[hearpe]

Here’s another idea I’m having- slightly related to string topic- so let me throw it out here

I’m thinking about replacing most of the nylon monofilament strings on my 29 string Roosebeck harp- range C to C- eventually with a nylon set sold for their 31 string Ashley harp-

at which point I also may drop the range down to F to F-

This would give me 4 wound bass strings of .079 width. My harp at the moment does not have any wound strings and I’m feeling like the bass strings are just a bit too floppy and twangy sounding.

On the other hand, if I drop it down any, this may compensate for the wound basses and cause them to flop just as much- I don’t know.
I could put the 31 Ashley strings on, but they start with a blue string- so I’d either have to live with that as a “C” or find a comparative clear or red wound string individually- then I could also still use the F perhaps and then have 5 wound strings on the bass end. I haven’t researched much the other widths but assume I could work it all out, even using some of the strings already there but perhaps moving them up the scale if I want.

I wouldn’t mind dropping them much I don’t think because the top end is very high, but the main drawback is that my 29 Heather harp is 38 inches tall while the 31 Ashley stands a full six inches taller at 44.

When I got into playing smaller scale classical guitars, the rule of thumb is to then use higher tension strings to compensate on the short scale or they are too floppy- I’m guessing the harp may be the same? Will the thicker gauges deliver any decent sound with a shorter length? Will dropping down to F instead of C for the first just make that worse. Is there a minimum length for wound strings.

Biagio, anyone know anything here?

[hearpe]

Hey thanks-

I like a lot of resonance- that’s why I like the sound of wire strung harps.

I dunno I’m still kicking the idea around, as I haven’t been able to get $50 for the old one- in fact no response at all. Prbably won’t happen until at least winter if it does at all.
As I was looking around, I found this video interesting:

[hearpe]

This is an interesting discussion. I’ve been playing my Roosebeck 29 Heather harp mostly in my living room on a shag carpet or in my lap. After reading this I took it into my kitchen where there is a hardwood floor. What a difference! And I think largely because the harp is a standup harp with no legs otherwise- it rests on the bottom of the sound box when standing, and I was surprised to see when I got it that it has the same sort of carvings that are on the sides (I may have to smooth those out there, because I think I’d like to get or make a stand with some legs on it) Anyway, the volume and resonance of the harp is much improved by direct contact with the hardwood floor. I don’t think I’ll play it in the kitchen out of a course of habit, but I may if I intend to record or videotape because the sound is so much better there.

On another note, I’ve also done just a little bit of sanding on the inside of the sound box- just one small square of sandpaper and about ten minutes- just on the sides of the sound box and a slight bit on the back- There are four sound holes so I can get my hand to most of it- I think I’ve noticed a slight improvement in sound already, and so likely to keep going small amounts at a time in the future.

It’s a curse I got started on with guitars, and I found that I can make almost any guitar sound better by sanding things down inside and letting the sound waves bounce around in a more hollow cavity that offers less mass to dull the vibrations. The harp has no internal bracing much in the way like a guitar- I first got started on a 3/4 sized classical guitar they’d put the same full sized bracing into and that was really closing down the airspace to the sound hole.

Anyway, thanks for the topic. My whole house has become my studio I guess, and I try not to trip over the instruments.

[hearpe]

I can’t tell you but I hear Pee Wee Rees!

You’ve probably seen this demo then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SM2Lhpex9h8

Beautiful harps!

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No, actually it WAS here- and it is still on my personal log, and now I have saved it to my files.

So as you may see if you missed it in the hours it was up from last night until sometime today- it is not slanderous libelous or obscene in any way- I studied these things in Journalism school- then I hope no one here will have any objections to it when I repost it, if it’s just a glitch then.

hmmmm, Also, the hosting platform here has now gotten like others I’ve seen lately on the net, and keeps leaving out letters I’ve type, and making this post laborious indeed. Let’s hope that this improves too, because I’ve never had this happen o me here, and the timing IS strange ad paranoia inducing.

The Outer Limits ! ooh , scary, cotrolling (SIC)

Now today- 8/9- I can’t get anything to post- My icon is there, I click on the post link, I even finally get a screen that tells me “You’ve said that” But I HAVEN’T said that. It does not post now
suspicious- and I have had such things happen to ne at other sites

The host is not dropping letters off my typing though- just not putting anything at all- so I’m trying this edit.

