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Also, I meant to say: I, too, would be interested in knowing how the Harp Caddy compares to the 6-wheel model on harp (dot) com. Is that the one you mentioned being made by L&H? It and the other 2-wheel model on harp (dot) com have indicated being “out of stock” for awhile now.
Have you noticed that Harp Caddy makes 2 models–the original one with a 5″ lip and a more expensive one with an 8″ lip? The one on harp (dot) com has a 6″ lip. Balfour says his Harp Caddy is the original model with 5″ lip but that the 8″ lip version wasn’t available back when he got his, but he says his model works fine. (Feel free to chime in here, Balfour!) 🙂
I’m curious as to why the Harp Caddy website indicates that both models are “In stock (can be backordered).” What does that mean? Either those are in-stock or they’re not!
I’m looking to get one of my own before long. Perhaps I should hurry up and order one while they’re still available!
-Gregg
Hi, Christy,
This all sounds so exciting! If you end up liking and purchasing the Prelude in natural finish, we will, in fact, be harp twins! 🙂 What is the age of the harp?
It sounds like you have an excellent plan for getting your daughter started with a good teacher. Personally, I don’t see any reason that a child should have to start with piano first. You’re right; if she’s not interested in that, she wouldn’t be motivated to practice. Now, if she were interested in BOTH, it would perhaps be advantageous in that situation to have her start with a bit of piano, but if she wants to go right to harp and there’s a good teacher willing to teach her, I say, “go for it!” I only wish I’d have discovered the harp sooner in life. I just turned 40 and really only started getting interested in harps back in 2018, and really only started working on developing technique over the past year, though intermittently, as I’m primarily a church organist/pianist and have to make that my priority.
I think you will appreciate the passage in the 1899 L&H catalog that immediately follows the previous passage I quoted. Again, it’s somewhat of a biased sales pitch, but I think it makes some good points:
“Is the Harp hard to learn? To this question we emphatically answer No! Thousands who expect to master the piano or to attain any degree of proficiency on it, expect and are willing to devote many years of close application to the task–whereas, with the Harp, two, or at most, three years’ study will produce more satisfactory results than will ten years at the piano. Harp instruction costs no more than guitar or mandolin instruction, and is usually less expensive than either the piano or violin. Moreover, there is this to be said, when you can play a Harp solo acceptably, you will command much more appreciation than you could for a performance of equal merit on any other instrument, and what is more to the point from a professional view, your pecuniary reward will be much greater. If you have studied any other instrument, particularly if you have been a piano student, you will find it of great assistance in your master of the Harp. A beginner of ordinary intelligence and application should be able to play an easy accompaniment in one, or at most, two terms of lessons.”
I think it’s funny how the writer always capitalizes the first letter of “Harp”!
I thought I should mention, there are harp groups on FaceBook in which you could get many more responses than you can here on Harp Column, particularly the American Harp Society. I doubt you have to be in the U.S. to be able to post on there!
I hope one of the Prelude harps works out for you! Will you be able to try both of them side-by-side?
I think one of the reasons the Prelude model doesn’t have levers on the bottom 2 (or top 2) strings is because the one 40-string pedal harp model that L&H still makes (Chicago Petite 40) doesn’t have any discs on those strings, either, so they make their 40-string lever harp the same way for consistency. Apparently, it’s just not possible to have discs on the bottom 2 strings of a pedal harp, no matter what the range is.
Please continue to keep us updated on what you end up doing!
-Gregg
I just realized–Christy, you said that you’ve seen the Prelude in-person at your local store; can’t you just have your daughter try it out to see if she’s reasonably comfortable plucking the strings? I imagine they would have some sort of stool she could try sitting on, as well.?
-Gregg
The Salvi Ana is always advertised as being designed to be able to be strung in either lever gut or pedal gut, so I’m wondering if there’s any reason a Prelude couldn’t be restrung in lever gut, though the levers would obviously have to be re-regulated. I don’t know if Salvi uses the same levers on the Ana regardless of string type, or if they have one set for lever gut and another set for pedal gut.
