Lyon & Healy Prelude 40

About the Lyon & Healy Prelude 40

The Prelude 40 is a lever harp - strings are shifted a half-step via hand-flipped levers on the neck rather than foot pedals - but Lyon & Healy builds it with the same string spacing and tension as its own full pedal harps, unlike many entry lever harps that use looser, easier-to-press strings. That means a student progressing from the Prelude to a pedal harp later doesn't have to relearn hand strength or finger placement, a deliberate bridge-instrument design choice.

It carries 40 strings - concert-tension nylon in the upper range, gut in the middle, and wound steel bass strings at the bottom - spanning 1st octave E to 6th octave A, over a Sitka spruce soundboard. At 64 inches tall and 44 pounds, it's sized for standing floor use by teenage and adult players rather than a compact travel harp. Cosmetic details include a scalloped bronze-finished crown and a fluted column, available in natural, ebony or mahogany finishes.

Where to buy

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Sound character of the Lyon & Healy Prelude 40

Built with concert pedal-harp string spacing and tension on a Sitka spruce soundboard, the Prelude 40 carries noticeably more body and resonance than a typical folk lever harp of similar string count, since its scale and tension are matched to full concert instruments rather than scaled down for portability. This makes it sound closer to a small pedal harp than to a lightweight travel harp.

Technical data for the Lyon & Healy Prelude 40

The history of the Lyon & Healy Prelude 40

Lyon & Healy, the Chicago harp maker founded in 1889 and still the dominant name in American concert pedal harps, built the Prelude line specifically to give harp students an instrument that trains the same technique their eventual pedal harp will require.