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Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have any used harps?
Is there a Rees harp in my area?
What is your warranty?
What happens if I later want a larger harp?
What if I don't like my harp once it arrives?
Which kind of wood sounds the best?
Why does maple cost more?
What else do I need?
There are dark marks in the wood on my harp. Why?
How deep is the soundbox?
How much does the harp weigh?
Should I start with a larger harp?
I play the guitar. Do you think I can learn to play a harp?
What do you mean by the terms &Quot;asymmetrical parallelplano"?
Do you build staved or round back harps?
I am left handed, can I play my harp off my left shoulder?
Will you build a lefthanded harp for me?
Can I order gut strings on my Rees harp?
May I purchase harp plans from you?
Do you have any used harps available?
We are always happy to take harps back in trade but rarely actually get them. Since our harps have gone up quite a bit in price over the past ten years, folks who purchased a harp a while back find that they can sell them directly for more than they paid in the first place.
When we do resell our used harps, we completely vet them and make sure that all is well. Additionally, since we offer a lifetime warranty, we are always happy to transfer the warranty to the new owner of a used Rees even if they buy it from the original owner instead of directly through us. That is what you want to see in a used harp the commitment of the maker. If you are looking at a used harp being sold by a private individual, one of the most important things would be to call the maker and have a conversation about how they will support you if you end up owning one of their harps.
I am interested in your harps. Is there one in my area that I can go and see?
We are frequently asked to put prospective customers in touch with current customers and we have finally decided that it puts us in too difficult a position since we do not have any way of knowing those with whom we are corresponding. For instance, if you were an existing Glen Aulin owner and I got your permission to put a prospective customer in touch with you, what happens if that person turns out to be a serial murderer with a harp fetish? Or, in another instance, who ends up the suspect if three days after arranging the contact your harp is stolen? Basically, what it comes down to is that we have great customers, many of whom are willing to open their homes but given the dangers in the world today, we are afraid to ask them to do so. In response, however, for the desire so many folks have to hear a harp before purchasing, in the Fall of this year we are going into the recording studio and making a sampler CD. In the future, a customer who is too far away to see our harps in person will be able to hear each one on a sampler which will be included with their catalog.
Precisely because William comes from classical lutherie, where a lifetime warranty is always the case, all of our instruments come warranted for the life of the lutherie. William has been building for twentyfive years and has made arrangements for the business to continue when he finally retires (about fifteen years from now), so Rees harps will continue to be warranted. Additionally, we offer a tradeup option whereby you are always welcome to trade a smaller Rees in against the applicable portion of a larger Rees harp. This means that you do not lose your initial investment should you ever decide you want a larger harp. Finally, for those who purchase our harps sight unseen (ear unheard?) over the Internet/phone, we do agree to accept our harp back and offer a full refund for the instrument (provided it is returned to us undamaged) should our harp not be everything you had hoped it would be. The most important thing to us is that you be happy with your Rees both now and long into the future.
Which kind of wood sounds the best?
In terms of tone, William is a classicallytrained European style luthier which, in plain English, means that he was originally trained to make violins and classical guitars and that he learned all the physics and compositional aspects of all the major body and tone woods. He is a schooled luthier instead of a more casual, folk luthier like most of those working in harps here in the States. To you, this means that you can choose the wood you want for your harp based upon the look that you like. William handles each wood differently so that all of the Logan Meadow Harps he builds have a comparable voice. He wants the Logans to have a specific kind of voice, the Morgans to have another and so on, so he adjusts the wood accordingly. In most lutheries walnut, cherry and maple all sound differently because they are handled identically in production so that the differences in the wood make for a difference in the voice. At Rees, the woods are each handled differently so that each harp model has a particular kind of voice. This frees you to chose the wood you like the best without having to worry about the voice.
Maple is not a better wood and it is not a more expensive wood to buy raw cut. It does, however, take more time to work maple and it consumes more sandpaper and sawblades. When paying the additional charge for maple, what you are buying is the additional time it takes to make your maple harp.
I am buying a harp so what else do I need?
