He has also recently been asked to regulate a harp at Eton College and there have been requests from as far afield as the Middle East and Siberia. “And I remember servicing a harp that was played by Mylene Klass when she was at the Royal College of Music before she joined Hearsay and became a show business celebrity.”Ī slightly more local client is Eleanor Turner, who lives at Stamford and is a member of the quartet 4 Girls 4 Harps who play internationally and will be performing at Lynn Festival on Monday, July 24. His work has taken him on board the cruise ship Queen Victoria when it docked at Southampton and to the most exclusive of hotels, including the Ritz and Savoy Hotels where the harp is the instrument of choice for background music at functions such as weddings. He was called in to regulate two harps which were played at the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, and another which featured at the Beckhams’ star-studded wedding. High profile projects of pride for Billy include maintaining the gold leaf-adorned harp presented to Prince Charles by the prestigious Italian manufacturers Salvi in 2006 which took six months to create and made its debut at the Llangollen Musical Eisteddford. His role is to regulate, re-felt and re-align the mechanism of the harp – rather like routinely servicing a car but without the tuning. Puns aside, his skills as a harp doctor take him from Lynn on travels all over the globe from Scandinavia to Finland, all over mainland Europe, to Iceland, Tenerife, Malta and to South Africa.Īs one of only around 200 highly-skilled harp technicians in the world, Billy is constantly on call to carry out work on musical instruments that can be worth up to six-figure sums and, in one or two cases, are priceless. The Royal Family, celebrities, hallowed concert halls and opera houses, orchestras, international musicians and luxury hotels all want Billy to tug at their harp strings. If your harp requires additional service or repair, Lyon & Healy Harps guarantees its work.When it comes to affairs of the harp, Billy Hornby is the man for the job. Your warranty terms will remain intact, and When your harp is regulated by a Lyon & Healy certified harp technician:Ī detailed history of the service performed on your harp will be recorded I will need to have the harp for 3-5 days in order to do a complete service of restringing and a regulation.īow Brand strings can be provided at standard cost. The warranty regulation must be requested in advance. The cost for this service will be covered by either Warranty Regulations : normally done about 1 year after the purchase of a new harp. (Strings not included)įor more info and costs, see following page under Regulation Preparation/Cost Info. Wire strings can be changed at the time of regulation for $60. (It does NOT include restringing, changing wires, parts or strings).
**A full service REGULATION performed by a Lyon & Healy certified harp technician is $325-$380. Overall inspection of body, frame, neck, column, and mechanism Just as your car needs a tune up and oil change every 5,000 miles, a regulation is the general maintenance of your harp on a regular basis that includes a thorough inspection of your harp, a change of pedal and slot felts, oiling, adjustments of pedal rods and discs for intonation and noise control. It can also include replacement of basic parts as needed.
Members of the Guild are trained and authorized to work on Lyon & Healy and Salvi instruments.įor information on the 'Lyon & Healy and Salvi' Harp Technicians Guild : Ĭontact Email for Karen Gottlieb: Maintenance/Regulations & AppraisalĪppraisals are available for 'Insurance Replacement Values' and the sale or purchase of used harps. She is a member of the Lyon & Healy/Salvi Harp Technicians Guild.
Karen Gottlieb received her technicians license in 1994.