Long ago Bill wrote:
At the time I wrote I didn't get a big change in the timbre.
I just bought a new celtic harp.
Beside now having to pass most of the time retuning it (both the frame and the gut strings are brand new!), I discovered it has a much more evident change in timbre if plucked P.D.L.T. (prés de la table) than my previous harp.
Even the "regular" timbre is quite different from the one I had before.
Not all instruments are made equal!
That certainly is true. Even different harps from the same maker. They are, after all, largely a hand-made instrument. I have a very beautiful Dusty Strings harp that I seldom get a chance to play any more. I have a friend who bought the same make and model but found the sound was much duller than mine. After a few months she traded it in on a different Dusty Strings model, and it sounds
better than mine. Maybe it's because I'm not practicing....but I think it is differences in the wood grain, especially in the soundboard but perhaps also in the post.
Bill
Dusty Strings? You play it very rarely indeed! :-)
Yeah, well....it was a Dusty Strings when I did play it a lot. (Used to be in a Celtic band.) Anyway....Dusty Strings is a harp and hammered dulcimer maker in Seattle. Their website is here (http://www.dustystrings.com/). The instrument is gorgeous. Kinda outshone my playing.
Bill