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My condolences to al who know her- sounds like a life to celebrate.
Parting is such sweet sorrow. May Carol rest in peace.
Thirty years ago I discovered the harp music of Mary O’Hare, long before I could play anything. I think she is still a great example of both simplicity and style combined into a great listening experience.
Here is that album I got at the library and had on cassette a number of years:
Can’t speak for the 38 but I have both the Saffron 34 and Saffron 27. I got both a year apart and considerably under what the cost is now. They are very sturdy harps, the levers aren’t bad- not topnotch cam levers, but I haven’t had problems there, and they work. The strings were not a good experience though, and I suffered much breakage on both, mostly the first half year.
The 34 I ended up setting up with the same string configuration as a Dusty Ravenna, with wound steel strings the entire first octave- I just ordered Ravenna strings and they fit. The Saffron 27 I currently have set up with all monofilament strings, also bought from Dusty- inexpensive and trouble free, though I may someday return to two or three nylon wound long strings. I think it came with 5 if I recall. Dusty sell monofilament up to .60.
They are heavy harps- the 34 stays in one spot and the 27 more portable obviously but sturdy and rather heavy- the round back makes for a good volume but weighty- it doesn’t much flirt the lap harp line- I play it n the floor too. The bags are nice, they do make a good protective shipping cover, yet I have little use for them except as covers when the hurricanes are coming .
I have felt they are not so precious as to be more of a hands -on harp- and the many broken strings forced that. Other than that I’ve sanded the interior of the sound box, and enlarged the sound holes on the back of the 27, and removed the double base piece- never use the extended legs- and I’ve been pleased at the sound I’ve gotten out of them. Some day I may bump up the 34 a little bit more beyond sanding the interior of the sound box. They serve me well as I’ve watched all the prices skyrocketing in the two and three years I’ve had them.
It’s a bit nerving waiting for shipments from Pakistan, but if you clear that hurdle, they are good value. NOT the enviro-hazard wreck that “Scamac” I wrestled over through the holidays was (and finally got my money back on)
I found this one that mentions harp long before I ever took it up
5/20/87
Within the trees
the wind is a gentle sound
with invisible fingers uncounted
caressing the leaves with a beckoning liltFrom afar you hear her coming
swirling in sedate serenity
A wispy ghost musician
delicately touching her forest harp
dancing as an unspoiled child
linear with invisible ageless purpose
and yet always with a personage and mood all her ownThe wind and I have had many conversations
although it is not English she speaks
Her accent is the scent of her perfumed foliage
that resonates with the chirping of her winged children
As she lifts them from their timber, to timbreWithin the trees the wind has a lover:
The water and rain from the sky
Here they merge and linger
And as he dews, he dresses her in hues
As they nurture all their forest children
and all the forest lifeYet, Within the City
The wind becomes a force
As through the rigid corridors
of brick and steel
She is funneled and stampeded
To buffet in vain all that’s sturdy
And to rock and shake all that yieldsLike a cat, she’ll pounce upon you
her exhausted claws attacking your eyes and nostrils
while she shrieks and moans
abetting the voices of the roaring warring dinosaurs
that swirl and twirl and scatter her
to here and there (like common air!)
and stain her tones
with the burnt blood of their ownWithin the city
The wind and water are seldom more than passing strangers
The water is quickly channeled
to the gutters and sewers
or whipped and bounced by her caged animal fury and frenzy
To prematurely evaporate and disappear
back into the misty clouds on high
she drives with impunity across the cloudy sky.Anyone doing much poetry recitation to harp?- I’ve got a great volume o Irish poetry I’ve thought about trying to “score” somehow, But downloads take so long now that I’m getting more decrepit.
I used to write some – I never got far trying to get them published back before the internet and e-books. I read a lot of poetry-my favorite is “Jaberwocky”
Here’s a very short one I wrote in 1985, the year before my “birth”.
somewhat telling I think:We grab me out of thin air
And pull me closer
to the invisible infinite
to disappearWell, not my best- but maybe shortest.
I ended up with that “scamac” harp, after I finally got a refund-
among the list of things wrong with it is that a full 10 PINS (!) would not hold either any tension or stay in tune.So- although I’ve paid it little attention- I figured I could at least try some things on the harp- what the heck, right?
I still haven’t gotten the harp up to full tune- it has straight pings – strings on one side, tuning square on the other-I have gotten some result simply by removing pins and getting the inside wood wet- to expand it. You can get the water inside by wetting the pin itself and lightly moving it back and forth- not reaming obviously.
Beyond that I’ve also mixed a very weak solution of wood glue and water- and the wood glue penetrates the inner grain- Pins OUT of course as it dries a night or so. And these techniques have given me much improvement- though I havent had time to restring and see just how much tension it holds-There is also a product for violins – called peg drops (and largely vilified by those luthiers as any kind of real lasting solution) But it is said to help with peg slippage- so you maybe want to look into that- it may be my next step if the watered wood glue solution doesn’t pan out. This harp would need a total rebuild- there are two long NAILS sticking into the sound box, driven through the soundboard and outer reinforcement, but then literally into NOTHING as a means to join the pillar at the bottom- no block or base of any kind! So at this point I’ve just been playing around with it, dealing with the most obvious problems.
Hope this helps- but yeah-these are cheap straight pins through holes drilled too large, and not threaded in any way- I can’t speak for threading.
Put a sock in it!
actually, Throw in the towel!
What I mean off course is to put some cloth in the sound box to dampen the sound if its a problem. My first harp, bought while I was still writing my script The Hearpe The Hearpe– was an unleavered Pixie 19 – before they became “Roosebeck” . And it wasn’t very loud- most haros aren’t very loud.
