Replacing the Loveland Levers on your Thormahlen Harp with Camac Levers

LOVELAND LEVERS:                                                                               CAMAC LEVERS:

This page will give you an idea of what your harp will go through if you decide to have us replace the Loveland Levers on your Thormahlen Harp with Camac Levers. (Sorry, but we do not do this for any other harp but our own.)

First, we remove the strings from your harp, and if you haven't replaced your strings in a while, this is a perfect time to get new strings put on. Then we take all the hardware off of the neck keeping the tuning pins in the exact order they were on the neck, so when we put the harp back together, they are exactly where they were originally.

Next, we fill all the lever screw holes and bridge pin holes with a wooden dowel and sand it down. The new levers will cover most of the holes, but not all of them. The ones that are not covered will be somewhat obscured by the levers and strings that are on that side of the harp. In the above pictures, you can see the filled holes. The red string in the picture on the left is middle C and the red string in the picture on the right is the C above middle C.

Because of the way the Camac levers work, in order to avoid the lowest C string from buzzing on the pillar of the harp, we scoop out a bit of the side of the pillar. Don't worry, this does not interfere with the structural qualities of the harp in any way. With some wood, particularly cherry and mahogany, the color darkens with age so when we scoop out some of this wood, the new wood is lighter in color. In time this will darken and blend in with the rest of the harp. At first it will look like this:

When all the woodworking is done, we put the new strings on the harp, tune it up until it holds pitch, and then regulate the levers. You will also notice that you have new bridge pins, which, with the proper tools, are much easier for you to regulate your own levers at home.

You will totally enjoy your new Camac levers. The tone quality with the Camacs is a huge improvement, and the smoothness with which the levers operate is unbeatable with the Camacs!

This "surgery" costs $1000 + $700 round trip shipping (unless you live close enough to bring us your harp). The whole process takes about 6-8 weeks.