i record a harp player regularly, and also set her up for sound reinforcement. for sound reinforcement, i usually use two small-diaphragm condensers, one toward the upper end of the right topside of the soundboard, and one toward the lower part of the soundboard, each about 1.5-2 feet away. in the studio, however, i use a single large-diaphragm condenser, about 3 feet off the ground, right front side of the harp, about 3-4 feet away. i have tried a vertical x-y setup with the two small condensers in the studio to record the harp in stereo (this resulted in a left-right pan of the low-to-high strings across the acoustic image like a stereo piano, but, as it turned out, sounded quite unnatural.) if you must record in an outdoor or auditorium situation, i would go with a two mic mono setup (watch for phase problems)- process to stereo later. my harpist will not use a contact mic arangement, because of a very bad first studio experience trying them. i think they would work okay for sound reinforcement though.