Harp Technician

Kim Webby has wide experience carrying out technician work on most types of pedal harps around New Zealand and the world.

Being a maker of pedal harps gives a greater depth to servicing harps and  he tries to go to the root of problems to make a long term improvement.
Sometimes it takes several service/regulations to lift a harp to be as good as it can be.

Kim Webby has many happy customers around New Zealand and Europe (owners of many types of harps). As an extension of servicing and monitoring his pedal harps in Europe, he has built up a clientele of professional players who entrust the maintenance care of their harps to him

A pedal harp service usually involves the following:
  • Replacement of pedal felt/wrapping with Kim Webby’s own felt or leather over rubber system that gives a quiet and reliable pedal action. Good pedal wrapping is extremely important before any adjustments are made.
  • Replacement of slot felts- if necessary. These are the felt pads at the tops of the pedal slots or ‘home’ position of the pedals.
  • Check and adjust pedal rods. (Cable adjustment on Camac harps)
  • Regulation of action mechanism for good intonation.
  • Adjustment of action back-plate bearings.
  • Check for loose screws that may contribute to slippage or buzzing.
  • Lubrication of pedals, springs and action mechanism if necessary.
  • Check condition of rear shoes, front rollers, pedal box seating and hold-down bolts.
  • Each service is completed with a report sheet that states the condition of many parts of the harp. Harp Owners can monitor the health of their harp over time with each service sheet.

There are additional operations that can be carried out to set up a harp to sound much better and to be more reliable. These can include; reworking the holes in tuning pins and the soundboard eyelets to improve string life, modifying the bridges, reworking and refinishing the pedal slots to improve pedal action and greatly improve the life of the felts.

Harp Repairs

 Kim Webby has carried out extensive rebuilds and repairs to many types of pedal harps. This has given him a great depth of knowledge to design and develop his own range of harps. Types of repairs include; soundboard and neck replacement, rebuilding of sound box and pedal box, action mechanism repairs and recondition.

Major repair work is scheduled between building new harps. This is a service to the harp community where there is a shortage of qualified repairers in the southern hemisphere. Building of new harps takes priority but it is refreshing to have a change and work on other makers’ instruments.

Examples of past restorations