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 | Wood Choices In this day and age with our Planet in such distress, I make it part of my mission as a harp builder, to only use wood from sustainably harvested sources. This is mainly hardwoods native to North America, Cherry, Black Walnut, Rock Maple, and Oregon Myrtle wood. I do use Hawaiian Koa wood, when I can get a supply, though it has gotten very scarce. Koa is now a protected tree, and is being planted and grown with the future in mind, but for the present is hard to obtain. There are other tropical woods that are being grown and harvested in a sustainable way, which I will use from time to time. Please inquire about these woods such as Mahogany. I build all my harp sound boards from twenty year air-dried Engelmann Spruce tone wood. I buy it from a family that has been cutting Spruce for Violins, Viola, and Cello tops, for three generations in the high elevation Oregon Cascades. One old growth Engelmann Spruce tree can supply the material for hundreds of harp sound boards, as well as many Violin, Viola and Cello tops. I use the very wide Cello-Top wedges that are about two feet in width. This way I sometimes end up with just two or three joints in my sound boards, on my largest harp models. This wood is the perfect tone wood, with very close grain lines, dark distinctive winter growth lines, and summer growth lines that are not too wide. Why is using this high quality tone wood good for your new harp`s sound ? This is because when you play your harp, the plucking and strumming of the strings produces sound vibrations that move in various ways through and out of your harp. Some of that sound is translated into air movement that actually compresses and pumps air in and out of your harp`s sound box. This aspect is affected by the air volume inside the harp sound box, and the size and placement of the harp`s sound holes, as well as the shape and smoothness of the inside surfaces of that sound box. But other vibration/ sound waves are sent directly through the harp`s sound board, and are amplified and projected outward by the sound board. As those vibrations pass through the sound board, they will follow the path of least resistance, which is the dark hard winter growth lines in this solid Spruce. The softer Summer growth lines also carry the sound, but they transmit the vibrations at a slower rate. This combination of hard and soft growth/ grain lines helps to give a solid Tone Wood it`s natural warmth and complexity of sound. A sound board with a hardwood veneer over the top tends to flatten the dynamics of this complexity of sound color, flattening it at both the higher and lower ends of the sound waves. The fact that this Tone Wood is also twenty year air-dried, also aids the richness of the sound, because as the Spruce dries, over many years, the cells become more naturally open and their structure changes to enhance the sound. This process is apparently disrupted by kiln drying the Tone Wood, but when allowed to naturally occur it will continue to improve in sound forever. this is one of the factors in the Old Master Italian Violins, that their tone wood tops,( Spruce), have been drying naturally for over 300 years ! Part of the secret of the tone of my custom and production harps, is the use of this superior sound board wood. |
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