Harp Myth 7

Hardwoods & Endangered Woods

This article is the seventh in an extended series of articles addressing issues and myths surrounding traditional harps and their construction. This iteration is the third of five which deals with materials.

Hard to Resist

We have watched thousands of people being seduced by a harp. They may decide they are not ready to buy one and learn to play but they are seduced none-the-less. They reach out a hesitant hand and with the gentlest stroke, slip their hands along the harmonic arch. Half of these harp virgins exclaim, "Oh, a harp! I've always wanted to play the harp." The other half, with their hands still caressing the maple or cherry or walnut say, with an almost embarrassed look, "I love wood."

Hardwoods can do that to a person. The small, dense cells allow them a slick feel of grace in the hand. Their mass imparts a sense of solid comfort. The way a harp feels leaning into you, is thanks to all that great hardwood. Flamed maple, cherry with a hint of curl, dramatic dark striping from the grain of a walnut or oak - it is all a richness that can be seen, heard and felt. [On principle, our lutherie does not build with Rain Forest woods. See "Endangered Harvest".] In nylon- strung traditional harps, hardwoods comprise all but the soundboard itself. In wire-string harps, hardwoods are generally used throughout. In both types of harp, the soundboard is the greatest single determiner of the voice but the different hardwoods contribute color to the harmonics in the voice. The primary job of the hardwoods is, of course, to provide the mechanical strength and structure. Additionally, if the hardwood of the back of a harp is properly designed and tuned, it will work in concert with the soundboard to amplify and augment the energy directed off the innerback of the soundboard. Though not precisely the same as complex violin plate mode tuning, harp backs are at least as critical to the development of the full potential of a given instrument.

Nearly every time, when we are taking a custom harp order, our customer asks us which hardwood sounds better. Here is a BIG SECRET... it is almost entirely a matter of personal opinion. The handling of the wood and the craft involved in shaping a particular piece for a specific harp is the truly critical element. In terms of subtlety, denser woods, like maple, have the ability to give a bigger voice, all other things being equal, because they absorb/damp less of the energy generated. Cherry and walnut tend to lend a mellow quality, a roundness without being muddy. Red oak seems to be brighter and have slightly more punch. We experimented with virtually identical soundboards on a variety of hardwood bodies. The voicing differences are nearly indiscernible when the harps are well apart and most pronounced when these finished instruments are side-by-side. Even then, the part of your hearing you lost at that really loud rock concert in 1978 is much more likely to determine what you, personally like and hear. Honestly, any sound, quality lutherie hardwood can be worked into a wonderful instrument.

Split Decision

Luthiers using some early harp designs and those using the late Robbie Robinson's double harmonic curve approach for the pin pattern in the neck, tend to advocate the use of hardwood laminates in the arch. Harps with older designs or the double harmonic curve layout also tend to have necks with a deep dip along the arch, something like an exaggerated "S" curve. While a double harmonic curve design is based upon some interesting acoustic science, the mechanical integrity of an "S" curve, in the axis applicable, is terribly low. For this reason, luthiers using this design often laminate together several pieces of solid hardwood to replace some of the strength lost to the mechanics of the desired curve. Coming from another design approach, lutheries like Dusty Strings, Triplett and Rees use a straighter, less exaggerated arch and an in-line string layout. The mechanical integrity of this type of arch is inherently less compromised so lamination is not necessary.

Endangered Harvest

In 1988, at the Guild of American Luthiers annual convention, a watershed speech was made which served to actively involve luthiers in the struggle to confront the problems surrounding the extinction of several of the primary species of trees used in lutherie. Though a number of programs focused upon sustainable harvests have been initiated and appear to have excellent long-term prospects, the action has come too late for classic instrument woods such as Brazilian Rosewood, Mahogany and most Ebonies. All three are precariously near biological extinction and the trade in them is either illegal or on its way to being so. For many years, due to the decimation of the German Blackforest, Germany has been buying North American Engelmann Spruce, milling it and selling it back into this country as prized German wood. The Western Red Cedar may be as little as fifteen years from losing all the original old growth groves. Meanwhile, Pacific Rim tonewoods and the few remaining endangered hardwoods are being shipped by the boat-load to Japan either for use there or for sale back into the US at exorbitant prices. Since the demand for a specific wood is often customer driven, it is important that customers be made awear of the extreme nature of the problem. The Guild of American Luthiers has extensive information on this subject should you wish to "read more about it".

Our decision in this matter has been to research new woods and substitute them for the traditional lutherie woods. We no longer work in any of the rainforest woods, we have given up using mahogany, and we no longer accept orders for sitka spruce. The woods we are using now are American hardwoods and tonewoods, they give us performance that is actually superior to that of the woods they are replacing. For us and for our customers, this is the best of both worlds.

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