Heartland Harps going all-carbon fiber

[Carm Zephyr]

Oh wow,
There must really be a demand on harps made entirely of carbon fibre. I don’t want to say it’s a shame that they won’t be making wooden harps anymore but the heartland wooden harps are so beautiful. It’s funny I feel like this as I am all for new technology.

[mark-andersen]

I’m absolutely thrilled to hear this news. I would LOVE a pedal harp in carbon fiber, even if it were to be a single action harp, I’d still love it.

The sound of these new Heartland CF harps is spectacular. I just wish they made a more “concert” looking model similar to the L&H Prelude. So many of my playing jobs could be done on one of these and for someone dealing with Multiple Sclerosis it would be a God-send. Unfortunately at present my jobs all call for a concert style harp rather than a Celtic style so I’ll be watching their website and as soon as they offer something in a more classical style, I’ll grab the checkbook.

Many thanks for the great innovations and additions to the world of harps.

[kreig-kitts]

I think if a carbon fiber pedal harp comes out, it will be a second harp for most professionals who have it, for outdoor playing

[deb-l]

Carbon fiber addresses the main concerns with harp, durability and weight.

[tony-morosco]

I don’t think that anyone should have any fear that wood harps are going to all be replaced with carbon fiber some day. After all we have had electric harps for quite a while now but they still haven’t replaced acoustic.

These same arguments were being made when Les Paul and Leo Fender started playing around with solid body electric guitars. People said they didn’t sound like guitars, they had too much plastic and metal, they were going to ruin the legacy of guitar music, etc…

But the world found that there was room for both acoustic and solid body electric, and each had it’s place. And the electric guitar has probably gotten more people into making music than any other instrument ever invented. It practically single handed created several new genres of music, and expanded the musical landscape for all time.

There will always be wood, acoustic harps, just as there will always be wood, acoustic guitars. The sound of carbon fiber will have it’s place just as the sound of electric has its place and each instrument will fill its niche and the world will go on with everyone still able to make the music they want on the kind of instrument they want.

Heartland clearly thinks that it can do something unique by trying to be the first to fill this particular niche. Good for them. That takes innovation and vision. I wish them the best.

[Karen Johns]

Well put, Tony. Well put indeed.

[deb-l]

to each his own I guess, I for one will not be hopping on the bandwagon.

[kathy-chanik]

For me, it’s like your wardrobe of clothes. You don’t have one outfit that suits all occasions, do you? Same with harps, if you can swing it financially. We’re lucky in the harp world to have so many options-acoustic, electric, big, small, wire, fluorocarbon strings, cross-strung and more. This is why I have several different harps-well, at least that’s my story and I’m sticking to it for hubby purposes. If you could only have one harp you might not want a carbon fiber one, but it has its place for its many unique features.

The carbon fiber harps sound pretty good, altho they can tip over kind of easily. I’d be a little worried about an even taller pedal harp in a wind. Dave Woodworth sunk a LOT of money into the R&D on this project tho, and I think we should all thank him for pushing the envelope in the harp world. It seems to me the lever harp world is so much more innovative than the pedal harp world…

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

The problem is when people can’t distinguish between carbon fiber and wood, or use them indiscriminately, and as there are already carbon fiber pedal harps (in part), it is already a problem if you care about the difference. Camac harps have a carbon-fiber layer in the sounding board. I think that is why they sound quite different in certain ways.

Loving an instrument, to me, is about loving wood, because I have only ever played wooden instruments, even flute (or maybe ebonite isn’t wood). Wood responds to its player and changes according to how he/she plays, the fibers actually change their alignment. I somehow doubt carbon fiber does that. I use plastic in a generic sense for synthetics. Is the carbon petroleum derived? I thought they were working on using kevlar, which I thought was flouride. Maybe I missed a thread that explained it all. Carbon fiber is fine for some playing or synthetic sound, but I won’t readily accept it for concert playing. The response is different, with some real limitations. But then, I only “accept” one kind of harp, with

[helen-rudd]

Saul,
I would have agreed with you completely sight unseen thinking there is no way that a harp that was not all wood would sound at all acceptable….then I started taking lessons with a new instructor who teaches at a school that has a Camac. The first time I touched it I asked her why it sounded so good. How I could get so much sound out of it with so little pressure and why the upper and lower registers were equally beautiful (no muddiness in the lower register and no tinky/tinny upper register) If this is an example of what carbon fiber can do for a harp I am all for it. I would also be interested in a carbon fiber pedal harp for playing outdoors. I love to sit on my porch and play but can only do so for a couple months out of the year because of the weather here in western PA.

[Tacye]

Saul,
Ebonite is not wood, it is a hard rubber.

I am amused that your distaste for synthetics does not extend to Nylon strings, which are unquestionably plastic.

[shelby-m]

I, too, like what Tony said.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

They made rubber flutes?

I don’t think nylon strings are ideal, but in the upper range I prefer their responsiveness and the longer duration of the tone, and the luminous quality. If I hadn’t been taught to use them, I might not have, but the positive qualities they have make up for any shortcomings, or at least I hope so. I can’t switch to gut in any case. But I definitely don’t like gut in the second octave or higher.

The Camac harps I have heard sound very good, just up to a point. The newer ones may be different. They don’t reverberate to the same degree I expect, I don’t hear the overtones enough, and their response to sforzando notes seems, the only word for it I can find, that they bark. The notes leap out, without context and perhaps die off too quickly without supporting ringing of other strings. The aura of tone is not the same. It’s maybe the last 10 percent of tone quality, the 90 percent is there, but for a recital, that last 10 percent is all important to me. I haven’t played on one, to know how it feels under the fingers, but I go by the sound.

I would like something other than nylon, but have not found anything suitable, and at least they are made of petroleum product, which is sort of natural.

I wonder if anyone has tried making silicone strings.

[harp guy]

Flutes:

Actually, when a synthetic material is used for flute making, regardless of name (ebonite, grenaditte, etc.) they often use the same fiber glass based polymer. Each company has different recipes for the concoction of course. So depending on what it looks like it could be either ebonite (as in used for bowling balls and is generally found in ‘ebay special’ imported instruments) or grenaditte (as is more commonly used). Ebonite is shiny, and grenaditte has a matte finish. The only companies that I know that use anything similar to actual ebonite are companies geared towards student model piccolos. They however generally use a resin based plastic.

Source: I’m a long term flutist who will probably end up in flute-making as my ‘job.’

[jennifer-buehler]

I’ve yet to play for a bride (even the musicians) that knows the difference between a lever harp and a pedal harp.

[Author]

Posts