Which Pedal Harp to buy!?

[Helen Tang]

Hi Briggsie,

I bought it from the Australian dealer at http://www.harps.com.au

The Camac harp is indeed very nice. I wish I could play on it the whole day.

[katerina]

I don’t either recommend Aoyama or Camac. 1st sometimes very roughly made and sound is far from delicious. Second… hmm, they are big and heavy, construction is strange and the sound… well, I’ve seen sounding Camacs and not sounding as well. What I really don’t like is that they make some abstract idea of harp, where wood exists very episodically. And the mechanism is very high-tech, but quite strange.
I can rise 2 hands up for L&H. Take Style100 – I brought several of them for Russian harpists and completely satisfied with their price/quality equivalence. As I remember, it lives in the same price level and mentioned Aoyama.

Where in Germany do you live? L&H Europe based in Remagen (near Bonn) and headed by Antoni Gralak; probably you’d better call him and make an apointment to see the harps? If you do, tell him hello from me

Good luck with hunting!

[tony-morosco]

Camac harps are big and heavy?

If someone likes the tone is a personal and subjective thing, as well as if they care for the technological differences between Camac and most other harps,

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

All harps, it seems, have gotten heavier. When I was young, they weighed a mere 78 pounds or less. The necks are bigger, the bases are heavier.

[tony-morosco]

Saul, that just confirms that Camac are lighter than average. If you are saying that

[Dwyn .]

As the owner of a 44 string Stumpff Grecian and a 44 string Venus Cherub, I’d roughly estimate that the Grecian weighs half of what the Cherub weighs.

[tony-morosco]

Also if the base is too heavy it can mess up the balance of the harp when you have it leaning back to play. The harp should be able to rest on your knees without too much pressure, but if the base is too heavy then in order to keep it balanced you have to pull it back too much.

A heavy base makes for good stability when the harp is standing on its own, but not when it is being played.

[Geri McQuillen]

Dear Katerina,

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.

[don morin]

hi….you should really check out virginia harp centers page….they have a some great pedal harps at great prices….i suggest that you go with a camac…they are great harps……VHC has a few in there used section……right now tyhey have a nice camac clio for 12900 us dollars which is something like 8000.00 euros plus shipping….really check them out

[unknown-user]

Tim

Fortunately,I’ve tried 47 Etude before, it is not bad, but I prefer LH personally.

I suppose if you really need it, you can ask Aoyama directly, they may arrange for you.　

I’ve just been to Aoyama Harp Tokyo Showroom in the end of July.I tried lots of Aoyama pedal harps there.I really have good impression about Musa and Monarque.Those of them are made of semilar woods according to the store owner.I was so impressed that there is also Extra large body Musa, which is

[Saul Davis Zlatkovski]

Plastics are lighter than wood.

[Ian McVoy]

Aoyama’s are wonderful instruments and do not have standard action.

[Ian McVoy]

Sorry about that,
Aoyamas are lovely instruments that do have standard action.

[Helen-ELizabeth Naylor]

Hi There

[darhon-rees-rohrbacher]

If any harp teacher would insist that their student purchase a very specific model of harp, I would RUN, RUN, RUN as fast as I can.

All major pedal harp manufacturers build good instruments (Salvi, L&H, Venus, Aoyama, Camac, Horngacher, etc.) Each manufacturer has a distinctive styling, string spacing, tone, balance point, hardware, action, etc. A lot of it amounts of personal preference.

As others have advised, the best thing is to go play a number of different pedal harps and see what “feels” right to you. What is right for one harpist is not necessarily right for another.

Also, living in Europe, you must consider that if you purchase a US-made harp, you will have to pay to ship the harp back to the US should it need major repair – which could be a major expenditure. For that reason, you may want to consider a Camac or Salvi.

Personally, I am a fan of Venus harps. But since they are built in Chicago, it may not be realistic for a European to purchase an instrument whose factory is so far away, since there may not be a regulator available in Europe.

Darhon

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