Please compare Shamrock, Prelude/Troubadour, and Thormahlens

[Jodi Ann Tolman]

I need advice from people who can compare for me the L&H Shamrock, L&H Prelude/Troubadour, and nylon-strung Thormahlens (Serenade or Swan), particularly about their string diameter and tension.

I just recently started harp lessons and am renting a Troubadour just because that was most easily available to me. My harp teacher has a Prelude that I play on for lessons and it is beautiful–both in looks and sound! But yesterday she let me play a bit on her Shamrock harp to feel what a lighter tension harp feels like. I was surprised at how thin and loose the strings felt! And honestly I didn’t like the sound much at all–seemed rather tinny.

I’m trying to figure out what type of harp to purchase eventually, and the Thormahlens look beautiful and from what limited sounds I’ve heard from them, sound beautiful too, but here’s my question… **Do the Thormahlens have as light of string tension as the Shamrock?** Because I felt like I was going to break those strings! My teacher said the Shamrock has gut strings, but they were MUCH thinner than the gut on the Prelude and Troubadour. **Are the Shamrock strings folk gut?** I hear that folk gut are lighter tension than nylon, so **do the Thormahlens have tension closer to the Prelude or Troubadour?**

The Prelude is beginning to be tempting to me, but I like that the Thormahlens have Camac levers and nylon strings that are cheaper to replace. I like the looks of both, but I do like the larger size of the Prelude, however, it obviously would be much harder to take places as it weighs twice as much as the Thormahlen Serenade. I thought I was pretty set on getting a Thormahlen until I played the Shamrock yesterday. I don’t know whether I should let the Shamrock turn me off to the idea of a lighter tension harp. I don’t know if its just the Shamrock I dislike or if all non-concert tension harps are going to not seem as good to me. Any advice from people who can compare the Shamrock and the Thormahlens to the L&Hs (Prelude and Troubadour)?

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