Need advice which would be a better choice. Looking to get a harp for my 12 year old girl who completely fell in love with harp at her new school but can only practice 2x a week at school and sometimes even cancelled due to other school activities. She wants to be able to practice more often. We live in Singapore and the harp community is very small. Options to buy here is only Camac showroom. And another seller on Harpsicles and Aoyama and that is it!
She listened to a lot of soundclips online and was drawn to the Ravenna and the Teifi. We already checked with both companies on shipping and price includes shipping and taxes here will be comparable in price to the “cheapest” Camac sold locally here (Hermine, i think) which unfortunately she is not drawn to the tone. She is drawn to strong base. Likes pop and lively music. Not so much on classical – though she like Pachelbel Canon in D a lot. She has no intention to moving to Pedal Harp and wants to build her compentency on Lever. Pedal does not appeal to her at all.
Can anyone give feedback which would be better for her given her likes and concerns? I know there is a lot of Ravenna owners and fans here who have spoken about the rich tone. =) We know no one locally who has these harps. Here are her thoughts based on what she has seen and heard only online….
RAVENNA
– what she likes: the tone is rich; strong bass; plus point in the looks department that it can be in black,
– what her concern are: seems broad at the neck; worried it might not be so comfortable; sustain is longer than what she would have liked. (She prefers the tone and shorter sustain of the Boulevard actually but she doesn’t want a stronger tension. She said her fingers get sore already playing the school Aoyama Lever harp. We have already asked Dusty if we can either use Silkgut (as we heard lighter tension vs gut) on Ravenna -they said the tone will still not sound like the Boulevard plus they haven’t tried Silkgut on their harp)
TEIFI SIFF SAFF
– what she likes: seems like rich sounding mid and bass (anyone can share how the mid and bass of Teifi vs Ravenna is in realy life?; plus point in the looks department is that it can be black and the fancy looking semitone lever (not to mention what seems to be very good reviews on the teifi levers)
– what her concern are: the upper notes sounds like plunking piano – (but some youtube clips it sound ok. some the high notes doesnt sound pleasant but she is not sure if it is due to the harpist or the song being played)
We are also going down the Camac Showroom to listen to Aziliz and Janet but I think this will set me back at least S$2k more….. eeep….