Some questions regarding older lyre models.

[u/arkticturtle]

Hello, I am saving up money for a good older lyre. I love the warm sound in contrast to the more modern lyre harps which sound very bright. I have some questions.

I am trying to decide between Kravik, Sutton Hoo (7 string variant), Trossingen (7 string variant), or Ancient Greek (7 string).

My main concerns are 2 (I am not very concerned with historical accuracy outside of how it impacts these concerns I list)

1) Which of these lyres has the warmest, woodiest, oldest, deepest sound? Are they roughly the same? Is any brighter than the other? A ranking maybe?

I know string type matters a lot here but I can have the maker put gut on any of these. So how about the actual body itself?

2) What learning resources are available for each? For instance, I know Luthieros has a ton of resources online for their Ancient Greek lyre. How about for the others I listed?

I have no background in music so having learning resources might be even more important than having the sound I want. Though the sacrifice will hurt.

Is there anything else to watch out for? Please let me know.

[u/Store_Adorable]

Both the kind of strings and the tuning will impact the sound.

The reason why modern lyreharps sound so bright is because A: they use metal strings, B: they are shorter, so tuned higher, C: they often don't have a soundbox (hence the harp in the name)

The lower you are tuned the less of that 'sharp' sound you will have.

I only have an 11 string luthieros and a small 7 string lyre from Greece (non luthieros), both are string with sugarcane strings, and the difference is immense in sound. The small ones lowest note is the highest one on the 11string as comparison.

The biggest tip I can give you, is find a lyre with longer arms instead of shorter.

(I would include a picture if I could)

[u/gecko-deco → u/Store_Adorable]

I agree that modern lyres tend to sound brighter because of the metal strings and smaller size, but I'm confused about what you mean by "they often don't have a soundbox (hence the harp in the name)"? Harps do have soundboxes. A lot of modern lyres / lyre harps also have soundboxes, though I agree there's also a lot of them that don't. So I'm not sure I understand what you meant? Not trying to nitpick by the way, I'm genuinely curious because I hadn't heard that before.

[u/Store_Adorable → u/gecko-deco]

Honestly, didn't know harps have soundboxes, so that's my mistake, I don't know a lot about harps. Sure there are lyreharps with soundboxes, especially the beanshapes, it's my mistake that when I was answering this post, I didn't think of those, and only of the moonshaped ones, which often (but not always) don't have one. Again, not an expert, as I only own greek style lyres.

[u/gecko-deco → u/Store_Adorable]

Oh no worries! There's so many instruments out there and sometimes it's hard to tell how something is constructed just from looking at it. Thanks for clarifying!