You may also want to think about a carrying bag and an electronic chromatic tuner. Both of these items are in our Accessories Catalog at if you would like to take a look. We do actually have a new and even better chromatic tuner. It is made by Korg and it features excellent filters which easily pick up all the strings on the harp. Combined with a tuner lead, the new tuner is $50. Other than these items, you should be all set. Harp strings do not deaden like guitar strings so other than the very occasional breakage, you will not have to deal with new strings very often. Even when you do, you will generally only change the problem string instead of the whole set. If you are interested in a complete set of strings, they are less expensive if you get them directly from the maker: Robinson's Harp Shop, in Mount Laguna, California, at 6194738556.
You have, no doubt, heard that hardwood forests around the world are in decline and many are endangered. This by rampant harvest, acid rain, soil erosion and slash and burn farming. About ten year ago the Guild of American Luthiers began to alert its members that we were adding to the problem. By selecting only supposedly perfect wood vast amounts of other perfectly good wood was being harvested just to get to the few "perfect" pieces. We were repeatedly lectured to and informed of the damage for which we were responsible. The wood selected for your harp is premium wood. Our experience with customers is that most agree with us that the tannins and mineral streaks add character and beauty to the wood. Tannin marks are inherent to cherry and mineral streaks are common in maple. On furniture, if you look beneath the heavy "cherry" stains they slop all over the wood, you will see tannin just like that in your harp.
It is like fruit in the market. Because American consumers will only purchase "perfect" fruit, millions of pounds of perfectly good fruit spoils every year. People are starving and yet we will not buy an apple if it is not just the right color regardless of the quality of the apple on the inside.
Your harp is just the same. William selects his woods for the voice and mechanical quality of the wood. He also takes into consideration any especially large or unsightly blemishes. If the wood has small tannin marks, they are not a consideration. We believe that the harps are a reflection of the trees from which they came. The tannin marks are part of the wonderful life and beautiful nature of the tree that suffered harvest that you may have a harp. Personally, we have freckles. We thank God that we are not thought of as seconds because of them.
Rees harps are wonderful instruments, each made of carefully selected, top quality wood. They have a voice for the ages and will sing in the hands of others long after you have passed. Part of that song will be yours, part will be William's and part will be that of the massive tree. It is as it should be.
We are hesitant to answer this question about the depth of the soundbox without first clarifying a couple of points. In the harp world, we occasionally come across those who draw a direct relationship between width of soundbox and either volume or voice of the harp. This is a huge information disconnect since there are dozens of other aspects of soundbox construction which play a much greater role in the ultimate voice of the harp including wood thickness, solid or laminate woods, bracing, soundboard shape, distance of soundboard from the back wood etc.. (Much of this is discussed in detail in the General Articles subsection of the Resources section of our site.) In the case of Rees harps, our asymmetrical soundboard also has a distinct role. Our Logan Meadow is, for instance, considerably louder than a Lyon & Healy Troubadour which is twice times the size. The Logan Meadow also has a bigger voice than much larger 30string harps. In terms of size and the airlines, our Morgan Meadow Lap Harp meets the new, tighter airline carryon restrictions but our Logan Meadow does not. In case you are actually trying to fit a harp into a relatively small space and need the measurements for that purpose, the depth of the soundbox on the Logan Meadow is 4 inches.
How much does your (fill in the blank) harp weigh?
Harps vary in weight depending upon the type of wood used. We build with, in order from lightest to heaviest, walnut, cherry, oak and maple. The weight listings for each of our harps is a range which covers the difference in the woods.
Morgan Meadow: 4 - 6lbs.
Logan Meadow: 11 - 12lbs.
Glen Aulin: 13 - 16lbs.
Aberdeen Meadows: 17 - 21lbs.
I like the idea of a small, lap harp but I have been told I should start with a larger harp.
Get the harp you want. The single most important aspect of a harp is that is fit you, that it suit your lifestyle and your dreams. Lap harps are a bit more difficult to learn to play, it is true. Lots of people will tell you that they give you less flexibility and this is not precisely the case. What is true is that the music that is written for harps generally is written for more strings so lap harpists must transpose and, occasionally, rearrange the music itself. This is complex for those who have no previous musical background. If you, by chance, do come from a piano background, transposing is not new to you and will not be especially difficult. The same is true if you have most any classical instrument background though you will have to learn to work with both the treble and bass clefs. Lindsey Austin Samahon, who has traveled the world over playing harp concerts, often travels exclusively with her lap harp. She has rearranged even very complex classical pieces to the range of her lap harp and prides herself on being able to play anything on it.
