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Lily, I enjoyed reading this older thread again. I understand completely why you ended up buying the cherry FH34S! (Your “Lily White” dream harp!) My lever harp experience finally led me to buy, in 2015, the lever harp of my dreams, the cherry FH36S, “Cherie,” with Camac levers. Like you have said, there is just something about the sound of the cherry wood that totally appeals to me, when all the other types of wood were just “close.” I, along with you, felt that the walnut was a little too dark. On the other side, too bright, were the maple and bubinga. Until the cherry, I had never been completely pleased with a Dusty harp. Previous to Cherie, I had indeed owned a very nice Ravenna 34, but when I discovered Cherie, I traded in the Ravenna without another thought. I have never regretted my decision. I am primarily a pedal harpist, and dearly love my Camac maple Atlantide Prestige. But when I play the lever harp, Cherie is my favorite “little harp!”
Best wishes in your new dream harp journey,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Thank you, Jerusha! I just noticed this thread. Carl’s books are always the best! I will have to listen to the samples of the new pieces. So far, all of them have been lovely, and great sight-reading material. I can’t believe that these beauties were not published during Tournier’s lifetime. They are invaluable to harp students, and should prove to be very popular with harp teachers!
Harp Hugs and best wishes,
BalfourKeep trying, Lily! I sometimes have to “crop” a photo to get it small enough to work here. I wonder if the Harp Column staff could improve this by allowing a larger file size.
Thanks for trying to send a photo of your Lily White harp. We can’t wait to see her!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)So glad to read all of this, Lily! We love that a black-lacquered cherry harp is called “Lily White.” Your harp is certainly deserving of the deeper meaning of “Lily,” as you said.
So glad you have found your dream harp. We send special hugs to you and “Lily.” Play her a lot for your sweet husband, as I do for my sweet wife!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Hello Lily!
We are so glad to hear your news! That is indeed a fine harp, and I love my Dusty FH36S in cherry. I used her (Cherie) to do two Christmas concerts recently, to rave reviews (of the harp, ha, ha!). The wood-workers in my audiences admire the beautiful natural cherry wood and the elegant workmanship of Dusty Strings harp makers.
We wish you many happy hours with your new dream-harp!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone! I am so pleased with my New Nylgut strings that I can hardly keep my hands off my beautiful harp, ha, ha! Angelica has never sounded better. It is like having gut strings all the way to the top of the harp, and I don’t have to adjust my plucking technique to accommodate the former nylon strings in the 2nd, 1st, and Zero octaves. The overall sound and tonal improvement is really something to behold, and everyone who has heard this harp since the “transformation” has been enthusiastic about the New Nylguts!
Hope all of you are playing beautiful harp music for your special Valentine!
Harp Hugs,
BalfourI did some research, so here it is for you all to enjoy! Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!
We carry the following strings at Vanderbilt Music:
Vanderbilt Classic Gut
Has a clear, bright tone.
Excellent quality, durable and loved worldwide.
Has the same precise gauges as Bow Brand Gut.Over 1st octave 1st octave 2nd octave 3rd octave 4th octave 5th octave
Gretchen, do you know if the Vanderbilt gut strings are the same gauge as the Premier? Since all of them are made in France, I wonder if the same company makes and provides both.
Update! I finished installing all sixteen New Nylguts on my Camac Atlantide Prestige concert grand yesterday. I am attaching a photo of the finished effort, so you can see how visible the “heavy whipping cream” color is for the natural Nylgut strings. The F’s are jet-black, and the C’s are a deep, bright red. I am very pleased with the final results. I had to wait a bit for all of the Nylguts to come from Italy, but Curtis at Aquila USA was very prompt with my order. He gets an A+ in customer service!
Have a great harping day, my friends,
BalfourWell, friends, after this much longer, there are bound to be more opinions about the Premier gut strings! I personally prefer them to all the other brands of gut strings that I have tried over these many years. My recent “discovery” of the New Nylgut harp strings, NGH, by Aquila in Italy, has allowed me to have “gut sound” all the way to the top of my Camac Atlantide Prestige. Real gut strings broke too often in the 2nd octave, so I had replaced them, reluctantly, with nylon. Because of the frequent breakage in the 2nd octave, I never tried real gut in the 1st or zero octaves. Nylgut, used for the top 16 strings, sounds amazingly like the Premier gut on my harp. I honestly cannot tell without looking at the strings, where the real gut ends and the Nylgut begins. (I have “tested” this with other listeners, too, and they have all agreed with me!)
I hope there will be more “reviews” of the Premier gut strings, and also the New Nylgut.
Have a great harping day!
BalfourHi Pluck,
Just wondering how this all turned out, and how many times you have replaced your wires since 2020. The pandemic happened in there, of course!
Would love to hear your update.
Best wishes,
BalfourUpdate–after about a month of being on my harp now, the new Nylguts are still doing well and sounding great! I can’t tell without looking at my strings, where the real guts end and the Nylguts begin! One really nice benefit of the Nylguts is the deep, longer sustain, when compared to real gut. Also, as advertised, the Nylguts are not affected by temperature and humidity changes like the real guts and nylons are. This bizarre western-North Carolina winter weather has proven that, ha, ha!
Try it out–you might like it!
BalfourCharles, it is interesting that Camac made provision on my Atlantide Prestige for the 5th octave A and B to be wire, if the harpist wanted it that way. There are the usual dots on the soundboard for those two additional notes in wire.
Gregg, if you went up those two more notes in wire, you would get your wish for what it would look like! Everything would be “uniform” until it changed over to gut on 5-C, a Red string. It does make me think that the stringing would indeed look better if 5th octave G, A, & B were either all gut, or all wire.
I did think about “looks” when I changed over to the new Nylgut in my 2nd, 1st, and zero octaves. Since the color of the naturals in Nylgut is like “heavy whipping cream,” it does stand out more and would look strange if it ended during a set of 2 or 3 natural strings, compared to either real gut or nylon. It should end where a red C or a black F would help “disguise it,” ha, ha! Incidentally, the Nylgut reds and blacks look just like the other real gut strings in those colors. So far, after about a month now, my Nylguts are doing and sounding great! But that is another thread, ha, ha!
Harp Hugs everyone!
BalfourHi Philippa!
Maybe it’s a “dating harp,” like a “dating dulcimer.” These were made for a man and woman to play together when they were dating. As long as music could be heard being played, it functioned as a self-chaperoning device. Otherwise, my wife says “it looks like two harps ran into each other in the dark,” ha, ha!
Best wishes to you,
Balfour and Carol Lynn
