WIP

This is my "new, improved" design of a 30-string Celtic harp. The body and pillar are made from solid mahogany. Actually, the pillar is made of two pieces of mahogany, glued side-by-side, cut from the same board but attached with opposing grain to counteract warping.

The soundboard is made from 4mm okoume marine plywood. Marine plywood is a high-quality, modern material. It is unaffected by moisture, it is denser than common plywood, and has no voids. Most harp makers agree that plywood offers the needed strength to bear the stress of wire strings.

Also, makers and players agree that there is no audible difference in the sound between plywood and solid wood soundboards. One maker went as far as to construct two identical harps; he equipped one with plywood soundboard and the other with a souldboard of sitka spruce. He played both harps for an audience of classically trained musicians who stated they could hear no difference in sound between the two harps.

The harp's neck borrows its design from the Paraguayan harp. It's a double neck in which the strings come down through the center, to avoid the twisting force apparent in all side-strung harps. This allows me to build a lightweight instrument that's closer in construction to a guitar than to a railroad trestle. This harp barely weighs 10 lbs. The lighter mass allows the use of lighter strings that are as easy on the player's fingers as the strings of an acoustic guitar.

Machine tuners, instead of traditional tuning pins provide reliable, accurate tuning.

For shipping, the harp is collapsed by loosening the strings, and detaching the pillar and neck from the body. Reassembly takes a couple of minutes. Then, the strings have to be brought back to pitch and that's all there's to it.