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Park Stickney plays a Lyon & Healy, and he really puts it through its paces! And, of course, Jakez Francois, head of Camac Harps, is a pop and jazz harpist himself.
Harp Hugs,
BalfourHello Jaydg and Charles,
I just caught up with this thread. Charles, your advice was remarkable!
Just a word of caution to anyone else reading this: if you have a Camac pedal harp, the discs work differently than they do on traditional makes of harps. The discs do not “screw on,” but are attached to their spindles with a friction cone system. The conical end of the spindle which extends out from the front action plate is inserted into the disk, and the tightening screw wedges the disk onto the spindle, locking the two together by friction. Also, the natural discs turn counter-clockwise to engage, and the sharp discs turn clockwise when the pedal is used, so one set of screws has regular threads, and the other set has reverse threads. All this is explained in the Camac manual, of course, but I would not want someone to get Carl’s book and try to regulate a Camac harp with it! Otherwise, I agree with Charles, Carl’s book is great, and I used it very much over the years when working on my Lyon & Healy harps.
Hope you get your harp working well, Jaydg! Sorry I came in to this pretty late.
Best wishes,
BalfourInteresting about the Camac levers–I have found them very easy to regulate on my Dusty FH36S. Of course, Dusty installed them very well to begin with, and I can fine-regulate them just by turning the bridge pins slightly. I have never had to actually move the entire lever up or down. There is a good article by Dave Thormahlen on his harp website about regulating Camac levers, and why he thinks they are the best lever out there. I totally agree with him!
Harp Hugs,
BalfourUpdate–we just got our new 2022 Subaru Outback! With the front seats positioned comfortably for us, the Camac Atlantide Prestige concert grand at 74.25″ tall even has 5 inches to spare, with the column positioned behind the driver’s seat and the harp laid straight into the cargo area, no angling required. The large boot (rear gate) opening makes loading the harp a breeze. We are thrilled with all this extra room, since the harp was rather crowded in our former Forester. We now know why folks love the Outback so much–it is wonderful in every way. We heartily recommend it as a harp-cart!
Harp loading hugs,
Balfour and Carol LynnHi Rachel,
Did you get the Salvi transport cover? Hope so and that it fits your Venus harp really well!
Our snow in NC wasn’t enough for us, ha, ha, so we are “vacationing” in Snowshoe, West Virginia, where there is really deep snow, from three to four feet of accumulation! We are looking forward to a horse-drawn sleigh ride this afternoon in this magical “winter wonderland.” Of couse, the songs are playing around in our heads, including “dashing through the snow…….”
Happy harping,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)I finally located this thread, in which Davy plays a new Egerie harp! There are also postings of recordings of him playing other harps. It is so exciting to see his progress and development as a harpist. Enjoy, everyone!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)The Rees team of harp makers are very fine folks. We met them at the Southeastern Harp Weekend in Asheville, NC in 2015. I enjoyed playing practically every harp they brought to that festival, and found their levers to be very satisfactory.
Harp Hugs,
BalfourHello Andre!
So nice to see your post here! It is such a pleasure to see Davy growing up into such a fine young man and a wonderful harpist. His technique and tone production are most excellent on this beautiful Camac. I remember that he liked the new Egerie model, also, and that you posted something a while back of him playing that harp. Thank you so much for sharing this video with all of us. You all must be very proud of Davy and all his hard work!
Best wishes, my friends,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)I have had nightmares about not having the tuning key at a gig! So much so, that years ago I purchased an extra key for each of my harps, and those tuning keys stay packed in the pockets of the harp transport covers. This has actually happened to me only once in my long harp career, and it was at an Easter Sunday church service before I got the extra keys. Luckily, the harp stayed well enough in tune that no one noticed anything.
Harp Hugs!
BalfourHi, Sara Lynn,
Thanks so much for pointing us to that nice video of Jakez telling about the new Egerie. It is a very good interview, and explains why they phased out the Athena and created this new model. Since my Atlantide is new enough to already have this type of construction, I heartily endorse the concept behind this glorious French sound. I think that is exactly what made me fall in love with this harp! To have this new construction technique, based on the antique Erard harps, and to be able to make it more affordable, seems to be the goal of Camac with the Egerie. Now, let’s hear from those harpists who have tried out and own the new model!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)I would love to know this, too. The advantage of the Egerie would be that you would have the full 47 string range of the pedal harp. We have not traveled much since the beginning of the pandemic, so I have not yet experienced the new Egerie. If it is like my glorious Atlantide Prestige in design, then I would heartily recommend it!
Harp Hugs,
Balfour (and Carol Lynn)
