Carbon Fiber Concert Harps….Please soon!

[Christian Frederick]

I recently played a gig, and there was a violinist there who played with a carbon fiber violin. It was the most incredible sound I have ever heard from a violin!

I know that Camac makes harps with carbon fiber bodies, but after visiting http://luisandclark.com/ and seeing a show on cable TV, I think it is time for carbon fiber harps with carbon fiber sound boards!!!

Are any of the major manufacturers working on this? If so, I want one soon!!!

The material was discovered in boats. Someone heard the waves against a carbon fiber boat, and it was more resonate than waves against wood boats.

We’re ready for a change. Any insight?

[carl-swanson]

Do you want to fund the R & D it will take to get these suckers up and running?

[kreig-kitts]

I imagine the first carbon fibre harps will be lever harps, due to the lower cost of the instruments, less mechanical issues to worry about in design/construction, the fact that many players already use lever harps as their outdoors/travel instruments so it’s a good choice to have in something besides wood, and because at least one maker (Andrew Thom) is already experimenting quite successfully with different designs and materials.

[Christian Frederick]

Oh my Carl…. that’s really dark. If Henry Ford had that attitude, maybe we would all be driving horse and buggy style.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

I know I would love a horse and buggy. That’s nasty to label the preservation of something already wonderful as whatever you said, just because you have gotten a bee in your bonnet. Look what wonderful things progress has done! When you get something right, don’t fix it! I would never play on nor want to play on an instrument that isn’t wood. Wood is a living, responsive element that a plastic can NEVER be. Wood changes and becomes a reflection of you. Not plastic. The idea of making music with an instrument is all about finger, string, wood, and nothing else at all. We don’t need louder instruments. We need quality of tone, beauty. Everything is already too loud. Plastic pianos may sound pretty good, but they are nonetheless inferior. Harps will doubtless or do prove the same. You could make a fiberglass harp, an epoxy harp, a resin harp, any number of things. How about a crystal harp, now that might have some strange qualities. Please. We have already had too much “invention” in the harp-making world. Each new one is worse than the one before. Louder doesn’t make trash better, just more vulgar.

[Christian Frederick]

Kreig,

I checked out Andrew Thom’s website ( http://www.thom.tascom.net/

[unknown-user]

I could not agree more. There is an obsession with volume, and making harps that sound already played in. And some companies seem to be sacrificing beauty of tone quality, focus and depth of sound in the pursuit of boominess. And if a harp already sounds played in, imagine what it will sound like in

[carl-swanson]

Bravo Rosemary. You exactly described the dilema of sound. Everybody wants the sound of a 40 year old harp on a brand new instrument, but the only way to get that, and I mean THE ONLY WAY, is to make the board too thin. And in a couple of years it is pulled up.

Also, a lot of people mistakenly confuse BIG sound with GOOD sound. Harps with a big boomy sound are muddy to play. A good sound to me is one with a clear, full and rich attack, followed by a quick decay. The other thing about sound is that a great deal of it comes from the harpist, not the harp. I’m not particularly finicky about the sound of a harp, because the sound when I play it comes from me and my technique(as well as my fat fingers!). These harpists who are constantly finding fault with the sound of every instrument they play drive me nuts. If they knew how to produce a good sound, they could do it on any instrument. By the way, almost 100% of the time, the most finicky harpists are the amateurs. I never hear these endless complaints from good professionals.

[rosalind-beck]

Sound:

[barbara-brundage]

I don’t think tiny has all that much to do with this Rosalind. A dud is a dud whether it’s small or large. Listen to a good Wurlitzer A or a Dusty next to a 23. You may not like the sound quality as much, but they are certainly capable of a large sound, (if not as much low register in the Dusty). If you’ve ever seen Ray do his thing where he plays both a concert grand and a lever harp, there’s not the enormous difference in volume there is between a Daphne 40 (especially the South American ones) and almost any other harp model.

[barbara-brundage]

especially the South American ones

should have been “specifically the South American ones”

[carl-swanson]

Roselind- I didn’t mean to imply that I can make a Daphne 40 string sound like an old 23. Not at all. What I’m saying is that if I play 5 different 23’s, I don’t really care that much about the individual qualities of each one, (unless one has a serious dead spot for instance), because my technique can even out small inconsistancies and can warm up(to some extent) a cold bright sound for example.

[sherry-lenox]

I played a Luis and Clark viola

[rosalind-beck]

Carl, your clarification of your prior comment makes sense. I agree that solid technique can overcome some undesirable characteristics of an instrument.

[barbara-brundage]

If it makes you feel any better, Rosemary, a friend of mine has one of those early Daphnes for outdoor weddings and she describes hers as “a log with strings on it.”

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