The other thing that is true of lap harps is that many of them are basically built to be "small harps". In other words, they sound like toy harps. The reason our Morgan Meadow has received so much acclaim is because it sounds like the real thing despite its size. This does not mean it can voice the deep tones of a larger harp but it does mean that across the range of our Morgan it voices as well, if not better than, the same notes on larger harps. Professionals consistently comment that the voice of the Morgan is much larger than its size. Teachers for lap harps are especially tricky. Most teachers will want you to begin with a larger instrument and do not, in fact, really specialize on the lap harp themselves.
The single most important thing in learning any instrument is that you begin with one that speaks to you. If an instrument is not right for you, you will not learn it in the same way and with the same heart you would if the instrument was truly yours.
I play the guitar. Do you think I can learn to play a harp? If so, what harp would be right for me?
A first harp for a guitar player is always an interesting question. The standard line would be for us to tell you that most traditional/Celtic harp teachers do not want students starting on anything with less than 29 strings. In reality, 29 strings does give you more range but 23 strings has a three octave range as does a violin and no one talks about range limitations on violins! The real key is musicianship. If you already read music well enough to feel comfortable transposing music (both in range and in arrangement) than a lap harp (19 26 strings) could be just fine for you. Harp music tends to be written for 29strings or more so when you have fewer, you need to be able to transpose. Other than that, choice of harp size is a matter of personal preference. William, himself a classical guitar player, has a typically light, guitartype harp playing style and he learned to play harp on a lap harp, so it comes down to what makes you comfortable. We are not trying to push a lap harp over a floor harp, we only want you to know what is behind the "conventional wisdom" of "always start with a floor harp".
Whatever size you begin with, since you are already a musician, you will take right to it. William, who plays both, always says that "guitar is a bizillion times more difficult to learn than the harp" because of the difficulty of learning to fret. As a guitarist, you already have the skill to operate your hands independently (fretting while picking), so that will simplify things for you greatly. Our experience has been that guitar players do learn to play the harp without too much grief. Of course, you will not be able to pick up a harp and play as easily as you currently do the guitar but, if you can remember back to learning to play the guitar, it will put the ease of the harp into perspective for you.
What do you mean by the terms "asymmetrical parallelplano"?
In terms of "asymmetrical parallelplano", we will answer that in two sections. For our best explanation of the advantages of an asymmetrical soundboard, please see our article "The Asymmetrical Soundboard". The "parallelplano" design refers to the relationship between the back of the harp and the soundboard. The back does not taper away from the soundboard, as is the case in most harp designs, and both inner surfaces are plano meaning flat. The physics of the acoustics of this design are specific and, when measured, clearly advantageous. Any fine stringed instrument makes noise based upon the vibrational frequencies operating in the soundboard. In all other stringed instruments, it is already understood that the back of the instrument is critical because it serves to drive dissipated energy back into the soundboard. Tapering the back of the any stringed instrument away from the soundboard lessens the interaction between the soundboard and the back and, necessarily, reduces the energy delivered to the soundboard. The same reductions are found if the back is too close. There is a specific distance which will allow the desired tone to be developed. For reasons unknown to us, this information, which is so common as to be mundane among the builders of other strings, is relatively unknown among harp luthiers. This may well be because few harp luthiers are classically trained whereas the majority of fine guitar and violin luthiers are apprenticed or schooled or both. The other problem with tapering the soundboard away rests not in the instrument but in the human ear. As frequencies are lowered, the ear becomes dramatically less sensitive. This means that just in the range where humans need the harp to be loudest, a back tapered away from a soundboard reduces the volume by reducing the energy available to the soundboard.
For our Morgan Meadow Harp, for instance, this all means that we have paid close attention to the physics and mechanics of the instrument to maximize to volume and tone of the voice. This is why the Morgan is gaining such an excellent reputation among professionals for having an uncommonly large voice for its size.
Do you build staved or round back harps?
