Vulcan Harp Build NEW PICS 10.12

Droidboy

Sr Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
So after reading Alan's thread about his Vulcan Harp, I finally got motivated to build my own.

I had the bodies CNC'd out of birch plywood and the pieces are laminated together and the edges are covered with birch edge banding.

The overlay (the part that covers the neck and down the left hand side is made out 1/16" birch which was a royal pain to source.

The tuner knob was turned out of solid mahogony based on screen caps from the show.

The plate that goes under the small knobs was cut out of aluminum, and when it's strung, it will be strung out of the same material they used on the show.

I decided to build a couple because oddly, it didn't cost a ton more to make 4 of them opposed to just one. The finish on these will be done by a professional furniture maker because I wanted to give it a little more polished look than what I could do on my own. Hopefully I'll have that part done next week or so.

Anyhow, here are some pics. I hope you guys enjoy!

Right out of the shop:
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Close up of the knob:

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Close up of the overlay:

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Just about ready to get stained and varnished.

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Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Yes. One will be mine, but I'm REALLY hoping someone is willing to buy the extras because these cost me a heck of a lot to build.
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Looks like a great build underway...:)

Will you be offering lessons as well? That might just push me over the edge and try to get one of these :thumbsup

Nice work!
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Thanks for the kind words. The big thing is cutting out all of the material and time. I used the Franz plans on it.

Once I get everything put together I'll try to explain a little more how it was done.
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Looking good!

Now all you need is a blonde with a bicycle rim and you can jam! :cool
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

There are going to be FANTASTIC Gregg !!

Well done on this :) :thumbsup :thumbsup

Armando, Gregg just saved my ass :lol I'm happy for you bro !!!! .... and for me too :lol
 
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Re: Vulcan Harp Build

I had thought about doing a short run of these but didn't think there would be enough interest to warrant the time and cost commitment to make them.
These look good though, keep up the great work!
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Alan...thanks for the compliment! I wouldn't have been able to do it if seeing yours hadn't convinced me I could do it!

GenFrosty....I'm not sure it was worth doing all of these, but I'm really hoping someone is interested so I'm at least not out all I put into it. Even if not, I'm happy that I'll finally have one in my collection.
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Alan...thanks for the compliment! I wouldn't have been able to do it if seeing yours hadn't convinced me I could do it!

GenFrosty....I'm not sure it was worth doing all of these, but I'm really hoping someone is interested so I'm at least not out all I put into it. Even if not, I'm happy that I'll finally have one in my collection.

Gregg, your are going to be a far cry for the better from the one I made ! Heck, I made mine from odds and ends I had lying around the house or for years in the garage :lol. The only thing I actually bought was one bigger drawer knob for the one on the top, side :lol

But, the difference is going to show. Greatly. Just as an example, the quality of wood you are using is top-notch man :cool , you put banding on the sides, whereas I only sanded mine down, filled the ugly parts with putty and painted ... and more :lol

Oh there will be interest :thumbsup

I know of ONE that you can 100% set aside as of posting this thread :lol. I had promised that early this year I would make one more .... but I was not looking forward to it :lol , as I am too darned lazy to make more than one of anything nowadays and just like to move on with something different. I was actually going to start gathering stuff to make it in a week or two, so thanks for letting me off the hook Gregg :lol
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Alan...again...thanks for the compliments, it really means a lot.

The reason I chose this wood was because I'm also building a full sized kirk chair and I knew I wanted to do it out of the birch because it's so smooth and straight, so I had my cnc shop cut these out at the same time using the same wood. I think it turned out to be a good call. The edge banding has been the most time consuming part of the process so far. This is such an awkward shape, and I couldn't use my trusty house iron to do it, so I had to go out and buy an iron specifically designed for the job.

I really hope I didn't take a customer from you, but if really not wanting to do more I'm happy to help out :).

Gregg
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

..

I really hope I didn't take a customer from you, but if really not wanting to do more I'm happy to help out :).

Gregg


As iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiif !!!!!

Not in the hobby for money Gregg. You can rest assured I am going to LOVE seeing your finished ones :cool :) :thumbsup

Heck, if I didn't make mine, I'd have bought one from you, guaranteed :lol

The last thing I wanted was to build a harp. It looked like a pain to make .... and it was :lol

To be honest, I built mine because I was angry :lol . Otherwise, I would never have done it.

See the builds I made this year so far ? That's all due to the bleeding hacker and the anger he made me feel :lol
 
Re: Vulcan Harp Build

Update....

After eight months of little to no progress on this I've been really busy. The edge banding has been applied, it's been stained and lacquered and the string pegs are in place.

All I have to do is put thick guard, pegs and bridge in place and its done.

The only thing I'm not sure of is the strings. The original harp had multi-colored strings, and I'm afraid that it will look so different from what we think it looks like that it might be distracting, so I'm thinking about using a silver colored string because I think mentally it would make sense. I hate decisions like this.

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Boy, wasn't expecting this today !

Looking fantastic Gregg !

For the strings, why not use fishing line ?

What I used on mine. Doesn't look bad I think (?).
 
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Thanks Alan...

Because the original didn't use them. They used a colored string, that from every indication was a colored, thin gauge crochet thread.

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