Soundboard repairs?

[lindsay-williams]

This is kind of a tragic first post to make, but I have a question about soundboard repairs.

I purchased my very first “real” harp today, through a transaction I found on Craigslist. It’s a Troubadour V, built around 2004, and was billed as being in perfect condition.
I’m sure the seller didn’t know, but a few hours after I got it home, I noticed some cracks in the soundboard right beside and parallel to the strings. Earlier, at the sellers house and mine, we thought they were dark markings in the grain of the wood. If I shine a flashlight on the cracks, I can see the light pretty clearly through the wood on the other side.

[dawn-penland]

I’m no expert but we had an old pedal harp that the soundboard lifted so high, I think it was splitting along the sides of the strings.

[carl-swanson]

If you can get a qualified technician to look at it as soon as possible I would do that. If not, I think you should get your money back on the instrument. A new soundboard on a troubadour is likely going to cost you $1,200 to $1,500 and may just not be worth the investment.

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Is it the veneer or the sound board underneath?

[Dwyn .]

This isn’t necessarily a huge problem.

[barbara-low]

When you say “parallel to the strings,” are the cracks running along the center strip of the soundboard? It really should be looked at by a technician. I’d be very hesitant to purchase a harp with cracks in the soundboard, especially if you can see light coming through the cracks on the other side.

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