We do not build either staved or round back harps because we do not want to compromise the volume and tone that we have developed in our harps, for the reasons we described in the answer above and more. We often hear the current reasoning for the advantage of round or staved backs being the difficulty in reaching around flat backs or that flat backs hurt the player's shoulder. In terms of reach, this may well be true for many of the large, deep, tapering flat back harps that are made but it is not equally applicable to the narrow, fairly shallow, light backs that are designed into Rees harps. Our parallelplano backs have considerably less depth than do harps with round or staved backs so the legs and shoulder have even more freedom of movement. Also, if your harp is correctly, ergonomically positioned, it is generally not resting on your shoulder. The weight of the harp rests on the inner calves or thighs and the floor while the back of the soundbox hovers near the shoulder. Because Rees harps have backs that do not taper away from the soundboard, the whole harp ends up being more easily brought closer to the body further freeing the shoulder and arms to act without strain. Finally, though Rees harps have a voice as big or bigger than any competitor, they are considerably lighter than most other harps. Less weight in the harp transfers less weight into the body of the player. Additional information on this subject is available in our article "Harp Myth 3: Flat, Round and Staved Backs".
I am left handed, can I play my harp off my left shoulder?
It is true that 99 percent of the harp world plays with harp off their right shoulder and plays the treble clef with their right hand but remember that the harp has been around for three thousand years and, no doubt, someone, somewhere has even played it with their feet! (Remember Harpo Marx!) It is, in fact, our understanding that in the twelfth century, the harp was played as you are playing. Within those that play rightshouldered there is tremendous variation in style and angle of attack etc.. You should play your harp in the manner in which you are comfortable and never let anyone else tell you any different. Enjoy your harp that is the whole point.
Will you build a lefthanded harp for me?
You can search your whole life and never find a lefthanded piano. Lefthanded pianists learn to play the treble clef with their right hand just as righthanded pianists learn to play the bass with their left hand. Righthanded guitarists learn to do all the fretting, which is the hard part about learning the guitar, with their left hand. Unlike scissors, instruments are not generally made to be handed. The biggest limitation to learning to play on a specially made lefthanded harp is that forever and always, you will only ever be able to play on your own harp. You will not be able to rent a harp while yours is in the shop, or play a harp when you are at a harp conference looking at all the harps available. If you travel and you want to play, you will always have to have your harp with you since you cannot borrow one from a harp playing friend in the place you are visiting. You will be forever limited. There are historical harpers who play lefthanded harps, often in addition to playing righthanded harps. In support of this community, we do build lefthanded harps. There is an additional charge.
Can I order gut strings on my Rees harp?
When a luthier designs a harp, the very first things decided is the string type and, often, gauges. This is because the whole rest of a well designed harp is based upon the optimal working of the soundboard by the strings. Our harps are all designed for nylon strings. We have selected nylon for several reasons. The first, for us, is a personal preference that has to do with the difference between they way gut and nylon sound. Gut, inherently, has a warm, thumpy sound which is familiar to pedal harp players because pedal harps are strung with gut. Gut is fine for a pedal harp application because the kinds of fine, full harmonics found in good quality solid wood lever harps are not available to pedal harps (for a variety of reasons which are specifically not covered here because it would get us too far offtrack from the above question ). In lever harps, however, the goal is generally to get a warm voice that also has a full harmonic. Nylon strings can bring this voice out in ways that gut cannot. (The exception to this is the new, thin gut strings which break frequently but sound great.) This is most noticeable when gut strung harps are compared to quality nylon strung lever harps in the highest and lowest ranges. Good nylon strung harps feature a belllike ringing high end and a round, booming bass. Our reputation and the voice of our harps are a direct result of the choices we have made in design and construction including the choice of nylon strings. Functionally, gut is much more expensive than nylon and is more sensitive to environmental change. Additionally, the player spends much less time tuning with nylon strings and gut strings break more often.
On the other side, there are four really good reasons to have gut strings. Gut does feel different than does nylon and some players have a strong preference for the feel of gut. Second, you should have gut if you are planning to be a pedal harp player and your lever harp is a training instrument for your eventual pedal harp. Third, you may actually prefer the primarily mid-range voice of gut strings. You would not be alone by any means. Finally, historical harpers often want gut because it is the correct, periodappropriate voicing for their harps. In any of these entirely legitimate cases, we recommend the harps of Dave Thormahlen who can be reached at 5417534334.
May I purchase harp plans from you?
We do not provide plans. For a basic harp design, we recommend MusicMaker, out of Minnesota. Their plans and kits will give you a fairly good sounding instrument. Please feel free to call if you have any questions once you get started.
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222 Main Street, Rising Sun, Indiana 47040 • voice: (812) 438-3032 • web: http://traditionalharps.com
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