[David]

I’m late to this conversation, but would like to add my two cents to this topic, hopefully helping others who are thinking about purchasing a Nightingale harp. Since Susan’s already touched upon the sound quality of the instrument, I’ll talk about the travel-ability.

I bought a ten-year-old Nightingale earlier this year, sold on the fact that it is travel friendly.

While it is true that you can travel with it, there are some things I learned from my trip to the Dominican Republic: Make sure you check the size limits for your flight. The height of this harp is 31 inches. Many airlines have a carry-on size limit of around 9”x14”x22” these days, so this harp exceeds it by a good 9 inches, and believe me, they will notice when you try to board the aircraft with it.

On my way to the DR, they forced me to ship it (they didn’t charge me, but it was still a terrible mistake). When I got to the DR, it was grossly out of tune, which tells me they weren’t very kind to it, and the plastic clip on the handle was broken, rendering it useless.

On the way back, I made sure to be one of the first to board the plane, and tried to hide it in upper stow area. A stewardess was trying to make more space for other baggage, and moved my harp to a different area in the very front of the plane. I was very stern-voiced about the need to be extra careful with the harp, and explained to them my previous experience. They were indeed careful, and my harp came back safe and sound.

I would think about how often you’re planning on travelling, and whether the airlines you’re planning on taking allows for the size of the harp.

Air travel is unfortunately not what it used to be…

[Author]

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