Carolan Model Irish Harp

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

My student is renting with an option to buy a Carolan Model (No. 732) Harp which says “Made in Ireland Waltons Dublin.”

[barbara-brundage]

Robinson’s in California should have the info on the string gauges and probably strings for that harp. Walton’s was one of the first to get into commercial lever harp production back in the 1970s. Always had big ads in early editions of the folk harp journal when Robbie Robinson was publishing it. Very pretty little harps, but not strongly constructed, so be very careful about which strings you put on. I think Walton’s still sells harps, but now they carry Pakis instead of their own line.

If you’re near an academic library that would have a full set of FHJ or know someone who has a complete set, it’s interesting to see their ads in the older issues.

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

Thanks Barbara.

[barbara-brundage]

I don’t think you can put regular levers on those. The strings lie too close to the neck. That must be one of their earliest harps, because for most of the time they used a lever where the string ran through a square eyelet. In either case I don’t believe it’s a simple thing to swap them out and definitely not worth the expense on that harp.

[barbara-brundage]

You might be able to use robinson levers, but I don’t know that they’d be all that much of an improvement over the blades, really. Definitely not loveland or camac, probably not truitts either. Possibly those strange blade levers of cunningham’s might work. But I wouldn’t do any of the above, if it were mine.

[Sidney Dharmavaram]

Thanks, that’s good info.

[barbara-brundage]

>This old harp has some cracks

I would not buy it in that case. You’ve already indicated that it’s not very suitable for where your student wants to go (jazz/blues), and it’s got to be pretty frail at best, even without the cracks. For what you’re looking at in repairs to this, you could get a decent second hand modern harp that would be much more sturdy, if not as cute.

Hardly anybody anywhere has harp repair available locally. Sending it away is almost always the necessary choice, whether you’re talking lever or pedal, unless you live in a very areas with local harp makers (not luthiers, who usually don’t understand harps at all if they don’t make them) who are willing to repair instruments they didn’t build).

Sorry, but this just doesn’t sound like a wise buy, even if it’s temptingly cheap.

[Tacye]

While I don’t know Walton’s harps, with old harps you need to treat them very much as individuals.

[Jessica Laurn]

I have attached a link of what the harp and cracks look like.

Link: Photos

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