One thing Santa is already taking care of for me is repairing an old violin I have acquired. It’s 170 years old and lovely (though obviously ‘pre-loved’). The other thing I’d like but won’t be getting (not this year anyway!) is a harp with just one or two more strings in the bass. Camac’s are nice but I really need to try a load more before making any kind of decision.

We’re a little low budget so I was just hoping for a gift certificate to Sylvia Woods but a couple of weeks ago all the music I wanted was on sale! So I know exactly what I’m getting but it should be fun. I’m getting “Summertime”, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Fireflies” and the music from “Brave”.

Sherri-
I’ve never tried playing one. The sound is just amazing though! Have you played one??
Interesting concept about removable clips! I don’t really have a harp that it would work on,. I’m curious if they make the soundboard different to accomodate the stronger, buzzier sound? Its something I only found out about recently, these bray harps. Someday! Maybe I’ll win the lottery and can afford all the harps I want. tehehe 😀

Hi there Katie and Jessica,
No, never tried playing one! Would sure like to though. Maybe some harp builder out there will see my post and start thinking about experimenting with removable bray clips. I would like to try something like that out on my wire harp and see what happens. I think bray harps were always strung with gut though, so I don’t know what would happen if you paired bray pins with wire. My soundboard (and entire harp body) is heavier to deal with the wire tension, but pictures I’ve seen of Gothic bray harps appear more delicate in construction compared to mine.

One of these days I’d like to try out a cross-strung.

Jessica, my wire harp has copper-phospher bronze strings all throughout and my C’s and F’s in the bass are wound (and color-coded). I don’t know what type of harp you have (pedal, lever) but Triplett has these strings available if you call them. I broke my lowest E string on my Luna recently (wound string) and got a replacement from them. They come with metal toggles already attached.

Hi Deb,
Harp looks a bit like a painting of an Egan harp with ditals. Wonder what it was like to play one of those (and if any are still around).

Irish step dancing would be cool. My husband and I went to see Riverdance when we were in Ireland in 2008. It was a great show except they had the volume up too loud. Fortunately I had my earplugs with me in my purse, so that trimmed it a bit.

Harpo Speaks, Pulling Strings: The Legacy of Melville A. Clark (I grew up in a suburb of the city where he started his symphony orchestra), Trouble Shooting your Lever Harp, rubber-tipped pliers and a brass hammer for regulating my levers, and several pieces of sheet music. I actually have enough Christmas gigs that I think I’ll be able to give my harp a gift for Christmas too: a new set of strings with lever gut to replace the mid-range nylon. <3