Lyon & Healy used harps are a safe bet and cost a little more, whereas you can take a greater risk but get a better price with a classified listing.Ĭhoosing the right harp for you can seem daunting at first, but can be an exciting and fun process. If you'll be playing a harp for a long time, you may be better off purchasing a new harp rather than one that already has a lot of wear. You are encouraged to buy from reputable sellers, and receive outside advice from a harp technician or other knowledgeable person about the condition of specific instruments. Many warranties from harp makers are non-transferable once the harp is resold to another party, so be sure to ask the maker directly if you have a question about it. While many are excellent harps, you buy at your own risk and harps can have serious structural issues that can be expensive and time-consuming to repair. Please take caution when purchasing used instruments. Lyon & Healy Prelude Recommended Pedal harps: Lyon & Healy’s high tension lever harps can provide a cost-effective first instrument beginners, and also provide a smooth transition to pedal harps later because of their very similar feel, string tension, and string spacing across all of their models. As a student progresses and the repertoire becomes more chromatic, a pedal harp eventually becomes necessary. Lever harps can accommodate early repertoire nicely because the music tends to not be very chromatic. Pedal harps have an intricate mechanism with foot pedals to raise and lower strings’ pitches, and as a result, tend to be much larger and more expensive. A string’s pitch can be raised half a step when the lever is manually raised. Generally speaking, lever harps are simple instruments with individual levers attached to each string. While you willeventually need a pedal harp to play advanced classical repertoire, you can start learning on either a lever or pedal harp.
LYON HEALY HARP TRANSPORT COVER FULL
You will want a high-tension harp that has a warm, full sound. It may last a good while yet.If you would like to mostly play Classical music. I have played the 19 for sale now at LH and it is a magnificent harp, not rebuilt. Some of these older harps have a more piercing tone than the rounded one we are used to. I had to really push to get the sound out of the tight response, but it projected extremely well, and balanced against the piano as well as a 23. I once did a harp and piano recital on a style 16, straight sound-board and gilded column, and that harp was hard to play. I think lighter is better, even if it means replacing the neck. My harp has gained weight from 78 pounds when I ordered it, to 81 when I received to 84 pounds after rebuildings. All the harps are now bigger and heavier than they used to be. The original Salzedos had very wide sounding-boards, so I wouldn’t say they were smaller, and they usually had wide string spacing in the bass. With a straight soundboard, you have to work harder to project your bass tones. The extension gives it the pear-shaped tone we strive for. There is a clear difference between the straight and extended sound-board. The Chicago model harps have the same quality but are uniform and good in sound. They can sound wonderful and like dreck, depending on the instrument. That makes them more in line with Erard harps. The 15’s have less bass without the extension of the soundboard. Any variation in the height of the instrument from one model to another was simply a matter of adding more wood to the top of the column(the Salzedo model) or the addition of a crown. The concert grands were the largest and included the style 3, 8, 11, 23, 26, and Salzedo model. After that, there were several numbers that are no longer made: style 16, 19, and the 15, 17, and 22, all of which were the same semi-grand size, with either a straight or extended board. After WWII, they may have discs on the top string.īefore WWII, Lyon & Healy had 4 different size harp frames. The 15’s that are pre-WWII may have been 45 or 46 strings, with just an overstring post for the top string(no discs). After WWII they were simply ungilded turned columns. A 12 pound difference between two 15’s sounds like a misprint, or someone simply guessing.ġ5’s built before WWII had carving and a combination of gilding and bronze powder. The differences in height for the same model could be with and without a crown, which is about 2 inches high.