Different harp comparisons?

[Minnesota Harpist]

>The last Camacs I heard are mostly flat and have no sustain, except Aziliz and old Excaliber.<

I have done a search on the Camac Excaliber and this is all I can find.

[Minnesota Harpist]

Also- it’s rather a bit scarey buying used- is there anything one really needs to “watch out for” with a used harp?

[katerina]

I don’t like Camacs. Lowest 3 basses usually don’t sound even on Aziliz. Only levers are lovely. Camac Corrigan is really bad. Aziliz – well, you should be lucky: I saw 5, and only 2 had nice sound.
Thormallen – yes. They are cool and worth their cost.
Heartland (DragonHeart harp) – YES. They are really sweet.
Pilgrim – I tried out just 2 of them and it’s difficult to make statistics on less than 3.

My advise from mentioned is a DragonHeart. You’ll be really happy with it.

[barbara-brundage]

All the harps you’ve mentioned are from reputable makers. You should try them all and pick the one that speaks to you. Each harp is different, even the exact same model in the exact same wood.

[Minnesota Harpist]

Thank you Barbara and especially Katerina.

[jennifer-buehler]

Good Grief.

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

I can think of a few professional harpists who would so agree with you Jennifer. Amen!

Briggsie

[katerina]

Many people – many thoughts.
And all figures out in comparisons. Actually if to put together pedal harps of Camac, Horngacher and Thurau, the result will be obvious, the same like the diference between factory-made lever harp and [good] hand-made lever harp. So, the “second class” here is not an abusement, but a fact.

What Camacs do really have as a great point – their levers. They are really good, fast and correct, and probably the best of existing examples.

[katerina]

Carol, thank you for your kind reply.

If you really want the best lever harp in the world – look here: http://www.thurau-harps.com/harps/folk_harps.htm on Fianna (listed downwards). I played it. I’ve never ever seen or heard anything better. The price-range is relative to Heartland and Thormallen.
Wait-list might be slightly longer, but trust me, it worth this. I own one harp made by Rainer Thurau (and regularly have one other in use), after long search among all existing harpmakers.

Thurau uses Delacour levers (really good) and timber of at least 15 years of seasoning. Quality of woodwork is outstanding (I’m a harpmaker myself and woodwork is quite a relative topic for me). Quality of sound – amazing. The harp is extremly lightweight (5.5-6 kg). Actually, I hardly can imagine anything better.

[Minnesota Harpist]

Briggsie and Jennifer-

[Minnesota Harpist]

Katerina- I did check out that site, but I can’t find where they are located.

[Tacye]

One thing which strikes me about Camac lever harps is how much they vary from each other.

[katerina]

The normal link – http://www.thurau-harps.com
They located in Wiesbaden, Germany (near Frankfurt). The price for Fianna is about 5000 euro, I can’t remember clearly, but in average.
It is a small company with a very long and proud history. They have no dealers in USA, as far as I know. But in the “Testimonials” page you can find quite a few responces from the world top harpists. Somebody are even USA ones.

[Minnesota Harpist]

Tacye,

[Author]

Posts