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One thing which strikes me is that you say you are drawn to the sound of the harp, yet you hardly mention the sound of the instruments you are considering. Fewer strings can be worked around and less good levers can be not used much. What sound do you like?
Renting a harp for a little while is good as you have more skills to try harps and decide what sound you like to make, and indeed your preferences may alter with familiarity.
I am used to strings going white when bent, bow brand started doing that some years back when their strings became much clearer, but such an audible crack is interesting. I would see how it lasts on the harp, as that is what matters. I would also be tempted to get a cheap humidity meter.
I remember the going white of strings being mentioned at a talk by bow brand as only a concern if it happened at a larger radius of curvature.
How are you planning to learn? If you are going to have lessons I advise you to find a teacher before buying a harp.
It is so easy to get caught up in specifications of instruments – but make sure you really like whatever you buy.
How often do you move your harp? How long will you live there? I lived on the first floor, with an annoying right angle half way up for a couple of years and it was perfectly possible but did get tedious. At that stage I was taking the harp out a couple of dozen times a year. Everyday would have been a very different matter.
I can easily play with fingernails that long. With a fingers down, thumbs up hand position I wouldn’t expect them to be any trouble.
The links don’t show the pictures in your screen as you write the post; for me they get added when I submit.
I don’t want or need printed pedals to be quite as large as handwritten- printing is much neater than my handwriting!
I think you may struggle to find a classical pedal harp sound in something light weight and with a light feel to play. The sound, string tension, strength and weight of harps are all linked. How do you transport the Ana? Do you have a good trolley for it?
As second harp I expect to set up stage right – I find it is easier to follow your principal when they are on your music stand side and a tiny bit in front. I presume this is the same between countries.
I like playing the second part to Planets, the pairing with first works well. Do mark the part up so you don’t slip onto first’s line -you may wish to also mark up first’s choice of arpeggiation to make it easier to duplicate.
The Victorian one, as I recall, had both sets of strings on the same side of the neck and extra long prongs on the disks. I am not surprised it didn’t catch on. I think it is double action, but would need to check.
The pedal konghou seems to be made with single or double action, the mechanism of this one looks double to me http://player.mashpedia.com/player.php?ref=mashpedia&q=Gv0DOFkhFm4
The two rows on a konghou are linked at the bottom, so pushing on one side bends the notes on the other. I find them fascinating!
Wandering off topic to double strung pedal harps, I think it is the Bate collection that has an historical example, made to try to get the doubling effect used in Welsh triple harp variations. The modern konghou is double strung and pedal examples are made. I think the first double harp I heard was a konghou played at the World Harp Congress in Prague in 1999.
I think you would find Stuart Eydmann’s book ‘In Good Hands’ which came out last year enlightening. The Clarsach Society had as its primary initial focus instrument the gut strung blade harp, though it now has a branch for the wire strung harp.
My point is perhaps mainly that there is more to the world than America.
