About….
Thanks to the efforts of our son, Jon, I have become represented on the Internet with a blog page of my very own! He set this up for me as a Christmas gift in December, 2005. I am not web-savvy, so Jon and his friend Christian are my mentors for getting this thing up and running. Thanks, Jon, for the gift and to both of you for the extreme patience that will be required of you. Thanks, also, to you the visitor to my site. May you have patience as well!
THIS IS PAGE ONE OF A WORK IN PROGRESS. MY GOAL IS TO MAKE WHAT APPEARS HERE CONCISE, INTERESTING AND HELPFUL TO CURRENT OR WOULD-BE HARP PEOPLE — BE THEY PLAYERS OR BUILDERS.
As a lifelong hobbist woodworker (woodbutcher), I happened upon a Musicmakers ad in a magazine many years ago offering plans for a HURDY-GURDY. Not knowing what a hurdy-gurdy might be, I decided to order the plans because I liked the sound of the word! I built the world’s worst-sounding hurdy-gurdy.
I then decided to build a hammered dulcimer,
again having never knowingly seen nor heard one!
Next came a Renaissance guitar which I eventually sold it because I’ve never liked the feel of FRETS!
Finally, knowing nothing about harps or harp music, I built a HARP!
I was hopelessly smitten!!
Why Harps? When one builds a harp, 1) there are few right angles for clamping, and 2) a harp, by its very nature, is a piece of furniture that is hell-bent on self destruction since it has string tension of 1200-1800 pounds trying to break it apart every minute of every day! To sound good, a harp must be built lightly enough to permit clear, beautiful tones to be emitted, yet strong enough to withstand the extreme tensions already mentioned.
Most Harp Makers, I have found, are very open and very helpful to anyone who would choose to build a harp. A few of the makers I have come to know and respect are Jerry Brown of Musicmakers Kits, Inc. (I’ve built numerous instruments from many of his blueprints), Rick Kemper of Sligo Harps and Larry Fisher of Fisher Harps. Both Jerry and Rick have published wonderfully detailed books on harp building that I would recommend highly to the would-be OR the experienced harp maker. Rick and I have spent many hours together working on harp-related activities; he’s the engineer, I’m the wood butcher.
I am particularly enthralled with the high quality finishes Larry Fisher attains on his harps and am in the process of attempting to emulate those wonderful finishes. In general, my personal preference in harp tone has been for that of the Musicmakers’ harps. Most recently, I have been utilizing my own harp design built around the string specifications of the Musicmakers’ “Regency” harp. I love the tone quality of the original “Regency”, and feel I have been able to reproduce that same quality in my own harps.
I, myself, having a real(?) day job, have had the luxury of building all my harps for the challenge of doing so, not being motivated by sales nor the desire to produce harps in volume. To keep it fresh and interesting, I have arrogantly not yielded to taking orders nor advertizing my harps. This web site will be the closest I will have come to doing so, and even then, my motives for doing the web site are primarily for communication and not to generate sales. I have sold many harps, but my customers, with one exception*, have had to choose from what harps I’ve had on hand at the time they expressed an interest in my harps.
*Tom Herald asked me to build him a harp with Queen Anne legs and the idea intrigued me, so I did so. This was the only harp I built ‘on order’.
Since 1990, I have built 36 harps, most of which have been sold. A few are on loan. Once I have solved the “how to” of web page design, it is my plan to share with anyone interested some of the processes I have used in my own harp construction, some of the failures and pitfalls I’ve encountered, and other wisdoms I have gained over the past 15 (make that 16 – it’s now 2006) years of harp (and other instrument) building. I have taken digital photos of certain aspects of harp building and plan to post them here. I also do Finale© music publishing, play with an instrumental ensemble, and will probably have pages devoted not only to harp, but also hammered dulcimer, concertina, recorder, harmonica or whatever. Who knows what might appear on my blog page?!
Do come back!