Harp environment / humidity

[Carol Freshour]

Hello all. I have a Ravenna 34 that I purchased in August. I chose that because my research indicated it is the most affordable of the ‘real’ harps. While I like it very much, I hope to someday trade up for something that is solid wood. I have read about cold-weather care and monitoring the humidity. But, I live in a loft with 13′ ceilings, so it’s practically impossible to create a specific environment for the harp (I love how it looks, don’t really want to hide it under the case). When the humidity was hovering around 40% I called the lovely people at Dusty Strings (they must be sick of me by now) and was told, with the construction of the Ravenna, 40% is not really a concern. SO, should I just plan to keep the Ravenna as long as I live in this loft (which I love, so no plans to move)? The carbon fiber harps look cool but are still fairly spendy. Has anyone worked through this issue?

[Biagio]

Climate and in particular rapid changes thereof have more serious effects on high tension harps with solid wood sound boards than on those like the Ravennas, Rharp Merlin, etc. with medium tension and laminate boards. Laminate has an undeserved reputation as “lesser quality” for several reasons: it does not improve in tone as much, and until recently makers did not take as much trouble to tune them as they do with spruce, cedar, redwood, etc. This is a constant discussion among makers but one thing no one denies is that it is much less susceptible to humidity issues.

A good rule of thumb would be “if you are comfortable, so is your harp.”

Biagio

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