I have the reprint of the 1899 Lyon & Healy Harp catalog, and I just happened to reread a paragraph in it last night regarding children taking up the harp as young as age 8. Obviously, that’s a couple of years older than your daughter, Christy, but I thought it was interesting to read that even 8 year-olds could handle a concert pedal harp (with concert-tension strings). Of course, this was written nearly 125 years ago and is perhaps biased, being basically an advertisement, and I don’t know how the tension of strings back then compares to now.
I’ll type the section verbatim here, starting bottom of p. 47:
“The Harp–An Instrument for Children”
“The value of an early beginning in the study of instrumental music is recognized by all teachers. Many parents who have given the subject consideration are most favorably impressed with the idea, and the result is that more children are now engaged in the study of the Harp than ever before. Another important fact in this connection is that children do not tire so easily, or lose interest in the Harp as soon as they do in the piano or in small instruments. There seems to be an indefinite something in the tone of a Harp which compels their interest and admiration, so that even the necessary drudgery attending a mastery of the instrument, seems interesting. In the chapter devoted to testimonials we present the pictures of several of the most talented young Harpists whose excellent work has commanded the admiration of all who have heard them. These little people vary in age from eight to fourteen years. They have been taking lessons for a year or more, and have no difficulty whatever in handling the instrument, and the results are more satisfactory than are usually developed in the same length of time on other instruments.”
I just thought you and others might find that interesting!
-Gregg
Hi, Christy,
I haven’t yet tried moving my Prelude, but I plan to eventually get a harp caddy like Balfour’s so I can move it, and it’s designed for going up and down stairs, as he mentioned.
One (minor) complaint I have about the Prelude 40 is that the bottom 2 bass wires don’t have levers like they do on the Salvi Ana, which is their comparable model to the Prelude.
I should mention that I have a secondhand Troubadour V that actually has a bigger, fuller sound than my Prelude, but that could just be because my Troubadour is older and the soundboard has pulled up more. The Troubadour actually has a wider soundboard than the Prelude, though, which seems funny since it has a smaller range than the Prelude.
If the Prelude is overall what you really want, I do hope you can make it happen! It must look so classy in the ebony finish. I can hardly imagine living near a store that has any harps at all, let alone a Prelude. When I bought mine, I just had to go off of photos and videos that the Virginia Harp Center made for me, and I live all the way down in Texas!
Do keep us posted on what you decide, and if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.
-Gregg
Hi, Christy,
I’m glad I’ve been able to be of some help. I really hope we hear from some more experienced people on here, as I’m relatively new to the harp world myself.
Have you completely removed the Prelude 40 from consideration? It definitely has a warmer-type sound, as it has the exact same stringing as Lyon and Healy pedal harps, just fewer strings. One thing you would have to be ready for if you were to get it is the higher string tension, but that is one of the main reasons it has a warmer sound. One of the things I really like about the Prelude is how much it looks like a small pedal harp, especially with the straight column/pillar, and the alternate gold/brass crown that it comes with adds a touch of elegance (and the alternate claw feet, as well, though I’ve just kept the wooden feet on mine for now.)
Are you at all interested in eventually playing pedal harps? The Prelude 40 is made especially for lever harpers to be able to get used to the higher string tension of pedal harps, as are the Ogden and Troubadour models; in fact, all 3 of those are considered “pre-pedal” harps.
I’m sure experts on here have advice for how a small child can sit at a larger harp, but I wonder if you could have a higher stool for her if you were to get the Prelude.?
If I may ask, what is the finish of the Prelude that is available? Mine has the natural maple finish.
-Gregg
I meant to post the link for the MusicMakers Epic harp model. In case an actual link here would be problematic, I’ll just say to type in harpkit (dot) com (forward slash) epic-harp .
