Inspired by our last blog post about our 25,000th harp, we thought it could be fun to talk about how we got from harp #00 to harp #25000.
Here's a snapshot from the Seattle Times of where we were in 1980, while we were still building hammered dulcimers in the basement of a residential house and hadn't yet begun to experiment with harps:
The early days of Dusty Strings were focused solely on making hammered dulcimers, and our first foray into harps came in 1984 with harp #00, pictured below. As newbies in the long-established world of harp building, we brought over some techniques we'd learned in our dulcimer-building and tried a lot of unconventional design ideas. Some were successful, like using mahogany for the soundboards instead of the more traditional spruce. We were delighted to find that a lot of people liked the same bright and resonant sound we did. Other design ideas were not so popular, including our tuning scheme for a 25-string harp that went down to a low D instead of a C. (As dulcimer players, we were used to playing everything in the key of D!) Also, check out the blade-style levers on harp #00 and take a moment to appreciate the evolution of sharping levers over the past few decades.
These early harps were affordable and worked well, and they hit the spot for other newbies who had "always wanted to play the harp." We became part of a growing arena in the harp world - lever harp for lever harp's sake.
A lot has changed in the 47 years since we first started making instruments. Tuning pin holes once drilled by hand using a plywood template are now drilled by a computer-controlled router. We've graduated from our basement workshop to our own purpose-built building. Brochures and print ads have given way to websites and social media pages. Standing all weekend at a craft fair booth saying "Yup, this really is a harp," has become email, YouTube videos, and airfreight connections all over the country and world.
Our harp designs have evolved as well, and we've continued our approach of blending time-tested traditional methods with outside-the-box innovations. We designed threaded bridge pins to make it easier for harp owners to do their own regulations. In our search for sturdy and long-lasting soundboard eyelets, we ended up having them custom-made because our testing revealed how crucial the eyelets were to the tone of the strings. For the soundboards on our larger solid-wood harps, we tried both spruce and mahogany and ended up with a hybrid approach because our play-testers couldn't agree on which they liked better. It turned out that the "just right" solution was to use both. Traditional spruce in the bass range lends itself to a rich, round, warm tone, while non-traditional mahogany in the treble range contributes to the characteristic "Dusty sparkle." We are still trying new things all the time.
What hasn't changed at Dusty Strings is our commitment to staying small and mission-minded. We treat each instrument as a special creation and we're excited about each new connection with a player, whether they're a seasoned professional or a total beginner. With 45,000 Dusty harps and hammered dulcimers out in the world, we also spend a lot of our time answering questions about older instruments, and we're very invested in creating maintenance and repair resources so that these instruments can be enjoyed by multiple generations. We pick up the phone and we answer emails personally, and it's because we love having that direct connection with the people who have adopted our instruments.
Music has always been a force that brings people together, and we're so proud to be a part of that world with all of you.
