Unlevered Morwenna Rose Student 8

A chance to own a piece of history-the 8th harp I ever made! Made in December 2013 in our garden shed, when we lived in a tiny cottage outside Monmouth. We had only started up in September of that year, and I optimistically was trying to make some harps in time for Christmas.

It has been rented out to various people over the years and has now come back to us.

This harp demonstrates what I often tell people, which is that I didn’t have any training in luthiery, I just started doing it. To be honest, looking at this harp 10 years on, I can honestly say that my skills as an instrument maker have come a long way.

It has wood filler in parts of it where I had ripped some of the plywood out. The shape at the end of the neck/top of the pillar was meant to look like they had been made separately and glued together by a self-conscious harp maker who thought that “that’s what harps are meant to look like”.

The neck is at a bit of an angle to the soundboard, and the “shoulder” sits to the side of the “armpit”.

All of that said, it holds its tune, and having lasted 10 years, all parts of it look stable like they’ll last for many years to come. It sounds ok, though back then I was making the soundboxes too heavy, so it’s not as bright as our more modern harps.

Comes with 12-month guarantee, including strings.

Would have been £495 new.

The soundboard is made from aircraft birch plywood, so called because of it’s use in aeroplanes due to it’s very high strength to weight ratio. This means that 3mm of wood can bear a high string tension, which in turn makes the notes ring beautifully. A thinner soundboard resonates better with the strings.

Harp Dimensions

Height 100cm
Depth 63cm
Width 25cm
Weight 4.8kg