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Heres a pretty good price on a used Dusty strings 26 with c & F levers-if you’re in he New York area- local pick-up only:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dusty-Strings-Ravenna-26-C-F-Levers-Als-Music-Shop-NY/171735377666?_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D32237%26meid%3D382891c768c94a51a65722c7ee6dd621%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D221838041999

There’s been a Salvi harp on Craigslist here for $2000 but that’s way outta my price range:
http://staugustine.craigslist.org/msg/5100654091.html

My costliest instrument at the moment would be my Baldwin Hamilton studio upright piano I got last summer for $400 delivered. I’ve got a whole bunch of guitars, ukes violins and violas but they are all fairly low end inexpensive items. That allows me to get my feet wet on a bunch of instruments. I’m mostly into Celtic and Pop.

[hearpe]

Here’s a sample of a Mikel Celtic 34

Well, I was just relating the experiences of my latest harp search after spending the past couple of weeks looking for both used harps and pricing them on ebay. I think you are wrong about your used harp comment , wil. Except in cases of very very much patience, where time is not an issue, the prices of used harps is very high. It seems a lot of players want to get nearly back what they paid originally, considering many of them were probably bought at a lower rate some time ago. I don’t fault them for that, but there’s really not floating around out there with more than 22 strings that you can get for under $500. And that’s why I finally went with the Roosebeck 29 Heather harp myself. I’ve thought about financing a harp in the past, but on a fixed income, that isn’t an attractive prospect, but that may still work best for some people- even a credit card purchase with a lowrate. You can generally get a lower rate with a “balance transfer offer” of no interest for another year or so once you have a balance to transfer, and if you’re not going belly-up bankrupt already!

But anyway, that’s what I like about these Mikel Celtic harps- there’s a lot of harp there for the money it seems. On the other hand, it has to come all the way from Pakistan, and customer service or a return seems difficult. They have a site with a line of other harps:

Celtic Instruments – Celtic Store – Harp & Bagpipe Makers

There are some vendors in the UK but their prices are higher on these harps, and they often call them something other. I just saw this listed on ebay, where the same harp has appeared in another ad from Dublin- exact same pictures- slightly different case and color- and called a Hunky Bunky 34. I think they wanted $900 and another $250 to ship. Sounds like the remains of a wild night of sex I think, and better off to get these harps from the maker, if they aren’t already nearby.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Brand-New-Hunky-Bunky-HB-34-string-best-Lever-Harp-Ash-and-Beech-wood-/181817728713?hash=item2a552e5ec9
Anyway, the youtube sample above is rather short and doesn’t go to all the strings, but sounds pretty darn good to me

good luck to all!

[hearpe]

Just a note on the rising prices of the Paki Roosebeck harps- There’s just one 29 string harp listing left at the “old” price-

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Roosebeck-Minstrel-Harp-29-String-Vine-HMNA-V-/151596345341?hash=item234bd8a7fd

The seller had several last week- three different styles. I thought I’d see if I could get some money off with the “make offer” link, and offered them $400.

The seller not only turned my offer down but put that model immediately up about $50. I ended up paying his original price for another one- the similar designs didn’t matter much to me.

Now all the 29’s are up to $499 or more on ebay, new that is. 27’s are annoyingly mostly priced HIGHER then, leaving a big gap up to anything else with 31 or 36 strings. I’m happy with my 29 for now- the sound is decent for a hack like me, as I mentioned the sound boards seem much improved. And the instrument is pleasing in appearance to be sure. I thought the low “C” was buzzing and was tuning it to C with the lever slightly engaged, because it wasn’t clearing the lever. It turned out the string had come out of the groove on the pin above it. I slipped that back in the notch and the buzzing problem went away.

anyway this may be the last chance to get a 29 Roosebeck new for under about $500- $434 in fact- or just as a price marker in time.

Here’s an older video with an older 29 Minstrel harp with the older style soundboard:

[hearpe]

I saw those Caswell videos on youtube, and immediately wanted a sweetharp-
besides being absolutely beautiful, you can tell the soundbox really had that “something” quality about it, lightweight and resonant. And they weren’t expensive. The Caswell site is still there, but when you click a link to add to the cart, you always get a notice the product is not available, so I guess no one was able to continue the work. Outside of the unique designs, the harps really sounded good. And Chris could really play.

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Yes- with all respect to your hard work and the costs of the materials- I’m sure harp makers are largely there for the passion of the instrument. But not in it for the money? The larger ones would never stay in business I think.

I’m just coming from the other end- the novice consumer with not a lot of money to spend. I’ve done quite well on guitars and ukes and fiddles- it’s a “buyers age” on the internet for the more popular instruments, if you can avoid the very chintzy and cheap- then playable decent instruments have never been more prolific. A hard situation to resell though I’ve found- used instruments are prolific and cheap too.

