Re: [Harp-L] A New Kind of Harp Rack Needed

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jon Gindick wrote:
> Damn, I hate ALL the racks out there.

I don't like how they look either, though Vern's rack looks darn cool.

But the rack that has haunted me for 42 years was one I saw Spider John 
Koerner play at the Gaslight in Greenwich Village in 1968.  Koerner played 
harp very well, and coordinated it with his amazing guitar playing with 
great magic.

However, the thing that got me was that when he was singing the thing was 
down, his face wasn't covered, and the moment he needed it he could bump it 
upward with his arm and it snapped right into place.  And of course he 
could knock it back out of the way when he got back to singing.  I have 
never seen another rack like that.  I wrote him about it a few years back 
but I got no reply.

About five years ago I got a tremendous idea: magnets.  Being mechanically 
incompetant my attempts at trying to set up a pair of magnets on each stem 
in such a way that they would face each other and click together when 
needed were pathetic.  I discovered that you need very powerful magnets, 
the kind called Neodymium, as the weaker ones do not hold worth a damn for 
this use.

I feel certain that there is off-the-shelf hardware that would assemble 
well and be adjustable - I just don't have the knowlege to make it 
happen.  If anyone comes up with the assembly, please publish it, or sell it.