The harp is a lie.

[ChronicalSin]

http://www.bible-history.com/sketches/ancient/harp.jpg

There's an oldschool harp, not far off. Besides we wont be able to play the strings individualy anyways.(I think) It's just a design.

[Azurymber]

It's a freaking harp in a bow and you're trying to apply real world concepts to it?

Music in Eorzea works in mysterious ways. There, your logic denied!

if thats a harp this game fails on SO many levels.

Why don't we just have archers use magic rocks that produce arrows and paladins can have a jedi forcefield coming from a book....

[Gennosuke]

I'll have to agree with Eekiki,

To be honest, it never made sense to me as a weapon, and having a closer look now, you can clearly see one end is a shiny silver arrowhead and the other is dark brown fluffy-ish fletching.

[Rinsui]

It's some sorty of Lyra, but that's nitpicking.
Don't harp on the harp.
I've never seen a wandering bard using a harp anyway.
Just imagine the weight.

you can clearly see one end if an shiny silver arrowhead

You mean, like the same tiny siver arrowhead on the 4-times-longer nocked arrow? >.</

[Eekiki]

assume there are 2 on the other side of the piece of wood lol

Except the "strings" are attached to the same single piece of wood. Your example shows the strings attached to an additional piece sticking out near the bottom. Unless the "harp" of the "bowharp" is warped, there couldn't possibly be two usable strings hiding behind the wood in the center.

[Volsung]

huh? tightness and thickness. change either, change the tone

like I said in the other thread tho, I can see your point, and I understand each point you're making, but I still lean to harp. On top of that I lean to AF bow, that isnt actually even used.... just for looks

[Sephr]

You're all wrong. It's a gun-bow-harp.

[Betelgeuzah]

if thats a harp this game fails on SO many levels.

Why don't we just have archers use magic rocks that produce arrows and paladins can have a jedi forcefield coming from a book....

It's a fantasy game in a fantasy world. It doesn't have to make sense.

[Deminia]

I read this, which I found interesting:
http://theancientworld2010.wikispaces.com/Emma

(excepted from the above link):
Egyptian Bow harp Egyptian harps of various shapes and sizes have been displayed in recovered Egyptian art. The number of the strings varies from as few as four to as many as twenty-two...There were two main designs: the smaller shoulder, or arch shaped harp, and the larger bow-shaped harp.

and from the same link:
"It’s likely that the first harps were, as the bow harp’s name suggests, originally intended for archery, but someone noticed that when the string was plucked, it made a single, long noise. Additional strings produced more music: length, position, and thickness of the string affected the sound. After a time, a way to enlarge and hollow out the bow was found, and the range of sound for the harp was lengthened."

[ChronicalSin]

One thing I noticed is that the harp looks foldable. So maybe it's supposed to fold down into the real bow and maybe the arrows activites the strings or something. So when you actually do the bard spells you do it with the arrows. And when you're going back to shooting normal arrows you just fold the harp upwards, like in the picture.

That's what I think!