Mid-east harps

[hannah-roberts]

So I stopped by the angel boutique where I sometimes play, and the owner shows me a new greeting card she’s just gotten in.
Imagine my surprise to see the Mid-East Pixie harp on a Tree Free Greetings card!
A Mid East Angel
(Sorry I couldn’t manage to embed it in the message!)

[Julietta Anne Rabens]

I’ve encountered a few of these harps and have seen three out of four break. I had a beginning harp student at a college who had limited funds and chose to get one of these Mid-East harps. Within three months the neck formed a crack that grew until it broke in two. She spent close to $400 on the harp and it only lasted a few months. The damage to the neck could easily cost as much to fix as the original cost of the harp. Another one formed a crack on the soundboard along the strings, and the third one began to crack down the center of the back of the body. The wood is low quality and inconsistent in strength.

There is also the issue of sound which is problematic because the soundboards are thick eliminating a lot of vibration, so that the sound of plucking the string is harsher and dies away more quickly than on a regular harp. Even if a person is willing to deal with lower sound quality – you do not have much guarantee how long your instrument will last. I have seen some last a few years at the most, but breakage in three months for $300+ dollars is a problem. You could rent a really great lever harp and possibly a small pedal harp for that same cost.

[Julietta Anne Rabens]

I should mention that I don’t know what happened with the fourth Mid-East harp I saw. It was purchased a few months before I moved to another state. The longest I’ve witnessed one lasting was four years. Maybe some last longer, but I never saw it.

It is heart-breaking to see someone trying to get started on harp and end up with something unreliable. With few funds to start with, the people who tend to buy these harps don’t have $400 to throw away. The manufacturers make sure they look somewhat pretty, but the whole process is exploitative.

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