NEW: After the retirement of Beat Wolf the restoration section is now overtaken by his successors:

PETER  DEMMERLE, Schaffhausen  » www.tuggi.ch

and CHRISTOPH  MANI, Guggisberg, Bern  » www.mani-harfenbau.ch     

The palette of restoration features ranges from purely conservation / maintenance work over playability adjustments up to a total renovation, whereby the available substance of the instrument and its state of repair will determine the approach required.
A careful restoration takes the biography of a harp into account and allows only moderate and reversible intervention (less is often more) so that the charm of a venerable piece can breathe on. For enthusiasts of antiquities the conservation of a harp is the mostly practised method, as this harp is not requested to be played.

Harp owners are often scared about visible cracks in their harps, but in fact these are hardly a problem for the harp restorer. On the other hand: the truly dangerous damages are mostly hidden to the owner’s eyes. Even if a historical pedal harp shows large worm damages, a serious rescue is possible in most situations. Only in the worst case a replacement of a construction part is to be expected.
A harp expert sometimes meets harps, which were altered once in their life. Where it makes good sense, unskilled interventions shall be reversed; only biographical relevant changes should be maintained.
In cases where a special field of knowledge is required to restore a harp, e.g. design painting, further recognized specialists will be consulted. In any case it pays to spend some money on an expertise. This avoids any surprises or a wrong decision.

» YOUTUBE VIDEO; Ann Fierens playing a Louvet harp
» Louvet: played by Ann Fierens
» Erard London no.1423: played by Masumi Nagasawa
» Naderman 1815: played by Masumi Nagasawa
» Sample: Restoration of a Hochbrucker-Harp