Where do the bad harp go?

[Evangeline Williams]

Carl Swanson’s book has info on evaluating used harps.

[barbara-brundage]

>a GOOD harp in a pawn shop, for, oh, say $500

If you ever find a harp from a maker currently in business for that price, your first course of action should be to call the manufacturer and ask about the serial number. The odds are it is stolen.

A friend of mine had a harp of his that was stolen turn up almost ten years later in the back room of a pawn shop. Someone was going to buy it, but had the sense to call L&H first. Otherwise she would have lost her money and the harp.

Erards, lindemanns, etc are another story, but also much more difficult to get put into working order.

[unknown-user]

I hear ya!

[kreig-kitts]

Harp hell?

[rosalind-beck]

No.

[David Ice]

Some

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Harp Hell: A never-ending production of Die Walkure, that is nothing but the Magic Fire Music repeated ad infinitum.

Tuning harps endlessly in 100% humidity with air conditioning going off and on every half-hour.

Playing an endlessly repeating “The Fantasticks” with a beefed-up percussion part for the harpist, an 80-year-old actress playing the Girl, two children playing the Fathers, a Mute who keeps talking, an El Gallo who ****s everyone in the production, a Boy who goes off-pitch on all his high notes, all for Off-Broadway union scale, only you never get a paycheck; and you have to play on a 150-year-old harp.

Teaching a beginner who has no memory, so every lesson you have to start over again from scratch.

Constantly being required to show up for rehearsal in Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic, only you are in pajamas or nothing at all, have no music, and they expect you to play on a square harp with no pedals, or a double-size harp with twice as many strings, and you are subbing.

[unknown-user]

Yeah, can you imagine!

[Evangeline Williams]

Yeah, pawn shops I’d be skeptical about modern harps for cheap.

[Elizabeth Volpé Bligh]

Remember that book “101 Uses for a Dead Cat”? We could publish a similar book “101 Uses for a Bad Harp”. Some possible uses: doorstop, garden gate, planter, wind chime, firewood, backwall for tennis practice, cheese grater for giants. Add some chapters for uses of bad harp bits such as bad harp strings, bad harp discs, bad harpists!!, bad harp music, bad harp rods, and you’ve got a book!

[Tacye]

How can you tell if it is worth fixing?

[diane-michaels]

There was one very unloved harp at Oberlin.

[Evangeline Williams]

Tacye-Any idea who bought that one?

[unknown-user]

Hi John,

I’m so glad to hear that you are back. Now, I’m so sorry to have teased you so badly in the past. I think you have a really good point here. Where do you think the bad ones go?? Would love to hear your opinion.

Cheers.

[unknown-user]

Just curious but how do you protect harps from woodworm and other insect infestations?

[Author]

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