LOTKEY 19 Strings Harp, Solid Mahogany Harps 29'' W/Gig Bag,Tuning Wrench,Straps,Instruction for Professional Lyre Harp Player,Beginner,Adults F3 G3 A3 B3 C4 D4 E4 F4 G4 A4 B4 C5 D5 E5 F5 G5 A5 B5 C6

I'm turning 32 in January. I got this because I wanted to learn an instrument that I've had no prior knowledge of. My husband and I like to do Medieval ren-fairs. We merchant as well. I bought tons of song books on music that you would have heard in Jane Austins time and even in the Edwardian period. I found classic Celtic music and such. One thing I noticed about this harp is I had 2 problem keys. They would come out of tune every single time that I would pluck them. I did some research and found a woman's video about taking out the pegs and putting a thin layer of wood glue on the peg and allowing it to dry before you put it back in the instrument. This helps with slip but still allows you to be able to tune the instrument. Upon taking out the peg I also noticed that there were groves on the peg. you could use those groves to keep the peg from slipping. If you giggle the peg out or in without tuning it will allow you to adjust the peg forward or backwards. Be gentle with it as you don't want to wear out the hole and make it bigger. But doing this little by little at a time should allow you to keep the peg in and the string not go out of tune. I did that with my two problem pegs along with adding the wood glue and now it stays in tune. It took me about 2 days of tuning and allowing the strings to rest and tuning again to keep it to where I just have to make minor adjustments in tuning. I've noticed in playing it's easier just to play with one hand on the exercises rather than trying to master 2 hands. This harp is perfect for one handed playing on pieces it gives you a wide range of tunes and I wonder if this isn't how some of the harps were meant to be played of this size. You have technically 3 c's so middle c is supposed to be the middle one. However, if you pluck the bottom c you are more accurate to middle c. But if you play the bottom string as middle c you don't have an octave of playing. So, this harp almost forces you to play one octave higher as if it was middle c. It's not an issue. But if your sound dependent like I am and have played instruments before, this can be slightly annoying. However, for the cost and how fast this instrument made it to my door. I would say it's worth it as a beginning harp instrument. This would also be perfect for mothers who would love to have a harp in the baby's nursery who when they act up and are fussy and they can play the harp. This would be perfect size to play your baby to sleep.

Good size for hanging decor. Love it.

My lyre is a 16 string. It came with everything it said it would! Unfortunately when I went to tune the instrument, the 12th string snapped. I believe it's the D5 string. Bummer right? So I went to restring it and that new string snapped immediately! Now I have no idea where or how to get a new string. I will figure it out. Overall, it is an amazing instrument and does what it is supposed to do. Only rating it a 4 star because I wish it did come with more strings or stronger strings.

lotkey took notice of my review and they have sent me a replacement for the lyre harp that I previously received - this one appears to be in perfect condition, I tuned it up last night and it sounds beautiful this morning. thank you lotkey!the bit about tuning in my original post is still very much the case, but that's an intrinsic property of lyres - you're going to have to tune this a lot before it stays in tune, the strings stretch and the body compresses until everything settles, but after the first week or so, it will keep its tune for many days at a timea small note on tuning to anyone buying the lyre pictured: I've tried several tuning arrangements, and have found it amenable to keys between F3 (174) and C4 (I managed to just barely tune with a D4 bass note, but had to be very careful with my tuning and broke several strings in the attempt)thank you again to lotkey for sending a replacement for the cracked one!___old review:Mine came with a crack in the body just above the F hole. hard to say if this was carelessness in shipping, since there was almost no padding in the box, or a manufacturing defect.it also came with a broken D string, which I was able to quickly replace with one of the provided strings. still a bummer though.be prepared to retune the strings every time you play it for the first few days, as these new strings quickly fall out of tune. by day 3 of constant retuning, the strings seemed to only fall a couple cents out of tune over night.overall, excellent value for $50, and an absolutely delightful instrument, which easily fits in a suitcase and is a joy to play. shame about that crack in the body though.

I've had to tune mine a few times because it would slip out of tune really quick the first couple times, that's a thing lyres do, but now it's just fine and I've been playing it quite a bit without needing to tune.I like that it's a great beginner instrument, especially since I have really small fingers that dislocate easily, so I can't play guitar, and piano is painful. I've been able to play this much more easily, and my hand can span a good chunk of the strings to pluck multiples without over stressing my hand joints. The lyre is a great size and is comfortable to hold as well.The sound is lovely, and the resonance in the body is pretty soothing as you play. My second string snapped the first time I tuned it, but I also think I had turned it a little too fast without giving the string enough time to adjust, so user error.Start with slow, few millimeter increments, and let the strings settle for a moment. It's ok if you can't get it into tune right away, just work slowly, tweaking multiple strings as others rest till you can get them all in tune. The strings are adjusting, so it will slip out of tune very quickly at first, that's fine, let the strings settle and just keep gently tuning over the next few times you play it so they don't snap, it'll get there.Restringing was fairly simple. Easier than a guitar, for me at least, and although I couldn't find my guitar string nippers, those will work well to trim the string once it's on.The nice thing is not only did it come with the case, extra strings, and the tuning wrench, but the booklet included contains some musical pieces so that you can get started.