I made the first one out of pine two-by-fours and fish string.
Well, why not?? It sounded kinda tinny, and Dad (a very musically sensitive person) was unimpressed, but I could tune it and play stuff. Okay, so I was the only person who could hear it... it was proof of concept. And it was very good for playing quietly at sunrise. "Awake, Harp and Lyre; I will awaken the Dawn!" At least with the two-by-four harp I didn't awaken anybody else.
That Autumn, scrounding in the backyard yielded several peices of Treated Lumber and lots of Cedar clapboards. The treated lumber became the frame of the Harp and the cedar became the sound box. A peice of thin plywood gave the strength for the front of the harp.
Cutting out the pieces and screwing and glueing it together took weeks in my father's workshop. My entire family was skeptical. (After all, the two-by-four harp couldn't even be heard from ten feet away.) I sawed and sanded and set my jaw to let the comments slide, finish the thing, and find out if it would sound any better than the two-by-four version. My father especially watched the struggle. With more patience than I've exercised over anything except perhaps my
When I brought it up to the living room, finished, my father was waiting; and after about four or five chords, he was completely convinced. And so was I! The Cedar box provides a gorgeous, deep tone (especially with that hundred-pound test fishing line.)
My father immediately encouraged me to go into production and sell them. But the thrill was in the prototype, and over eight years later, the second lies unfinished in the basement, needing only a top and bottom to the box, and then the finish, the hardware, and the strings. It has the characteristic gaelic curved forepost (the first does not) and is larger, allowing another octave of strings. Once upon a time, that additional octave had seemed very important. NOt so much, now.