LJMGT Lyre Harp, 16 Strings Mahogany Solid Wood Metal String Adult/Child Musical Instrument, With Tuning Wrench Pick, Black Gig Bag, and Music Tutorial for Beginner Instrument Lovers (Wood color)

This is a quality lyre harp. I wanted one that had a good sound for me. Harps are like any other musical instrument in that it has to be right for the player. Everybody has very different things they are looking for in this harp had what I wanted. I saw other types with the dish shaped scalloped body and that didn't work for me. That model has a concave body but the sound reverberated a bit too much for me. I watched a lot of harp videos on YouTube trying to figure out what type of sound box suited my interests. I researched this Cega model and found it had a bright cheerful resonance. The sound box on this resonates deep bright and cheerful. Also I wanted one with a string guard and a saddle. The saddle (the long wooden or bone line that the strings stretch across perpendicularly) raises the strings off the base and gives more room for playing. Also the metal gold toned string guard was important to me as it keeps the strings from rubbing on the wood. it was a built-in safeguard for me looking down the line perhaps years with this model. So I took a risk and bought it on Amazon. It was a good deal for me. I also wanted a harp that had the note cords engraved on the wood because I don't read music notes but I can handle music tabs. So this had the notes inscribed. In the photo you will see that I marked some of the note keypegs with red or blue paint. This was to help me find the C and F chords easily. Traditional big harps have strings that are color coded for the player to find the cords easily. So I marked my pegs. (No worries this is water based acrylic and it can come off easily.). The harp you get will not have the colors marked on the pegs.when I received the item it was somewhat out of tune but not bad. The tweaks were minor and the key peg tuner worked perfectly.The harp measures 13.5" along it's tallest edge. However because it is curved and the longest part is towards the middle of the base of the harp, I measured it from the tallest outer edge to the middle of the base (below the gold string guard) and it was 15". So the measurement is slightly diagonal but you get the idea. The thickness is 1 and 3/16 inches deep. The width along the widest part of the belly of the box is 10" wide. all measurements were done on the flat backside of the instrument.The strings are wide enough apart for someone with small medium and perhaps even large size hands. I guess it would depend on your own dexterity if this would work for you or not. The strings measure 1/2" distance or slightly more away from each other when measured through the harp window.The harp arrived in a decent box inside the case. You can see what it came with in my photos. The booklet is brief at best. It shows you a guitar app that you can use to tune this harp. I downloaded it and found the harp and the app compatible. The harp is extremely sensitive to tuning. Even the very slightest nudge of the tuner can change the entire note of the harp so extreme care has to be taken to make sure you tune it properly.Once I began to play with the harp I found its resonance and bright and cheerful sound exceeded expectations. There's enough resonance to carry through the atmosphere but not so much that it blooms out and interferes with the notes previously played. Some harps have a scalloped out dish shaped body but this harp has a sound box much like a guitar. I was really pleased with the richness of the sound without being overbearing.Overnight the thing stayed in tune! I only had to tweak one or two pegs but I'm a perfectionist and so the tweaks were so minor. All in all, this was a very good harp purchase for me. The one I bought is in the natural color, the pale mahogany. At first I wanted to get the deep rich brown one but there was something so pure about this natural wood. I'm glad I got it.Although this is my first lyre harp, I don't think it will be my last. It seems I have an affinity for this kind of instrument and playing it came easy. I set it on my lap to pluck play it first and eventually turned it up right once my fingers could find the strings properly.there are a lot of beginner videos on YouTube and I found them useful in getting me started.However if anyone knows of a lyre harp book with tabs (noted chords) for beginners that would be awesome to send my way. thank you for reading and I hope this review is helpful to you in your search and purchase options.I think this harp was worth the money and is well made and has a great sound. I'll be looking forward to more Cega brand harps in the future. (This is not a paid endorsement, lol!)

This is a beautiful instrument. I love the sound quality. It has lovely detail and a nice range of notes. Tuning the first time wasn’t hard and keeping it in tune only takes a few minutes.

Lo primero que tuve que hacer fue ponerle una de las cuerdas de reemplazo porque no trajo una de ellas

Beautiful wood, lightweight with a great sound

I should qualify this with the fact that I will be keeping the instrument in spite of a few flaws. The purpose of getting this was to be able to sample sounds and chords, not play full songs. For that purpose, it's going to exceed my expectations... just not for the reasons I had expected. Also, it does look nice.If you cannot tune by ear, get an electronic tuner for cheap. If comes almost completely de-tuned (likely from vibrations during shipping). If you try and play this without tuning it, it will sound like a car ran over it. More on keeping it in-tune later. Not that it seems to matter, but The "Bone saddle" as shown in the manufacturers pictures is made of Balsa Wood.This is the kind of thing you'd get your kid to learn strings on - maybe even before a guitar. It would be an epic way to get them to easily identify/remember sounds and learn how to tune things. I know it certainly has given me a workout. Repetition (of which there will be MUCH) breeds familiarity. The thing is completely hollow, even up where the strings are wound... so be careful not to drop the thing on tile/cement because I highly doubt it would survive. On the other hand, that contributes to the fact that the thing is light enough for even children to hold up for 10+mins at a time without excess strain.Let me state this directly: This thing couldn't keep a tune to save it's life. While it comes with a tuning crank, you can't really dial in the tune as precisely as you might want... so the closest you can come to a note is generally a sharp because some of the notes go flat within minutes. While that's disappointing, for me it isn't a make-or-break issue. If you are going to keep it sounding like a celtic-ie-harp, you have to use a pick with this thing. As the notes get flat, you use the pick to grab a crisper version of the note to compensate.There is enough space between the strings for an average-sized set of fingers to play comfortably. Sausage-fingers will still be able to play, but will have to be a lot more accurate with their aim. A pick can help with that. This thing comes with three picks, but they are all textured which gives you something a kin to a blip of rhasp or white noise just prior to striking the note.When correctly tuned, this thing sounds perfect in just about every way. Regardless if it's in tune or not, this thing resonates rather well for it's size & you can wake someone up with it if you go full-send on digging the strings with a pick.Once I found out it couldn't keep a tune on several of the notes (mostly the lower notes), I decided to experiment a bit. You can get this thing sounding a little like a banjo if you use those little silicone finger protectors/socks with an open hole for your finger nail that you'd get with a kalimba to pick the strings for a softer, shifted sound that is really nice and won't resonate down the hallway.Conclusion: I dropped $70 at the time or purchase on this, and for the money I find that with everything it comes with, I don't feel upset about it. I feel like $55 would be a better price though because you will be re-tuning it quite a lot and likely will need to purchase a little electronic tuner to go with it. For entry-level, people may not expect to need that.