-
Let’s Talk about Wood!
So, I’m looking at different harp websites, drooling over the different harps, and most have an option for bubinga wood – for several hundred dollars more. So, what is the big deal with bubinga wood that anyone would add a couple of hundred dollars to the price of their harp to get it? Is it the beauty of it? How does it change the quality of the tone?
For those of you who have tried harps made of different types of wood, can you share your thoughts on the differences?
I find harps to be a bit “plingy” and so my sentiment is to warm it up a bit with…. what? Walnut? Problem is – I don’t like the color of walnut. I just don’t like the way it looks. Cherry and mahogany are pretty to look at.
Maple, I think, is too bright-sounding – especially for an instrument that is naturally bright-sounding. Unless, you think that maple enhances the harps natural tendencies? My thought is to pull it back a bit from “pinging.”
What are your thoughts on wood? I’m really interested in your thoughts and experiences!
-
14 Replies
-
Two websites that talk about the qualities of woods:
https://www.thorharp.com/pages/woods.htmhttps://www.thorharp.com/pages/woods.htm
I never heard of Thorharp before. Expensive!
-
Sound samples of different woods on the same model harp.
Can you hear a difference?
-
My harp is made of cherry and I absolutely love it! The sound is kind of in the middle between bubinga and walnut to me.
-
Hi. I will probably go with cherry wood too.Hi. I will probably go with cherry wood too.
-
-
I looked into this when I was harp shopping. I am not sure if the fancy wood such as bubinga is worth the price difference; I feel that walnut and cherry would be plenty sufficient for warm sound. I have a Dusty Strings in sapele with a laminated Finland birch soundboard, and I really love how balanced the sound is. I thought I would prefer the bright sound from maple, and I am actually quite happy with a little bit more roundness from the sound of a sapele. I also have a Musicmakers Cheyenne in Cheery with an Aircraft Birch soundboard. The two harps shaped differently which affects the sound, so doing a side by side comparison of sound of the two isn’t really fair. I do notice a deeper and warmer sound from the cherry compare to the sapele. They are good for different things. I like to play fast dance tunes on the Dusty for the clarity, and the Musicmakers is great for slow tunes.
-
Hi. I will probably go with cherry wood too.
-
-
Did you compare the strings also? I found myself drawn to gut strings, I also love the deep sound of them. Sometimes nylon can sound twangy to me; that might be affected by the wood of the harp and the size of the soundboard. I have both, a L&H Troubadour w/ gut and a Marini Bass Lapp with nylon.
-
Hi. No, I didn’t consider the type of strings. “Gut” sounds disgusting to me. Is it really made from an animal’s gut? A cat’s gut?
Do they hold up as well as nylon? Do they have to be replaced more frequently?
-
They are really made of gut! https://youtu.be/UJ_tky1_g3k Gut strings are usually more expensive than nylon, and they produce a richer, deeper sound. A fair number of people think that nylon string breaks less often than gut strings (myself included), although I haven’t had as many broken gut strings on my pedal harp as I thought there would be.
-
OMG! Gross!
-
Listen to different harps with either gut or nylon (or silk gut, etc.) and see what sound you like. Here’s a comparison of 4 different harps: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Ztht0L0gIhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6Ztht0L0gI
-
-
-
-
-
Hi Eileen,
If you don’t like walnut color but like this sound, you could also search for one walnut one with another finition (for example Camac Janet existes in natural birch color, though it increases the price a bit). But according to what you explain, I think cherry would be good choice. I maybe wrong, but I feel like bubinga wood fancy is more because it’s rare, and maybe for it’s color… But I never heard how it sounds.
Also, if you don’t want gut strings, there are several other kind than nylon. Some are called “silkgut” which is a “synthetic gut” (trying to reproduce this sound I guess), or more often fluorocarbon.
Good luck with the quest of your Harp!
-
Thank you.
-
-
It sounds like bubinga is no longer a problem. But I’ve decided to go with cherry in any case.
Log in to reply.