Anyway I’ve been looking at harps again, and hoping I can expand my experience there with as little investment as I can- About two years back I got into exploring the paki harps at the Alibaba “direct from manufacturer level” There seemed to be quite a lot of variety and most of the importers would ship out one harp direct from Pakistan, although I think they are more slanted to selling wholesale quantity there.
There was a bit of a language problem, and the sellers usually quoted me a FOB “freight on board” cost meaning it was a low cost partly because I would have to pick up the harp directly off a boat at a seacoast port. As I am in Jacksonville, I though maybe that would be possible, but the more I explored it, and realized how many ports are actually here – I had my doubts about “freight on board” shipping. The prices were incredibly low that I was getting quoted then. I started looking for smaller harps-22 and the went up gradually. I think I was getting quotes in the range of 150-170 for a 22 string Roosebeck type of harp and upwards from there.

Anyway to make a long story short- I nixed the idea of getting one off the boat- hell if I wasn’t 60, I was ready to go in business!- and I still had one distributor tell me he would ship a 36 harp to my door for about $400- or less than half what the cost was on ebay. So I was trying to arrange that, but finally couldn’t arrange payment. They didn’t take paypal then and wanted me to deposit money directly into a bank account. I didn’t really trust that much, but the point was moot because I couldn’t that do when I tried- his link simply didn’t work. Eventually I gave up.

So recently I went harp hunting again- and tried Alibaba a little bit once more- started getting FOB prices and stopped short of them translating that to my door delivery- I could tell right off- the prices for that arrangement have seemed to go up across the board in two years time- and really up to ebay prices now. So I gave up on that, and ended with said Stoney End Eve in the other thread.

I also now have a Roosebeck 29- I got that just before the prices went up another $55 at the low end on ebay. I was glad to get more strings but it was another double or more in price up to the 31, 34 or 36 level then. The Roosebeck has stimulated my interest and definitely another experience from the 19 Pixie I’ve had for years. I’m glad I didn’t buy two years back, because I believe the soundboards have improved substantially on the Roosebecks- the new lighter finish birch ply board feels stronger, and has a more hollow “knock” to it. Much much stronger, and responsive and better sounding than the one on the turn of the Millenium Pixie harp.

I see a major supplier here in Florida has reshot new video example clips for the new soundboards in the past couple of years too.
I think the sides of the box may still be a little heavy- I see people here talking about the sound of a cardboard box, and my own experiences with classical guitars especially is that lighter weight woods let the resonance ring. I’ll probably do some sanding on the inside sides of the box. The soundboard obviously has to take the stress of the strings, but I’m not sure what stresses are involved in the rest of the sound box, or how much opening is on the back. The Roosebeck 29 is at least an attractive piece of furniture in my living room, and sounds adequate for this nubie, though I’m sure there are better sounding 29 harps- at a substantial higher cost- unless a good used one floats past.

Anyway- so yeah, by comparison to what I’ve seen exploring harps the past month or so, this Mikel Celtic looks pretty nice on paper at least.

[hearpe]

I just saw a listing for these- a 34 Saffron- on ebay, and I think they look pretty good, especially considering cost. You get into some longer wound strings here- I think the string range is the same as Dusty Ravena 34, but at half the cost- a grand less than the Ravenna with full levers.

As far as the levers- no expert here! But Biagio said above the levers appear to be rivets. Looking closely at the listing:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Saffron-34-strings-Lever-Harp-fully-Levered-with-Deluxe-Carry-Bag-/121715186277?hash=item1c56ca5a65
the levers appear to have a slot head on the top of the pivot point- perhaps not rivets then, but screws? At any rate, the levers look better than the standard Roosebeck levers, and the 29 harps have just gone up to $500 on ebay, the 31 Ashley harps are a grand or more and the 36 Roosebecks are now at about $1200. The Mikel Celtics appear to use a generally agreed better combination of woods too.

So to me, it looks like the Mikel Celtic harps are a pretty good buy all things considered. I’d like to have one myself, and lets hope the prices stay down awhile!

Maybe some less expensive folk harps will be more manufactured in America someday- the shipping costs add a lot of cost on the foreign harps these days- more so than in the past obviously.

http://thehearpe.tripod.com/index.html

[hearpe]

My playing has probably improved 100 percent in the past few day compared to the 12 years or so I’ve owned the Pixie 19 harp

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