Woods

Dusty Strings makes three lines of harps: the Ravenna line, the Allegro/Crescendo line, and the FH line. The biggest differences between these three lines are the woods used, especially for the soundboard, the back, and the sides. Like guitars and many other musical instruments, our harps are available with laminated soundboards, backs, and sides; with laminated soundboards and solid-wood back and sides; or with soundboards, backs, and sides of all solid wood. Typically, harps made of all solid wood have more depth and richness of tone than harps made of laminated wood. Basically, the more solid wood there is, the more resonance, clarity, smoothness and depth of sound there is.

Solid Wood Harps
The all solid-wood FH series gives the most of everything: volume, resonance, clarity, smoothness and articulateness. We currently make our FH series harps from five species of hardwoods: sapele, walnut, maple, bubinga, and figured cherry. Because these woods cover a spectrum of tonal as well as visual color, deciding which one you want for your harp can be a fun voyage of discovery.

There are three basic factors to balance in choosing wood: appearance, price, and sound. The first two are fairly straightforward. People will be drawn visually to a particular wood for many different reasons, and everyone has their own budgetary issues to address. Price relates to the scarcity factor of the wood, and does not necessarily mean “better” (unless it happens to be your favorite!). Sound, however, can be the hardest to pin down if you aren’t in a position to play and compare the woods first-hand. Because they all sound good, deciding which is “best” becomes purely a matter of personal taste and there is no wrong answer.

This may be a good place to mention that some harp companies build harps that achieve a different appearance by means of stains or veneers, when they are all made of the same woods (often maple) and so sound essentially the same whether they are a “walnut” or a “maple” finish. The different appearance of our harps comes directly from the wood itself, which has a clear lacquer finish without any stain. A different appearance means it is made from a different wood, which will contribute a subtly different quality to the tone. This is the magic and the beauty of building harps out of solid wood. They each have their own distinct personality.

While each type of wood makes its own distinct contribution to the overall sound of the harp, the differences can be fairly subtle. Walnut, maple and bubinga are simplest to distinguish with words. Figured cherry and sapele seem to blend the tonal characteristics of the other woods, making them more difficult to differentiate with words. That being said, in general, the following characteristics are commonly associated with each wood:

Walnut—soft, warm, mellow, and intimate
Maple—crisp and clean, very bright, focused and articulate
Bubinga—deep and full bodied, with an authoritative bass and bell-like treble and mid range
Sapele—bright and clean, with a balance of warmth and depth
Figured Cherry—both deep and bright, with a strong but very smooth voice

We do need to remind people that while these distinctions can be heard, they are subtle, and all of our harps still fall within the brighter end of the tonal spectrum when compared to harps in general.

Watch and listen to our harp models and wood choices on our Video and MP3 pages.

Harp Wood Photos
Here are some photos showing the different types of wood we offer.

Sapele	Walnut
Maple	Bubinga
Figured Cherry	Ash