-Gregg
I’m sure others with way more knowledge and experience will chime in. However, Musicmakers has a brand-new 38-string lever harp model, and 3 of them are still available for immediate delivery, according to the website. It does cost almost as much as a Prelude, but it’s much lighter in weight (27 lbs). They’re giving a $500 discount to this first batch they’ve made. The sound samples sound lovely and warm to my ears.
Also, do you know whether there are any readily available harps by makers such as Rees Harps, Marini Made Harps, or Pratt Harps? There may not be, as so many of these makers are just making harps to order at this point. There are, however, a number of reputable independent makers. I must point out, not all makers have such lengthy lead-times, as I just ordered a Brilliant 34-string Harpsicle from Rees Harps that has a roughly 12-week timeframe. I’ve started a lever harp collection, and my Ravenna 34 took a few months, but not terribly long. I bought a readily-available Prelude in natural finish last year that I mostly really love except for the fact that the base is slightly crooked in relation to the soundbox, but I hardly notice that anymore. I’m eager to see responses from others here!
-Gregg
Just to clarify for people on here like Nicbo who might think, “I thought you all said harp prices aren’t negotiable!”, it should be pointed out that it’s one thing to negotiate on the price of a PRE-OWNED harp, but that new harp prices are pretty much firm.
Hi, Nicbo,
If you’re interested in hearing/seeing the YouTube video of Sylvain Blassel playing a Camac Egerie (with straight soundboard) that Balfour mentioned, here is the exact title of the video; just put this into the YouTube search bar:
“Les Jeudis classiques, concerts en ligne | Sylvain Blassel”
This forum often doesn’t allow links to be posted, or I would give you the actual link. You could also type in youtube (dot) com (forward slash) and then paste this after the slash: watch?v=9dhtthZ7-ME
Enjoy!
-Gregg
I just bought 2 different clip-on lights from Sylvia Woods (harpcenter dot com). They are Lotus brand; the smaller one is $119 and the larger is $169. LED, 3 brightness settings, rechargeable, lightweight.
Hope this helps!
-Gregg
Hi, Shawn,
Have you tried contacting Rees Harps directly? Melissa and Dawn are always very helpful there; I just ordered lever jewels from them to put on my Harpsicle levers. One of the company’s email addresses is <Us at ReesHarps dot com>.
Hope this helps!
-Gregg
Thanks to all of you for your insightful posts! It makes sense that gilding wouldn’t have an appreciable effect on the sound; I just wondered if gilding was reserved for harps that had to meet an even higher standard of quality above and beyond other harps of the same model (regarding the 23’s and 11’s). However, it makes sense that the gilding takes place BEFORE a harp is even assembled, rather than weeding out natural harps that are already assembled and then selecting certain ones for gilding based on superior tone. I’m not sure why that didn’t occur to me!
What about the premium models that are only available with the gilding? Does Lyon & Healy pay extra attention to the construction of those most elaborate models above and beyond the attention they give to the construction of any of their other models, or is the extra cost strictly due to the visual aesthetics? Saul, I suppose you already answered that when you said that there were two Prince Williams models at the factory that both had undesirable tone! That seems like such a shame…
Regardless of what people think of the “Louis XV Special” model, doesn’t it look as though it would sound markedly different from any other harp? I keep imagining that the contrabass wires of that model would sound extra bold and amazing somehow! However, all of the ornateness and extra gilding likely don’t make it sound that different from a natural 23! I personally like the look of the Louis XV Special, but I know some people find it to be too over-the-top. That and the Style 8 Gold are probably my faves as far as how they look.
Thanks again!
Thanks, Balfour! It sounds like one doesn’t always have to wait for a harp to mature into its sound if purchased new. That’s terrible about so many warped necks on super-expensive harps that are only a few years old!! Why hasn’t L&H addressed this by now, especially now that they’re owned by Salvi who HAS addressed this on their harps??
-Gregg
