Kit - Kovac Folk Harps - His Original Paraguayan 22, 29, & 36 String Harps (No Wood)
John Kovac Harps by Davy C
Regular price $238.00
Build your own world-famous, original, John Kovac-designed 22, 29, or 36 String Paraguayan-style folk harp from these kit sets.
Includes John Kovac's Harpmaking Made Simple plans book featuring full-sized, reuseable, cut-out templates with instructions & specifications for each harp!
WOOD NOT INCLUDED! (But is easy to obtain from your local home & hardware retailer or lumber company.)
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These are complete kits, except contain no wood, and are based on the plans found in the included John Kovac classic HMS book, "Harpmaking Made Simple."
With readily available wood & other materials and, with simple tools, you can build any or all of these harps found in John Kovac's groundbreaking HMS DIY book, included with each Kit.
If you know how to use a drill press, circular saw, jigsaw, router, and power sander, you can make your own harp from scratch in about a week or so for the largest harp. Smaller harps may take a bit less time.
Each harp kit comes with everything you need (except wood) to build one of John Kovac's famous Paraguayan-style folk harp designs. The kit contains the above HMS instruction & plans book, strings & dedicated hardware, (See the HMS book description here.)
You select & provide your own wood components, based on John Kovac's recommendations, to cut & shape your harp to create a unique musical instrument but, with John's HMS book (included in each kit), and with his pre-engineered sound & performance. Give us an email for further guidance or recommendations. Plus, you'll need to supply your own tools, glue, etc., to create & finish the harp.
In the included HMS Book, John Kovac includes the list of wood materials you will need for your harp. We also include that comprehensive list separately with each kit, including a complete specifications string chart & a harp supplement document package to assist your successful build of your own harp.
- Go to my Harp Resources page to find the three Lists that show you the wood materials, strings, hardware, & tools required for each harp.
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See John Kovac playing these Paraguayan Harps:
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The various kits come with the following (Totals & materials depending on the string quantity of the harp you plan to build):
- Brass eyelets (Small, Medium & Large, depending on model)
- up to 2 Octaves of Nylon Wrapped bass strings & about 3 or 4 Octaves of Nylon Treble Mono-filament strings depending on the model harp
- String Colors are Red C's & Blue F's by default
- (Alternative Blue Cs & Red Fs are offered for the 29 & 36 String harps only)
- String Tuning Mechanisms, Chrome, White knobs
- Various kit-matching Screws & Hardware & feet, etc.
- "Harpmaking Made Simple" master instruction & plans book included.
- 1 String Winder
- 1 Tuning Wrench
- 1 String Installation Hook
- No Wood; to be supplied by you, the builder.
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NOTE: If you intend to build more than one harp from the HMS book, instead of buying this whole kit all over again, with the included books, materials, and tools you won't need a second time, we suggest you instead buy only the modified kits to match the extra harps you intend to build. The shopping cart's pull-down cost menu will have these available options labeled as "- No Books or Tools."
Note: This plans book is offered in its as-is, original & historic format. Some easy, linear extrapolation of the templates may be required at a few points. See our notice here.
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The optional classic Kovac DVD, Traditional Paraguayan Harp Making is available. Filmed at John Kovac's harp shop in the Shenandoah National Forest, Virginia, USA, the late, great harp maker & player, Geronimo Morinigo takes you through the steps of making a traditional Paraguayan folk harp. Very informative & entertaining. Watch this inspiring DVD before you make your own harp! Geronimo even plays the harp he makes at the end of the video.
An optional Electronic Guitar Tuner is available to assist you with your initial string tuning & keeping your harp in tune thereafter. (Actual models vary but are very similar.)
See John Kovac's classic Daily Moments Harp Kit Demonstration Video on YouTube.
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Please note: All wrapped bass strings are custom-made at the time of order & might not be in stock. Please, allow for several extra weeks for strings to be created & shipped after placing your order. Only one, combined shipment will be made for all string sets & materials ordered at the same time.
Please take note: John Kovac's engineered string sizes were changed after publishing his various plans & Harpmaking Made Simple book (HMS), etc. We now supply the updated string sizes recommended by traditional Paraguayan harp makers from South America.
So, please, ignore the obsolete string dimensions in the HMS book. Our string kits now contain the maker-recommended sizes.
(If you desire to use the sizes of the original strings, while we won't provide them, it is recommended you give the string specifications to your other harp string maker for them to reproduce the original string parameters.)
We also send new-sized grommets meant to match the adjusted string parameters.
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Go to Harp Resources Page
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If you make a mistake on your harp, even if not caused by us, please, notify us right away and we will see how we can help you to complete your harp anyway. You never know how we might be able to help you, which is our goal; for you to be successful in your harp building & playing! We won't abandon you in your harp-building process after the purchase, either. Let's work together!