>If color is a question, I would like it to be as near the color of a
>wooden harp as possible.
>
No, no, no! Exploit the medium! Fibre-reinforced plastics such as
fibreglass, etc. really lend themselves to being coloured (I'm not sure
about carbon fibre - even though the resin can be pigmented, the basic black
of the carbon fibre itself might be so intense that it will show through no
matter what you try and do). Th same pigments that are used to colour the
resin can also be used in epoxy glues to match the glue line to the colour
of the timber around it.
So, how about a metalflake purple soundbox, with a sunburst yellow centre to
it! Or candy-apple red, or rainbow colours, or translucent, so you can see
all those sound waves bouncing around inside, or an air-brushed mural, or
even embedded LED's (okay Glenn Hill, take over!) or ... or ... or ...
Seriously though, I've actually made three small harps with fibreglass
soundboxes, and they don't sound too bad, so the idea probably isn't a total
waste of time, but I've also read comments in the FHJ that suggest that
fibreglass soundboxes sounded pretty cruddy. Like everything else about
harps, I guess, there's a lot of scope for research.
I've also seen a harp with a brass soundbox - an amazingly big sound out of
a small harp! And to re-kindle the left-shoulder/right-shoulder debate, the
guy who owns it usually plays with his harp on his right shoulder, but
switches it onto his left shoulder when he sings.
Maybe we just do things differently in Oz ...
Have fun!
Bruce Lemin