The Portland Folk Harp Sanctuary

Older Model Dusty Strings FH 26 in Walnut with Loveland levers

This harp rents for $50/month and will be available June 1, 2026

Here’s the Dusty Strings website’s description of the current iteration of this model.

This 26-string 3½-octave harp has a sweet and surprisingly strong voice, with the added resonance that comes from solid wood construction. The FH26 can serve as a full-voiced beginner's harp or a high-quality portable harp for the established player. A child can set the FH26 on the floor and play comfortably while seated in a small chair.
Our top-of-the-line 26-string harp, the FH26 features tasteful fine woodworking details such as a book-matched soundboard and binding and purfling around the edges.
This harp rents with a carrying case, tuning lever, and hygrometer.  It does not come with a stand, so it will need to be elevated in order to play.

Note: All rentals have a 2 month minimum rental period, with first and last month paid at the time of pickup.  Local ID is required to rent a harp, and 30 days notice is required for harp returns.

Larry Kulwicki “Emma” Maple 34 Nylon Strung Harp

This harp rents for $68/month and will be available June 1, 2026

This is an “Emma” model harp built by Hillsboro-based luthier Larry Kulwicki in the early 2010’s for one of my former students.  Larry is now retired, but was for many years the “go to” harp maker for many of my students, due to his professional quality, reasonably priced instruments.  This harp has a solid maple body with a spruce soundboard.  

This harps It has 34 nylon and wound metal strings, with medium spacing.  I would describe the tension on this harp as medium-light and the sound as bright and bell-like..  It has full Loveland levers.

This harp rents with a carrying case, tuning lever, and hygrometer.

Note: All rentals have a 2 month minimum rental period, with first and last month paid at the time of pickup.  Local ID is required to rent a harp, and 30 days notice is required for harp returns.

Pilgrim “Ashdown” 34 String harp with Lever Gut

This harp rents for $68/month and will be available June 1, 2026

Here’s a description of this harp from the Pilgrim Website:

Designed in 1993, was born out of the increasing use of harps in traditional Celtic music. This lighter-strung lever harp is ideal for playing fast, delicate ornamentation in Irish music, or as an accompanying instrument to the voice - for which its bright, silky resonance is perfectly suited.

The most popular wood for harp making is maple, but the Ashdown’s slightly softer string tension enables us to use different solid woods, in particular ash and mahogany.

Because this harp requires a little less effort to play, it is also particularly suited to adult players coming to the harp later in life.

Folk gauge stringing
Frame made from ash or mahogany wood
All brass semitone levers
Soundboard of finest European Sitka spruce

Our note: because this style of harp is specifically created to suit playing Celtic dance music, it is a harp type that’s particularly hard to find in the USA (Pilgrim is a British company).  These harps tend to be small-bodied (so they don’t take up too much room at pub sessions or while touring), round-backed (for comfort), bright-sounding (to be audible over other instruments), and have light tension (to suit quick dance tempos).

This harp rents with a carrying case, tuning lever, and hygrometer.

Note: All rentals have a 2 month minimum rental period, with first and last month paid at the time of pickup.  Local ID is required to rent a harp, and 30 days notice is required for harp returns.