choosing a harp – prelude 40 or dusty strings?

[Gregg Bailey]

Hi, Balfour,

What you described about gut strings on Dusty harps resulting in the loss of their signature sound is one thing I’ve wondered about. I wonder how a gut-strung Ravenna sounds compared to the Boulevard since it’s mostly a difference of tension. Similarly, I wonder how the Salvi Ana sounds strung in lever gut compared to pedal gut. I’m thinking about eventually getting a Boulevard as a lightweight alternative to my heavier L&H pedal-tension lever harps. I’m sure I’ll eventually be one of those who has several harps!

[Gregg Bailey]

Hi, “tiredof…,”

What finish did you choose for your new Prelude 40?

I recently ordered a new Prelude 40 in natural from one of the harp centers that they just so happened to have in-stock, and it arrived a few days ago. I mostly really like it, but I’m about to post a separate thread describing some issues that you may want to read.

-Gregg

[wil-weten]

Greg, I read the post with the issues of your new Prelude in my mail. You may have tried to add something to that post, but the software of this forum has some annoying bugs, one of them being that the whole message dissappears when you add or change something in your message.

Anyway, it’s obvious that you got a harp that somehow managed to escape the quality control you may expect from the factory and the shop where you bought the harp.
Frankly, if I were in your shoes, I would demand the shop to take it back and pay you all your money back, including all the transport costs you made.

[tiredofpickingaddresses@hotmail.com]

I ended up choosing the black. I’m not crazy about the mahogany, and the natural can come in so many different variations, and I’ve read about the colouring with age. It would be one thing If I could pick one out in person. Black is black, so it should be consistent. I do like the wood grains on the folk harp styles, but I do find the ebony finish classy and reminds me of grand pianos, so I’m sure I’ll love it, but not the fingerprints that get left behind. I’ll just have to keep it clean.

[balfour-knight]

Gregg, lever gut is about three notes thinner in gauge than pedal gut for the same note. Check with Bow Brand to get the string diameters for sure. I don’t have the chart in front of me right now, but I think that it would be like this–for middle C on a pedal harp, one would use an E string gauge (E above middle C) for middle C if you used lever harp gut gauges. Biagio said that the cows don’t know the difference, ha, ha! The gut material is the same for pedal gut and lever gut; it is just a smaller gauge on the lever harp for any given note.

I have played both on Dusty harps. The lever gut feels slightly thinner, of course, and is a little more like the nylons in tension and in sound. When pedal gut is used, there is less sustain and a “tighter” feel when plucking the strings, and you have to work harder to get the tone out of the harp. Too bad you can’t experience this for yourself right now. Maybe you can in the near future.

Best wishes,
Balfour

[Gregg Bailey]

Hi, Wil,

I tried to edit/add to my post about the issues with my new Prelude 40 several times last night, but my message was eventually marked as spam and discarded. I fortunately was able to click the Back button in my browser to get to the last version of my text so I could copy-paste it to my computer. Then, every time I tried to resubmit the post, I kept seeing an error message saying that a duplicate was being detected and that it looks like I “already said that.”

I’ve emailed one of the forum admins who initially got me setup to be able to post. If I’m ultimately unable to re-post that message as a separate thread, maybe I can then try to post it here so that the original poster of this thread can at least read it, though I wonder if I’ll see the “duplicate” error again even trying to post it in this thread.

I don’t think I’m unhappy enough with the harp to send it back, but I feel somewhat let-down in the quality control of L&H.

[Gregg Bailey]

Hi, TiredOfPickingAddresses,

My Troubadour V has the ebony finish; it is quite a classy look, as you say, though nicks and dings show up much more. I feel the same as you about mahogany stains; that’s my least favorite look of the 3 options, though I wouldn’t turn one down if given to me! My new Prelude 40 that I just got last week is in natural finish, and I really like the look of it. The top of the column has some interesting geometrical designs using different pieces of wood that are probably completely obscured with the ebony finish, but I’m sure yours in ebony will look amazing!

My main gripe with my new harp is that the alignment of the soundbox on the base isn’t right; the left side is about 3/8″ closer to the front of the harp base than the right side of the soundbox is. Luckily, it’s not off by enough to be readily apparent to most people, but it’s bugging me. There are other things, too, that I want to mention; if I’m unable to post my original message about it as a separate thread, I’ll try to post it here in your thread so you can read it.

-Gregg

[Gregg Bailey]

Hi, Balfour,

I’ve also been in communication with Sylvia Woods; she indicated that it’s largely her “fault” that the folk harp makers here in the U.S. use nylon strings by default because, back in the day, she told them she wouldn’t sell their harps if strung in gut. She recounted a time when she was tuning up for a collaborative gig using a gut-strung harp, and 2 C-strings in the middle of the harp popped right before she went on stage (probably due to high humidity, she said), so she had to play the whole gig without those C’s. Ever since then, she has sworn to not play on gut strings. It’s funny to wonder if Dusty Strings would’ve otherwise used gut by default all these years and would therefore have had a completely different signature sound!

-Gregg

[tiredofpickingaddresses@hotmail.com]

If I had all mahogany furniture, then I might have considered it, or if it had some amazing grain patterns, but as it, it’s my least favourite. I noticed that a lot of pedal harps seem to be the natural colour, and I wondered if that isn’t just because it makes the instrument more visible on stage, where often the floor and backgrounds are black (or dark).

Nicks and dings are a concern with choosing the ebony, but I’m hoping to not move it around much. Down the road, I’ll get one of those padded transport covers.

[balfour-knight]

A correction to my last post, above! According to my charts, middle C pedal gut is 1.45 mm, and the same note in lever gut is 1.25 mm. 1.25 is the same as F above middle C is in pedal gut, not the E that I thought it was. Sorry for the error!

Best wishes,
Balfour

[Gregg Bailey]

I was able to get my post approved where I go into detail about the issues with my new Prelude 40; the fact that I had tried to attach photos that were too large in file size may have been the problem.

-Gregg

[Gregg Bailey]

Balfour,

Thanks for the info about string guages; it’s very interesting!

-Gregg

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