I lived long in this life in L.A. a city of apartments and the ever growing future- I had a piano and no one ever complained. Idiots with loud amps and horrible non-music are generally more prolific in urban war zones. While Southfork would take your Kkazoo if Southfork could! Another one bites the Dusty…..
So “Amac Boy” pictured earlier is GONE- sorry George- not terribly!
Vendor boy has lied to me through and through= now no refund- after lying about shipping earlier-
and now Paypal is dragging their feet although I fulfill several conditions for their buyer protection- Item not as described or pictured- as if it’s just some mistake! and not an elaborate internet scam- And DAMAGE- two cracks on the harp. The site is still there- I can’t get a response from them acknowledging my problem even after over an hour on the phone- mostly on hold- last week.
The harp is now priced at $950 after rising at one point before delivery to $1520- FULL CAMAC RETAIl. The Not-even -a- copy harp I was delivered is still on ebay for $370 DELIVERED- half of what I paid and I’d send it back at that price and be covered on ebay- cause this is not only a piece of junk- it is a biohazard I have to keep in a closet- it reeks! Rotting wood.
I hate to play the race card- but this is seeming more and more to me like a hateful anti-gay evil swindle by the neo-hateful right here. (I am transgendered- since 1984 in fact and although I’ve never considered myself a gay man at any time in my life- I am required to be for the political correctness of fascists and their code red troops) I have doubts about the identity of the vendor now- this is all an elaborate plot to Dump on me- it’s like they found the worst defective harp that was ever made and sent that to me. I’m not through yet, but very very frustrated by this, and glad that Amac boy is sulking his way back home in Alabama at least. Strange post? maybe- sue me. How bout you just call me a drama queen as the angry mob draws it’s blood. Wouldn’t be the first time, for anyone like me.
I also wanted to mention you can find charts of various wood densities online – if you can identify your sound box woods- and some of the data may vary slightly from one source to another-
but I think we can generally surmise that the more dense and harder a wood is – the brighter the sound and volume may be when used in a sound box, while a wood less dense- say comparing cherry or mahogany “sapelle” to walnut- which I think off hand the less dense, gives a warmer and not as volumous sound when the other dimensions and cubic inches and strings are other wise the same, and yet tends to “bleed” more volume through the wood itself when unpainted or unfinished.
I think my most “perfect” acoustical instrument- in several ways at least- is a small $35 Hola soprano uke of thin mahogany body- it’s the body mostly I think, but combined with the unfinished and unfinished mahogany- it really “pops” in sound from the tiny nylgut strings. It occurred to me that out of all my guitars and ukes then that it is most shaped like a bell itself- and somehow the “roundness” almost of it- although the top and back are flat- the depth of it- proportionately deeper than most guitars – give it a real punchy tone.
If it were larger, it might still have great resonance, but not the punch.
You’ve heard me mention the Caswell Sweetharp Biagio, and I’d love to have that lute shaped beauty, because I think it demonstrates remarkable acoustics in the same way- a lightweight- yet not particularly deep body.A shallow body- in acoustic generalities seems to deliver more punchy body while deeper ones deliver a more mellow fuller of resonance sound.
But density of any kind kills the waves- That is why I always go for unfinished and unpainted guitars and ukes at least. Although I certainly make an exception over a beautiful and functional instrument like the Stoney end above.I’ve taken to sanding smooth any sound boxes I can easily reach, because I found eliminating rough surfaces makes a difference I can hear- the sound bounces around the box and it doesn’t kill the long waves in the rough which I guess is like the same effect on a golf course.
On the Mikel Celtic 27 I’ve been working on recently- it really has made quite a difference- the curved back being a rather heavy “basswood” they’d probably call it, and I’ve also enlarged the rear soundholes which I noticed smaller in proportion than some other harps- and that has increased sound volume and resonance. Yet it is the lessening of density itself of the material which also make a difference you can actually hear- when I tap on the outside of the box now the rapping is brighter and louder in every way, and so is the sound of the strings on the same sound board I haven’t touched beyond a smoothing on the back surface.
I’m sure many of you would not want to much modify your harps- I got that one incredibly cheap- but the point is maybe to look for a largish sound box with not terribly thick sides or backs.
I would love to have one of those travel harps that remove the sound box from the harp and sound board just to see how much sound really comes off a board relative to the rest of the box.
I’ve done some experimenting with sound boxes- I started mostly with classical guitars and ukes- and developed a few ideas I think are based largely upon sound- no pun intended- principles of physics- i.e. shape, volume and densities of woods- that I like to share when I can.
The harp is a little different from some of those other acoustical instruments in that the main soundboard is under the influence of the forces of many more strings pulling in the middle, so it is bounded by constraints more imposed by the need for strength, while the rest of the soundbox isn’t necessarily so and frequently in my own opinion- and on cheaper paki and decorative harps- often typically overdone in terms of thickness.
As a rule- temporarily removing the special needs of the soundboard itself- cubic volume of a sound box adds resonance, and often volume (loudness)- but not necessarily volume because the other factors of string types and gauges and sound board , and the shape of the box come into play.
It was an education for me when I started exploring smaller guitar sizes- ukes led me there- to compensate for a couple of my fingers haven gotten broken long ago, and considerations of my own aging- I’m 63. I found a couple of small 3/4 sized guitars had used full sized bracings inside the sound box, which really killed the sound further than the smaller box, particularly when the top and back bracing was placed almost directly over one another. When those were reduced in height just a short bit even, the sound of the guitar really opened up.
I started to then envision sound as lengths of waves, that “function” best when not limited by either shapes or unnecessary density.
I’m going to post and then continue
