You need to start somewhere. Go with the troubadour rental. When you get more experienced you can make a better informed decision on your next move. This is something akin to deciding what car you want to own before you’ve learned to drive.

Yes you can learn on a Troub, but the string tension is so heavy on those. Unless you want to move to pedal harp someday you’ll like the Merlin much better. Altho $480 rent for 6 months on the Merlin seems a bit pricey. Merlin’s are nice, altho I like the middle and bottom ranges better than the top range. The Thormahlen Serenades are lovely. The only rentals of those tho are probably going to be thru private people, because he’s a small builder who doesn’t supply the harp stores anymore. Let us know how you like the Thormahlen tomorrow. Another possible option for you-the Thormahlen Ceili is delightful. And I think you would like the Dusty Strings 34 or 36S also.

Jodi,

You are a beginner and won’t notice the difference right away. It’s more important right now for you to learn how to play – the notes, hand position, using levers etc. I would concentrate on basics for a few months. Hopefully, over the rental period, you will have an opportunity to try other harps and explore other resources. As I said, you need to start somewhere. I played a Lyon-Healy Troubador and didn’t have trouble with tension. If you start to overthink this IMHO, you will never start to play.

Jodi, I have a Troubadour as well as a Serenade. Going back and forth between them is no problem at all in terms of tension. To me, a greater concern would be getting a harp with standard string spacing. If I remember correctly, the spacing on the Merlin harps is narrow. If you learn on this harp and then later go to a different folk harp (or a Troubadour or pedal harp), you may have some difficulty. I may be wrong on this since I have not played a Merlin in a long time, but it is something to consider.

What does your teacher say? If she or he has strong opinion go with that. If not I would support what Donna and Gretchen say – hire something , probably the Troubadour if there isn’t a waiting list, so you can start learning while you think long term. Probably the Merlin would sound louder and brighter when you play, but all the basics will transfer just fine. I would expect it to only take you a couple of days, if that, to adapt to lighter string nylon and slightly different spacing after some months on the higher tension gut.