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Thanks for all the useful information, Balfour! And the “heavy whipping cream” color of the D, E, G, A, and B Nylguts is really apparent in your photo between the tuning pins and the bridge pins with Angelica’s maple behind them; they visually really “pop out”!
-Gregg
Oh, dear, I hope this isn’t yet another example of “Shrinkflation” in which Bow Brand is keeping the prices the same while shortening the high string lengths!!
-Gregg
Some additional thoughts:
As Balfour mentioned, MusicMakers offers a small wearable harp (the Sonnet, which has 29 strings C-C) I believe it only weighs 9 pounds for such a large note range!
As for the Rees Morgan Meghan, for whatever reason, the case doesn’t normally come with backpack straps, so those would have to be requested.
There’s also the Harp-E, which is mainly an electric harp, but Josh Layne has taken his on hikes and played it acoustically. It’s got a very different sort of look to it!
-Gregg
Here are some other makers who offer small harps:
-Rees Morgan Meghan (27 strings), has larger soundbox than the Harpsicles
-MariniMadeHarps makes several wearable models
-Blevins makes multiple lap harp models
-Salvi Juno 27 or Juno 25 (the the 27-string model isn’t wearable while the 25-string version is wearable but only goes down to 5E)
-Camac Odyssey (wearable but weighs about 12 pounds)
Let us know what you decide to get!
-Gregg
Thanks, Balfour! It would be nice if we could hear from someone who has transported the Troub in that wheeled case!
-Gregg
Pamela,
I’m so glad you mentioned the transport case for the L&H Troubadour complete with wheels; I’d never seen that before! I wonder if they only came out with that relatively recently. I had emailed L&H a couple of years ago asking about a transport cover for the Troubadour, but I was told at that time that they didn’t make any transport covers for the Troub. Surely they would’ve told me about that case with wheels if it had been in existence! I’ve now sent another email asking if that’s a new product, just out of curiosity!
Thank you for posting the info!
-Gregg
Hi, Tara, Balfour, and Charles,
I have a Dusty Strings Boulevard that I purchased new last year, and it has Loveland levers. I’m wondering if Lovelands have improved over the years, because I don’t notice much of this problem. I hear it very slightly in the bass wires, but it’s not bad at all down there, and I hardly hear any noise like that in the mid or treble.
As of a few months ago, the Boulevard model is now offered with Camac levers as an option, but when I purchased mine, they weren’t yet offering Camac levers for the Boulevard.
Tara, please let us know what you(‘ve) decide(d) to do!
-Gregg
I don’t know how the weight of Rees levers compares to Forte, nor do I have any harps with Forte levers, but consider the fact that Rees Harps puts their Rees levers on all of their Harpsicle line, including the small models, which are designed to be extra lightweight. So they’re certainly appropriate for lap harps, even if they’re not the absolute lightest weight lever.
Keep us updated on your project!
-Gregg
Hi, Stardust,
“More throw” means that the lever handle has more upward travel when lifting it to engage the lever.
I have several harps with different types of levers, including Rees. I think they’re fine, and I actually find them to be smoother than Truitt (I have a preowned Rees double-strung harp with older Truitt levers). The levers that bother me the most are the ones on my Salvi lever harp, as they produce that noisy click you describe. The Rees ones are much quieter, though some of them do produce a soft click when disengaging them.
I hope this helps!
-Gregg
Hi, Kristen,
Ooh–is it the type of harp that’s like a hybrid lever-pedal harp in which it only has 7 levers but each one moves mechanisms for ALL the strings of that note letter like the pedals do of a pedal harp?
-Gregg
Catherine, thanks for the suggestion to use part of the Prelude transport cover for my Troubadour. I don’t yet have the transport cover set for my Prelude, but I would like to purchase that eventually, so it’s good to know that I could probably use the main part to transport the Troubadour. I still can’t believe that they don’t offer a way to protect the base of the Troub in transport!!
I did a search function just now on harp (dot) com on “Prelude transport cover,” and I see that they DO still, in fact, sell the three parts separately as well as the set.
-Gregg
There are two videos by Harpwinkel de Singende Snaar in the Netherlands demonstrating those two L&H models nearly 4 years ago. The harpist is the same, and the videos were posted on the same day, though she’s wearing different clothes between the two videos, so they probably weren’t recorded on the same day. Surprisingly, I hear more warmth and fundamental in the Ogden, but the Troubadour sounds somehow grander but brighter.? I wonder if the microphone setup was the same between the two videos. I tried sending this with the links, but it didn’t seem to go through, so HC probably doesn’t allow that. Just look up “Harpwinkel” with “Troubadour” and “Ogden” on Youtube.
-Gregg
I think if you really like the Troubadour VI you’ve been learning on, I would seriously consider that model! After all, L&H advertises that model as being the “best-selling lever harp in the world”! I wonder how true that actually is. I can imagine that it was probably true decades ago before there were so many lever harp makers, but I wonder if it’s still actually true.
The Troub VI has a full 5 octaves, which is a very nice range for a harp. If it’s going to be your only harp, at least for awhile, you might eventually find that you would miss those top two strings if you were to get an Ogden instead. Then again, you would possibly not miss those strings. I’ve been curious about the sound difference between those two models.
-Gregg
I just thought of a couple more things to mention. There are two Camac lever harp models which feature pedal tension strings: The Korrigan and the Madamoiselle. However, I should point out that both of those models have bass wires which are lighter tension than the bass wires of L&H lever harps, and those two Camac models also take the bass wires 3 notes higher than the L&H harps before switching over to the gut strings, so you would have to get used to those differences.
-Gregg
Hi, Amalia,
I have a large lever harp collection, including a pre-owned L&H Troubadour V, a new L&H Prelude 40, a new L&H Drake, and a new Salvi Gaia. I highly recommend the Prelude, especially if you like the look of that model being patterned after pedal harps, and if you would appreciate having even more strings, particularly in the bass, as it goes down to “A” instead of stopping at “C”. Many people (including me) find this to be very useful. Having the extra-high notes in the top end can be fun, too!
Since my Troubadour is a V, most of its strings are nylon with only 5 gut strings, and I haven’t tried a VI. I will say, my Troub V actually has a bigger sound than my Prelude; I’m not sure if this is due mostly to the Troub being an older harp or because the soundbox of the Troub is larger (wider) than that of the Prelude. (I’m not sure why the model with more strings has a narrower soundbox, as it seems like the larger harp should have the bigger soundbox.) The Prelude is also actually a little shorter than the Troub, which is also counter-intuitive!
Is there any reason you couldn’t get a Troubadour VI?
I haven’t tried an Ogden, but it’s not simply a matter of having two less strings in the top; it’s a much smaller harp, so the sound will be much smaller than the Troub.
One thing I should mention is that L&H has never designed a transport cover for the Troub. I’m not sure why they think that the dust cover is enough protection for transporting it, considering that the Ogden has an actual carrying case and the Prelude has both a dust cover AND a transport cover. The Drake also has both a dust cover and a carrying case.
If you would appreciate having a smaller, lighter, more transportable harp, you would probably like the Ogden; just expect a smaller sound.
I haven’t tried Camac lever harps, but I do have a couple of harps with Camac levers (a Dusty Ravenna 34 and a Rees Aberdeen Meadows), and I agree with many other lever harp players who say that Camac levers are the best!
I hope this helps!
-Gregg
