Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I should add one more comment to this. I purposely picked two harpists, both good friends, whose sounds were likely to be very different from each other. When we practiced the show in my living room, I really couldn’t hear any difference between them. But when we did the program in the auditorium and I was standing about 15 feet in front of them, the difference in their sounds was incredible. The single biggest factor in the sound of each instrument was who was playing it. One harpist consistently had a dark, mellow, resonant sound regardless of which instrument she was playing, and the other always had a bright sound. From where I was standing, there was no difference in how each player projected.
This may be slightly off subject here, but as a harp maker and restorer who also sells used instruments, I will tell you that there is absolutely no agreement on what constitutes a beautiful sound. I’ve regulated thousands of harps over the years, and an instrument that I thought sounded like a banjo the owner thought was wonderful. And who am I to contradict that. When I have a used instrument to sell I often get calls from people asking me to describe the sound, or asking if it has a _________(beautiful, big, dark, etc. fill in the blank)sound. I always tell them that if they are seriously interested in this instrument, they need to come to Boston and play it. I can vouch for the structural integrity of an instrument, but I never get involved in the sound aspect.
At the 1994 Boston Harp Conference I presented a program on the sound of the harp. I had 4 harps behind a screen so the people in the audience couldn’t see them, and I had two harpists playing short excerpts on each of the instruments. The people listening heard two harpists play the same excerpt on each harp. I was the MC for the program, explaining for each excerpt what the listeners should be looking for in each harp. Everyone had a score sheet where they could write down comments and ‘score’ the sound of each instrument. No one had any idea what kind of instruments they were listening to. For obvious reasons, I had decided NOT to compare makes of instruments, but rather to compare different size older harps. There was a L & H 23 completely strung in nylon, an extended board semi-grand strung in gut, a straight soundboard semi-grand also strung in gut, and a small style 14, also strung in gut.
Before telling them at the end of the program what they had been listening to I gave them a little quiz. No one, NO ONE, was able to pick out the harp strung completely in nylon. No one was able to pick correctly the concert grand(i.e., the biggest instrument). No one, NO ONE, was able to pick out the straight board instruments. I know this because in the days following this workshop an endless number of people came up to me and told me this.
I guess the reason I’m posting this is that 1) Just because you describe a harp sound in a certain way doesn’t mean that anyone else will describe it the same way. 2) Just because you think a particular harp sounds fantastic does not in any way mean that anyone else will think the same thing. And 3)Everyone has gross misconceptions about how a harp sounds, how much volume it can produce, etc. and these misconceptions are based on biases about the make, model, and size of the instrument that people unconsciously carry with them.
I would love to see a table comparing the tension of each of the type of strings available. I would be concerned with any new string that the tension was so hight that it would play havoc with the soundboard and neck.
Sam- Renie was TINY. perhaps no more than 5 feet tall. So that may have made it easier for her to do some of these things. In her printed version of the pedal nightmare in the Danses she also has the right foot pressing the E and G pedals simultaneously.
Remember that Renie was playing an Erard harp, which has pedals that are light as air. They have almost no resistance to them at all.
Basel- It’s nice to see you here again. I’m glad you’re well. Hopefully the mess in Syria will be over soon and you and everybody else can get back to a normal peaceful life.
Bonnie- Thank you for that post. It’s reassuring to know that he is still alive. What a horrible situation.
Oh John- I don’t know what to do. He called me last week in the middle of the night absolutely hysterical because there was fighting in his city. I could hear loud gunfire in the background as we talked. I told him to stay away from the outside walls and to try to get to the basement and stay there if he could. I haven’t heard from him since and I’m very very worried. I emailed him tonight and asked him to contact me, but haven’t heard anything yet.
A couple of years ago a con artist took pictures from my company web site, http://www.swansonharps.com, along with the description of the instrument and listed it for sale on some other site. I only found out about it because one of the good people on this site told me. So there is no shortage of people trying to steal from you or ways to do it. And if you ever see one of my used instruments listed on my website also listed elsewhere, please let me know. Thanks.
From a purely legal standpoint,i.e., what would be presented in a court of law, a 5 year warranty is an incredibly long warranty, which is only against defects in materials and/or workmanship anyway. So the fact that this happened after 10 years is likely to look, from a purely legal standpoint, like a reasonable amount of time. Also, any company being sued for something that has happened to their product after 10 years is likely to defend themselves by saying that they have no idea what the owner did with the instrument in those 10 years. The harp could have been tuned too high, it could have been dropped, etc., to cause damage after 10 years time. I’m sure none of those things happened, but that’s what a company would probably say in their defense, that at best, they should only be held 50% responsible for what happened to the instrument.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I sincerely doubt that this will be covered by insurance. It’s not accidental damage.
Carolyn- That’s really bizarre that the board ripped up even with the screws that reinforce the glue joint. I’ve never heard of that. I have heard of this happening in cases where the screws were left out. My only explanation is that maybe the screws are too short. They should be 5/8″ to 3/4″ long.
Re-reading your post, there is another possible explanation, and that is that perhaps the screws were countersunk too deeply so that in fact they were not able to hold the soundboard in place.
You can’t use silk core wore stings on a modern pedal harp. They will have no sound at all. I’m not even sure the silk core strings will be strong enough to pull up to pitch.
Carolyn- If the soundboard ripped open where it meets the edge of the body and not near the center where the strings come out of the board, then it sounds like somebody in the factory forgot to put screws every 1.5 inches or so. Thats the only way that could rip open. There are supposed to be screws all along each side of the soundboard where it meets the body. The screw heads are then covered by the edge strips at the edge of the soundboard.
My guess is that you will have to get a new soundboard. I don’t know of any way to re-glue the existing board into place.
