First harp advise please!

[barbara-brundage]

Well, you know, Nat, many years ago an Italian harpist said to me, “To be the harpist, we must have the strong character.” 🙂

You certainly don’t need to apologize for anything at all.

[Maria Myers]

I don’t play lap harp, but if I ever decide to go into it, I’ll read what Christina has to say.

[Karen Johns]

OMG-LOL!

[sherry-lenox]

As to color, in a very general way cherry tends somewhat more to a rosy or reddish cast and walnut sometimes tends to a more yellowish cast.

Both are beautiful woods.

My cherry Nightingale has also darkened, and is also very beautiful wood.

I am an old, old musician and a new harpist. My Thormalen Serenade has Camacs and my nightingale has Truitts. I take lessons on Prelude that has Performance levers.

For myself, I find Truitts slightly harder to use than Camacs, although I am no fast flipper with either, because it is very tough for me to look at music, strings, levers and back to music and strings. That problem has to do with my age and vision.

I have heard comments here about Camacs being broken, especially on smaller harps. My Thormahlen has taken its share of bumps and nothing (so far) has ever happened to a lever.

I am no harp expert, nor do I play one on TV.

[Zen Sojourner]

I’ve been intrigued about the Camac levers for some time now, having heard about them from other harperists, but my Merlin R-Harp (35 string floor harp) has Loveland levers on it (so does my Blevins Bouree, a 26-string lap harp).

I did ask about the Camacs when Rick was taking my order, but he said he doesn’t use the Camac levers anymore because of repeated problems with breakage.

I do wish I’d known to ask for the longer, gold Loveland levers though.

[barbara-brundage]

>the little blue and red “gems” inset into the black levers (to mark the F and G strings) are impossible to see while playing.

This is no better on the long handled levers. Why not try the Dusty rings on them?

[barbara-brundage]

I should mention, maybe, that I prefer using goody ouchless mini hairbands, since I’ve managed to flip the dusty rings off the lever a few times when I’m in a hurry.

[Briggsie B. Peawiggle]

Karen, I really don’t want to fight with you…or even argue. In an attempt to let you know that there were no hard feelings in one of the earlier posts, I put in a smiley face. That’s the only way I know of to get a feeling across on the written word here. Seriously, there were no hard feelings, and seriously I didn’t mind, and really and truly I didn’t feel there was a need for an apology since there was nothing done to require one. I didn’t mean for you to get angry/upset/whatever. I’m sorry it didn’t come across the right way and that eventually I got frustrated with the discussion.

Briggs

[Karen Johns]

Me too Briggs. I truly like you as a person, and I get frustrated by how things are so easily misunderstood when using such a medium as this. I much prefer face-to-face. BTW, my offer of lunch still stands. I believe I gave you my phone # in a former email. Call me anytime

Karen

[Zen Sojourner]

Actually I can see the red and blue marks fine on the gold Loveland levers on my Blevins Bouree.

[barbara-brundage]

Yes, they go around twice with a little effort and they stay put since they’re very tight.

[Chris Asmann]

The only reason I piped up is because I have personal experience with both the Camac and Truitt levers. I personally *really* regret my choice of the Truitt levers on my smaller travel harp. I explained the reason for this, and wanted the OP to carefully consider both choices.

My opinion is mine only, but if I can let someone know what I find annoying, they can look for those things and see whether or not it matters as much to them. The levers pushing the strings out of alignment with the others is particularly annoying, and might be more apparent on a smaller instrument.

No doubt the Truitts are prettier, and look less obtrusive. I don’t have either of the harps Nat is considering unfortunately. The small harp is already topheavy, a few ounces either way won’t make much difference.

Michaela, I have actually been able to get the problem lever almost right by moving the bridge pin, thanks to Dwight Blevins who was kind enough to walk me through the process. there is precious little adjustment on the lever though, the screw slots really should be longer.

I didn’t mean to start a war over the lever types, just to communicate my experience and hope it helps someone else make the best choice.

Chris

[Karen Johns]

Deja vu! LOL

http://www.harpcolumn.com/forum/message-view?message_id=2222516

This is the thread

[Karen Johns]

Oh whoops! Nat did ask about levers too. Well, hopefully the previous posted thread will help also.

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