All of this brouhaha about which is the best pedal harp is wasted energy!
All pedal harp manufacturers have made some wonderful harps as well as
some “duds.” As others have pointed out, beauty is in the eye of the
beholder. All companies’ harps have a characteristic “sound” – some
people find it pleasing and others find it annoying. I have played
every brand of pedal harp on the exhibit floors at harp conferences and
all of them were wonderful in their own way.
I love the very consistent tone of the Salvis from top to bottom – they
are wonderful harps for recording artists. I’ve owned three Salvi harps
in my lifetime and they all held tune incredibly well – a particular
outstanding feature of Salvis. However, as others have pointed out, I
found that they lacked projection with the exception of the Diana – I
love that harp!
I currently play on Venus harps. They are wonderfully well constructed
and have a great tone. The company owner takes great pains to make sure
you receive the style and finish you desire. They allow you to try out
the harp for 30 days – if it’s a “lemon” or was not made to your specs,
you can return it. I believe that Venus harps are the best value for
the money. Many of you may not know that Venus harps are actually
designed from old pre-1940 L&H designs and the craftsmanship is
based on L&H. harp building techniques.
I have no feelings about L&H one way or the other. However, I think
the pedal harps are the most “boring” harps visually; they really don’t
offer that many design variations. Salvi has them beat head-over-heels
in terms of their beauty of design, interesting lines, etc.
As far as people on this list complaining about the “personalities” of
some posters…..really, isn’t it time we got over ourselves? The world
is full of a variety of personalities. The mark of a mature adult is to
be able to accept the personality quirks of others, learn to ignore
them, and get on with our lives.
Darhon Rees-Rohrbacher
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