Old Harp

[Lacy Burnett]

Hello to all! I am new to the forum and am looking for some help. I’m an amateur harpist, and I own 2 lovely working folk harps, and one large older harp that’s just for pretty. However the “just for pretty” harp bugs me, because while it hopefully had a good long life of music, I know nothing about it. My wonderful brother bought it for me at a thrift store, thinking it would be a nice decoration, and it’s a type of harp that I’m unfamiliar with. It has no markings that I can see to identify the builder, and an unfortunate amount of damage. I doubt very much it could be played again, but could be wrong.
Could anyone here give me some info on what sort of harp it is? It would be nice to be able to give some background for it to visitors and such!
Thanks in advance!

[john-strand]

Looks like some kind of Paraguyan harp to me – some closeups of the neck area without the drape would help however, it looks to me like the strings go up through the center of the neck and that’s one characteristic of those harps – you might try a google picture search on “paraguyan harp” and see if pics come up that are similar to yours –

It also looks to me like you have it leaning against a niche in the wall – that’s also characteristic as they are not built to “stand up” – the strings also look closely spaced – nice color to the wood

well, have fun with your search –

[Lacy Burnett]

Thanks, John! I wondered if that might be the answer, but the funny thing is, the strings don’t go through the center, they are actually on the side like a traditional celtic harp. It does have to lean back though, and the front pillar is very light. I think it’s built for a much lighter tension than my other harps, and the strings have no coloring on them at all.

[Tacye]

There are lots of different Latin American harp models- Paraguayan is
generally the best known, but there are many others which don’t have the
split neck.

[Lacy Burnett]

Thanks Tacye! I’ll do some research on that and see what I come up with. I wonder if I posted some pics of the damage, could anyone tell me how far gone this poor thing is?

[diana-lincoln]

It looks like it has sound holes on the soundboard. Harps I’ve seen with this are sometimes wire harps. What are the strings made of? If it is a wire harp, that might narrow down the search…It is very pretty!
Good luck!
Diana L.

[Lacy Burnett]

I wondered about that, Diana, but all the strings that are on it now seem to be nylon. Who knows how recently those were put on though.

[Lacy Burnett]

Here are some pictures of the damage, is there any hope left for this poor harp?

This is at the back right at the bottom.

This runs nearly the full length of one of the back panels, and looks like someone once tried to glue it together rather badly.

[Tacye]

I would have a lot of hope for that harp.

[Lacy Burnett]

Thanks! Do you know anyone who could tell me more about replacing the strings?

[Tacye]

I would repair the cracks and see if the harp seemed to be in playable order with the existing strings before jumping in to replace them.

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