Building a Glass Harp

For starters, I apologize if this is located in the wrong part of the forum, but i figured this would be a good place to start.

So, here are my questions:

I) has anyone here on YC actually taken the time to build and use a Glass Harp?

II) I have no idea what kind of glasses I would use, let alone what kind of base to use-any suggestions? (The first things that struck me was five Riedels of varied sizes glued to a cookie sheet)

III) As far as composing for these suckers goes, would it be generally acceptable to just say general pitches rather than a fixed pitch?

IV) Superglue/Hot glue sounds very intrusive to the production of pitch when it comes to wet wine glasses etc. Does anyone know any good mediums for getting them to stick to the cookie sheet, or should I just transport it as six separate pieces?

Thanks much!

I haven't done it, but I know some friends who did.

You want crystal glasses -- they resonate best.

You might want to tune the glasses in some way -- some sandpaper should do the trick.

I think it's only the cup of the glass that resonates, so playing the the stem shouldn't change anything. I would glue them down, maybe with epoxy. But if the sound travels down the stem, you definitely want to glue them down, so that the plate resonates too, acting like an amplifier -- this would tell you the kind of base, maybe a new cookie sheet or something, possibly tuned to something compatible with the tuning you have (like a scale tone not in your glass set or something).

You might look into a glass harmonica, which takes some more work, but I think it produces a more consistent sound, since the glasses rotate for you.

You might look into a glass harmonica, which takes some more work, but I think it produces a more consistent sound, since the glasses rotate for you.

I've received a lot of criticism for scoring for Glass Armonikas in the past due to the lack of availability. I have been wanting to for ages, but I've not been able to find a reference chart that lists its entire written range. I also don't know what it can and can't do so I would seriously need to get up on that.

The idea with the Glass Harp would be I'd make five different tuned glasses, not necessarily any definite pitch and that'd be that.

Thankee tho

PS. Riedels are uber expensive crystal glasses from Austria