful as possible to the original prop in TOS (with one or two personal bits of my own), and I wanted to make it with items I had at hand. The only thing I spent on this was 1.20 Euro on 4 drawer knobs.
My main intentions were to make the harp with the raised design on the left side, like this
… and to have the strings loop over in pairs like in the original, as so.
I counted the number of strings from various screen caps, and there are 30. So 15 pairs.
I wanted it to play the part and hang it on a wall, not strum a concert in the mess hall :lol.
So long as it screamed “Vulcan Harp !!” at me, I’d be happy.
By the time I would be done, I hoped to end up with something like this.
Ah, and it had to be full size.
Sooooooooo, we’re off. Enter boxes of Sangria in the living room.
No, not to get me started. I just don’t have that many clamps :lol. Underneath are 3 left-over boards from some shelving I did a few years back.
Glued them together for thickness.
Here they are ready.
Drew the outline based on a plan I found in a thread here somewhere, by Franz Joseph IIRC.
Cut it out
And the rest of the materials. A thinner board from the garage, a left-over piece of aluminium door frame, nails, knobs, glue, fishing line, an old drawer knob for the 'tuning knob' on the top side, and a piece of left over balsa wood I used to make the Voodoo Doll head.
Drew the outlines
Glued 2 thin pieces of wood for thickness for the string rest
Cut out the pieces
More Sangria to weigh down the side panel.
The original large ‘tuning knob’ was the lid of a wooden bowl. Since I don’t have one, I carved one out. Nothing that a hobby knife and some sandpaper won’t provide.
Ready
Drilled out the holes in the aluminium plate for the smaller ‘tuning knobs’
Added a slip of wood with slices in it on top of the string holder, and painted it silver.
Starting to take shape. Drilled holes for the continuation of the knobs, and painted the sides.
Painted the front panel, and the rest of the thingy-bobs.
Placed the nails in the previously drilled sliver of wood
Calculated the angle of the string holder with a cut out done from a screen grab, pencilled in on my computer screen.
This was the biggest pain in the neck ! Stringing 30 strands in loops of 2 without them ‘boinging’ out of place :lol
And that was that. Here’s the end result
It screams "Vulcan Harp !!" at me, so its good enough for me
And since the youngest just got back from School, here’s him holding the harp to show the size. So you get an idea, Michael is as tall as I am .... although I am twice as wide :lol
It is 37.25” (95 cms) high.
As far as I am aware, there are 3 sources to get one of these – an inaccurate, way undersized and low quality one from eBay, give $2000 to Roddenberry … or make one yourself.
Option 1 failed, option 2 is no way Jose, so a few days ago I decided that option 3 is the obvious winner :lol.
I wanted to go for a Harp as faithful as possible to the original prop in TOS (with one or two personal bits of my own), and I wanted to make it with items I had at hand. The only thing I spent on this was 1.20 Euro on 4 drawer knobs.
My main intentions were to make the harp with the raised design on the left side, like this
… and to have the strings loop over in pairs like in the original, as so.
I counted the number of strings from various screen caps, and there are 30. So 15 pairs.
I wanted it to play the part and hang it on a wall, not strum a concert in the mess hall :lol.
So long as it screamed “Vulcan Harp !!” at me, I’d be happy.
By the time I would be done, I hoped to end up with something like this.
Ah, and it had to be full size.
Sooooooooo, we’re off. Enter boxes of Sangria in the living room.
No, not to get me started. I just don’t have that many clamps :lol. Underneath are 3 left-over boards from some shelving I did a few years back.
Glued them together for thickness.
Here they are ready.
Drew the outline based on a plan I found in a thread here somewhere, by Franz Joseph IIRC.
Cut it out
And the rest of the materials. A thinner board from the garage, a left-over piece of aluminium door frame, nails, knobs, glue, fishing line, an old drawer knob for the 'tuning knob' on the top side, and a piece of left over balsa wood I used to make the Voodoo Doll head.
Drew the outlines
Glued 2 thin pieces of wood for thickness for the string rest
Cut out the pieces
More Sangria to weigh down the side panel.
The original large ‘tuning knob’ was the lid of a wooden bowl. Since I don’t have one, I carved one out. Nothing that a hobby knife and some sandpaper won’t provide.
Ready
Drilled out the holes in the aluminium plate for the smaller ‘tuning knobs’
Added a slip of wood with slices in it on top of the string holder, and painted it silver.
Starting to take shape. Drilled holes for the continuation of the knobs, and painted the sides.
Painted the front panel, and the rest of the thingy-bobs.
Placed the nails in the previously drilled sliver of wood
Calculated the angle of the string holder with a cut out done from a screen grab, pencilled in on my computer screen.
This was the biggest pain in the neck ! Stringing 30 strands in loops of 2 without them ‘boinging’ out of place :lol
And that was that. Here’s the end result
It screams "Vulcan Harp !!" at me, so its good enough for me
And since the youngest just got back from School, here’s him holding the harp to show the size. So you get an idea, Michael is as tall as I am .... although I am twice as wide :lol
It is 37.25” (95 cms) high.
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