lyon&healy chicago concert grand??

[Denise Krasicki]

What is there to know about VENUS and why are we being pulled into a discussion about L&H and their harps and prices.

[Maria Myers]

Lots of people go off on tangents on these threads–nothing new here.

[harp guy]

I agree. I don’t think that it was a post that was necessarily saying anything about Venus harps, but rather challenging what had been said about Lyon and Healy. I mean, if one company can produce a quality, all American-made instrument at decent prices, why should another company have to outsource in order to do the same?

[Denise Krasicki]

Who’s complaining Maria… she asked what and why about VENUS so I provided a very compressed

[Maria Myers]

Oshiya brought up Venus, and you said this.. ” why are we being pulled into a discussion about L&H and their harps and prices”.

[tula-ruggiero]

If you’ll notice, I was actually the first person to ask the question about Venus being built in the US but being less expensive. I am glad to receive an answer, but resent being called “silly” for asking. I am a professional performer and teacher. I must regularly advise students and their parents on the harp buying process (mostly lever harps but sometimes pedal as well). It certainly does make a difference on the consumer end how much harp models cost, and people want to make sure they are getting a quality instrument when spending thousands. It is unrealistic to assume that people who have nothing to do with the business end of these companies are going to automatically know how they determine their profit margins. I have been impressed with the quality of Venus harps each time I have tried one or heard one. I believe they are comparable instruments to the other major brands available here. These kind of reactionary posts, however, concern me.

[carl-swanson]

Jerusha- I think it is important for the consumer to know where parts were manufactured, even if the company says the product was made(or assembled) in the US. Chinese manufacturing is notorious for using unsuitable materials to make products that are then sold in other parts of the world, often with disastrous consequences. We’ve already seen recalls of toothpaste and dog food that were contaminated and potentially poisonous. There is another much bigger disaster looming in the building trade. Thousands of houses were built in the 1990’s using Chinese made plaster board(also called wall board). These houses now have toxic fumes in them that turn the copper pipes black and corrode the air conditioning units. They also make people very sick and many have had to move out of their homes because of this. I think that ultimately these homes(probably 10’s of thousands of them) will have to be torn down. In any event they will be impossible to sell.

Several years ago I got a very long email from a man in Norway. He had bought a brand new 23 and now, 6 months later, one of the steel pedal bars(inside the pedestal, to which the actual brass pedal is attached) had broken into 2 parts! In my whole career I have never heard of this happening, because those pedal bars are supposed to be made out of cold rolled steel, which couldn’t possible do this. The man then went on to say that he had ordered and gotten a replacement pedal bar and whoever packed it had inadvertently included a little note from the box of pedal bars at the factory that said “bad steel. Do not use.” Since that email I have been made aware of two other harps that have had exactly the same problem. Now, I don’t know where those pedal bars were made, but it is obvious that whoever made them substituted a cheaper unreliable steel. The final product looked OK, but failed in a short amount of time when used. So my questions to the company would be, 1) where are your metal parts made? 2) what other parts have you had fail? I mean, would you want to be playing a performance wondering if some metal part on the instrument was going to break and leave you with an unusable instrument? It’s unfortunate that these questions even have to be asked. But failures like that indicate that the company is not watching closely how it’s parts are manufactured.

[Denise Krasicki]

This list goes on and on Carl of so many products in so many fields.

[Maria Myers]

“The question has
been raised many many times, more than I care to count about where
L&H and VENUS are made and why is VENUS cheaper which is a bad term
to use since it connotates quality, less expensive would be the proper
terminology.. and its been answered many times at least for VENUS.

[Jerusha Amado]

Carl,

I agree with you.

[dawn-penland]

Rose Ann,

Back to the L & H 85 CG, it’s a very nice harp.

[carl-swanson]

Jerusha- I’ve recently stopped using standard screws that are available at big hardware stores because they are all made in China and the heads keep breaking off. Now I use stainless steel screws because stainless steel is so much harder and I never have a problem with the heads breaking. This is what I mean about using the wrong material to make a product. The Chinese are very good at making a product look like it has been made correctly when in fact it has not. And the trouble starts later when it’s much more difficult to do anything about it.

[Jerusha Amado]

Carl,

I am glad that you are concerned about quality.

[o. t.]

Thank you, Maria. I don’t mean to offend VENUS harps in any way.

I was just pointing out that if one company can sell at one price range while maintaining its quality, another company is likely able to do the same.

[luanne-oreilly]

I purchased a Chicago Petite in March.

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