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Thanks, Wil; your message actually makes me feel much better. Regarding the misalignment, though, I wonder if you’re confusing what I’m referring to. It’s not the base of the pillar that I’m talking about; it’s the locations of the corners of the sounbox (body) on the base. As you can see in the first 3 photos, the left-front corner of the soundbox is nearly 3/8″ closer to the front of the harp base than the right-front corner of the soundbox is. The 4th photo is meant to show the slanted angle of the front edge of the bottom of the soundbox/body relative to the harp base that results from the misalignment.
Thank you,
Gregg
This last group of photos shows the horrific condition of the harp carton upon arrival (UPS Freight). The pallet was removed by the harp center in order for them to be able to unbox the harp so they could take photos for me and make short videos of it being played as I requested. They said there was no way they could reattach the shipping pallet. Couldn’t they have taken the pallet with the carton to UPS and had UPS reattach it? Granted, the pallet would’ve been no guarantee of lack of damage to the carton, but I feel it would’ve given the carton a better chance. Thank goodness the harp cover and foam blocks on the top and bottom were enough protection, especially since it had to be unloaded upside-down!
-Gregg
This group of photos shows the asymmetric hole placement in the bronze/brass crown, the construction of the top of the column with no crown and location of the drilled crown holes, the way the supplied screws won’t go in all the way with the bronze crown because the holes weren’t drilled deep enough, and the glob of bronze coating in one of the crown holes that prevented a screw from going through that hole until I reamed the glob out. Apparently, these issues with the bronze crown aren’t unusual.
Here are 4 photos showing the eyelet and string position for 4F relative to its neighbors (no levers engaged); while I understand that E should be a little farther from F than F is from G, I swear even the F-G distance looks SMALLER than G-A, unless that’s an optical illusion.?
The metal plate reads:
“Lyon & Healy
Prelude
62801”All centered, of course!
Steve Fritzmann, sales manager at L&H, looked up the serial # and found that it was made at the end of 2020, just as I was told by the harp center.
I’m told that the string spacing I’m observing is probably normal, because the spacing is supposed to increase below 4F.
I would be happy to email you photos I’ve taken. Balfour now has my personal email address if you’d like to get it from him. I’m not sure how safe it is to post email addresses on the forum, particularly regarding spam bots.?
Thank you!
-Gregg
Thank you for your reply, Emma! I was starting to think no one would post a response. I’ve seen some of Amy’s older videos, probably before Concedo strings were a thing (aren’t they a fairly new innovation?). I just watched one of her newer videos. The strings definitely look whiter. I get the feeling they look better on darker harp bodies than on lighter ones.
-Gregg
I was able to get my post approved where I go into detail about the issues with my new Prelude 40; the fact that I had tried to attach photos that were too large in file size may have been the problem.
-Gregg
Hi, Balfour,
I’ve also been in communication with Sylvia Woods; she indicated that it’s largely her “fault” that the folk harp makers here in the U.S. use nylon strings by default because, back in the day, she told them she wouldn’t sell their harps if strung in gut. She recounted a time when she was tuning up for a collaborative gig using a gut-strung harp, and 2 C-strings in the middle of the harp popped right before she went on stage (probably due to high humidity, she said), so she had to play the whole gig without those C’s. Ever since then, she has sworn to not play on gut strings. It’s funny to wonder if Dusty Strings would’ve otherwise used gut by default all these years and would therefore have had a completely different signature sound!
-Gregg
Hi, TiredOfPickingAddresses,
My Troubadour V has the ebony finish; it is quite a classy look, as you say, though nicks and dings show up much more. I feel the same as you about mahogany stains; that’s my least favorite look of the 3 options, though I wouldn’t turn one down if given to me! My new Prelude 40 that I just got last week is in natural finish, and I really like the look of it. The top of the column has some interesting geometrical designs using different pieces of wood that are probably completely obscured with the ebony finish, but I’m sure yours in ebony will look amazing!
My main gripe with my new harp is that the alignment of the soundbox on the base isn’t right; the left side is about 3/8″ closer to the front of the harp base than the right side of the soundbox is. Luckily, it’s not off by enough to be readily apparent to most people, but it’s bugging me. There are other things, too, that I want to mention; if I’m unable to post my original message about it as a separate thread, I’ll try to post it here in your thread so you can read it.
-Gregg
Hi, Wil,
I tried to edit/add to my post about the issues with my new Prelude 40 several times last night, but my message was eventually marked as spam and discarded. I fortunately was able to click the Back button in my browser to get to the last version of my text so I could copy-paste it to my computer. Then, every time I tried to resubmit the post, I kept seeing an error message saying that a duplicate was being detected and that it looks like I “already said that.”
I’ve emailed one of the forum admins who initially got me setup to be able to post. If I’m ultimately unable to re-post that message as a separate thread, maybe I can then try to post it here so that the original poster of this thread can at least read it, though I wonder if I’ll see the “duplicate” error again even trying to post it in this thread.
I don’t think I’m unhappy enough with the harp to send it back, but I feel somewhat let-down in the quality control of L&H.
Hi, “tiredof…,”
What finish did you choose for your new Prelude 40?
I recently ordered a new Prelude 40 in natural from one of the harp centers that they just so happened to have in-stock, and it arrived a few days ago. I mostly really like it, but I’m about to post a separate thread describing some issues that you may want to read.
-Gregg
Hi, Balfour,
What you described about gut strings on Dusty harps resulting in the loss of their signature sound is one thing I’ve wondered about. I wonder how a gut-strung Ravenna sounds compared to the Boulevard since it’s mostly a difference of tension. Similarly, I wonder how the Salvi Ana sounds strung in lever gut compared to pedal gut. I’m thinking about eventually getting a Boulevard as a lightweight alternative to my heavier L&H pedal-tension lever harps. I’m sure I’ll eventually be one of those who has several harps!
I, too, have been wondering what a Dusty Crescendo or FH sounds like with gut strings, but, the closest I’ve found is a video of a Ravenna being restrung with gut, being played before and after. It’s an interesting comparison, but the clip of it being played after the middle strings are changed to gut is a little disappointing tuning-wise; I wish the woman had waited until the strings had settled a bit so it would’ve sounded more in-tune. If you find a video of a Crescendo or FH being played with gut, please let us know!
