Delacour Levers – a new star is born

[bernhard-schmidt]

Hi,

I just come back from the harpvestival at Dinan, France.

For some time there was always rumor

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

They are intriguing looking. Do they raise the pitch 1/2 step, and then another 1/2 step as discs do?

I always thought the Norris levers were clever, but these kind of look more interesting, depending on what they are able to do.

Briggs

[carl-swanson]

Bernhard– The big question is: How much do they cost? They look expensive. And Americans, thanks to the disastrous economy created by George Bush and the Republican party, have to add 60% to the price because of the lowered value of the dollar. I suspect that they are way too expensive for practical use.

And before anybody jumps on me over this, the question is this. If you buy a 36 string lever harp and these levers cost say, $20 per lever, then the levers alone, without the cost of installing them, is $720. Installing them will bring the total cost to at least $1,000, and probably more. So instead of paying say $3,000 for your lever harp, the cost goes up to $4,000 if it has these levers.

[katerina]

Hi, Bernard,

They look really nice – both appearance and construction, – but I join Carl about price question.

We are making our Selena levers with a kind-of-the-same principle, but cheap enough.

Am I blind or they are particulary moulded?

[bernhard-schmidt]

Briggs,
no, they raise a semitone like a

[Bonnie Shaljean]

They look interesting and attractive, but in addition to the important question of their cost: What do they sound like (particularly in preserving the high frequencies)?

[kathy-chanik]

I also saw these levers last year at the Big Sky festival, I think I was in the Dusty STrings booth at the time.

[barbara-brundage]

> I’m afraid it might be hard to grab, especially on the fly.

Yes, they do not look player-friendly at all.

>the only really important thing is what do they SOUND like…

Well, not if I can’t move them while playing. I can think of at least one existing lever make that is less popular than it would be if you could easily find and flip it.

[barbara-brundage]

Oops, forgot to say, “Hi, Kathy!”

[jennifer-buehler]

I’m also curious as to how much they weigh.

[bernhard-schmidt]

I cant answer all the questions about the levers. The reason for posting

[kathy-chanik]

Pedal harps also use a “fork” system to make flats and sharps, and all I know is that a pedal harp sounds much better in Cb-when all the strings are open, than they do in C#, when all the forked discs are engaged.

[barbara-brundage]

Also, David (I think that’s who) and a few others over the years have used levers with a fork system in the past, as does the Dilling harp, although those work differently, of course.

[Bonnie Shaljean]

> It will take some time till they arrive to the first US harpmaker and
slowly you will have harpists working with them and they will give
infos.
I think that’s the way it goes…

But – if these levers have not been tested by actual use on any harp, then someone is having to buy them in order to try them out, without a known track record or experience to judge by.

[bernhard-schmidt]

Bonnie,
I tested the levers

[Author]

Posts