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HA! HA! HA!! I could fill a book with the off color jokes and comments she shared with me.
She didn’t tell me exactly how she overcame the problem with her fingers, just that she had in a pretty short period of time, I’m sure with Salzedo hounding her.
Did anyone know that Alice Chalifoux had double jointed fingers?? She showed me and told me about how she had to overcome that.
Metal eyelets are cheaper and can be bought right off the shelf. That’s why the lower priced instruments have them. I have to agree with Saul on this one. A bright metallic edge to the sound is not my idea of a desirable tone. The metal eyelets have a very thin wall and I have known them to split, leaving sharp edges which can cut the string.
Slip and fall. As I was falling backwards, I put my right hand out in back of me to break the fall. I heard both bones break at the moment of impact.
Kay- It would require disassembling the instrument. The reason is that the hole for the brass eyelet is very small. A technician would have to remove the brass eyelets, drill out the hole to fit the nylon eyelet, and then install them. To get a drill in place to drill out the hole in the 1st and 2nd octaves, the harp would have to be disassembled because otherwise the neck and action would be in the way. So it could be done, but it’s not a simple job.
I broke my right wrist in what’s called a spoon fracture. it was awful. Both bones-the Ulna and the Radius- broke near the wrist joint and my right hand and the stubs of broken bone sank down and slid under the broken bones that led up to my elbow. I didn’t need surgery. The wrist was set and my arm put in a cast for 5 weeks. When the cast came off, my lower arm looked like it had been harvested from a cadaver. The muscle was all wasted away. As far as range of motion was concerned, the worst problem was the inability to rotate my hand and wrist. Physical therapy took care of that.
You need to wait until you have completely healed from this to schedule any gigs. Don’t assume that once the cast comes off everything will immediately be back to normal.
I’m reminded of a story that happened to a friend of mine a number of years ago. She regularly rents harps, and rents them so cheaply that people tend to keep them for years. She had rented a 23 to a college student who was pretty unstable. This girl would live someplace without paying rent or the bills until the point came that everything was about to crash in on her. Then she would disappear in the dead of night and start the whole thing someplace else. She sporadically pay the harp rent, just enough to not loose the harp. But my friend had to constantly chase her down and figure out where she had moved to. Finally the girl just disappeared. When my friend finally located the landlord who had rented her the last place, he told my friend that the girl had (again) left in the dead of night, but hadn’t taken any of her possessions. The landlord had sold them off to try to recoup some of the money she owed him. He had sold the harp! My friend tracked down the harp, which by this time was in a repair shop getting rebuilt. The litigation went on for 2 or 3 years until a settlement was reached.
I had an almost identical situation. College girl, moving in the dead of night, etc. Each time I found the next place she had moved to(always a house with other room mates), they were ready to kill her because she had stuck them with her share of the bills. But each time, someone in the house was able to give me a forwarding address. This went on for maybe a year through 4 or 5 addresses. I was always one step behind her. Then I called the number I had been given as her next address and the woman who answered told me the girl was gone and she had no idea where the girl was. I was about to hang up when she asked me why I was calling about this girl. I told her about the harp of mine that the girl had. “So YOU’RE the one who owns the harp!!!”
She then told me how the girl had left in the dead of night and taken all of her stuff except the harp. She didn’t even have the decency to leave a note on it saying who the owner was. The woman on the phone had called the symphony, music schools, music stores, etc. looking for the owner of the harp. In this day and age I would be very very wary about buying a harp from someone I had not checked out thoroughly.
That’s a really good question. I’m usually the one selling an instrument. People know who I am and my reputation for total honesty. So when someone agrees to buy a harp from me, they send me the full payment and then I deliver the harp. No one has ever questioned that situation to me.
But in a private sale a number of issues could come into question. Is the seller the rightful owner of the harp or is this stolen property? If the buyer has not personally examined the instrument nor had someone qualified examine it, is it what the seller says it is?
When I have bought used instruments, I have always examined the instrument first hand and have spoken to the owner and thereby evaluated the general situation and circumstances of the instrument and sale. I have always paid by check. I have always paid at the same time that I went to pick up the instrument.
I know for a fact that at least on one occasion in the past someone has lifted pictures and the description of an instrument I had for sale on my web site and used it as if the instrument was theirs. So there is something to be worried about here, particularly in internet sales.
Thanks Barbara, I’ll check that out. What kind of store are you likely to find it in? Is there such a thing as a billiard supply store?
Whichever insurance company you go with, but in particular if you use your homeowners policy to insure your harp too, make absolutely sure that it is covered for fire, theft, AND ACCIDENTAL DAMAGE. Many homeowners agents will tell you the harp is completely covered, which to them means fire and theft. Also, make sure it is a floating policy, meaning it covers the instrument wherever it is(in the car, at church, etc.).
But I still don’t like using any company that doesn’t specialize in musical instrument insurance. An agency that specializes in musical instrument insurance knows that, if there is a legitimate claim, the instrument’s owner probably has a repairman or company that they are confident in and will want to send the instrument there. A homeowners agent may ask for 3 different bids on the repair work and then will only pay for the cheapest one. They also ask for the most hairbrained information. I repaired an instrument years ago for someone whose harp was insured on her homeowners policy. The agent asked me for an itemized list of materials and cost(how many screws and cost? How much finish and cost? Cost of wood used, etc.). Idiotic questions. So I strongly advise everyone to buy a policy from an agency that regularly insures musical instruments, and even then read the policy carefully.
Barbara- I’m very curious about this. The red stuff that everyone uses to wrap pedals is really a cloth, not a felt. It’s called key bushing cloth and is made mainly for the piano trade. It’s woven and then shrunk to make it dense. I’m wondering if the stuff you can get for a pool table is a cloth(woven) or a felt, which is not woven.
My understanding is that Lyon & Healy/Salvi have a factory in China. Call them and see if they can rent you a harp.
In the end there are so many things that influence the sound, the soundboard being only one of them. The overall weight of the harp, the size and shape of the pedestal, The thickness of the body(to which the soundboard is glued), whether or not the soundboard is veneered, the harpist playing the instrument, and the room in which the harp is heard, all contribute to the sound that is heard.
