I recently took a workshop with William Jefferies, which was fabulous! he uses frame looms, which seem nice if you are teaching and using cotton warp. As my tapestry weaving is focused on recreating Medieval Tapestries I'm always using linen warp, which is a bit more harsh on the hands for the picking rows.
I currently have a Schacht, which has the capability to create up to four string harnesses, aka you could also do twills and such. The studio that hosted the workshop had an Ashford Tapestry loom on display. Which intrigued me for two reasons:
1) it takes advantage of creating a permanently opened shed and uses string heddles to easily and consistently open the other shed.
2) it has an easier warping method, you simply wind the warp directly on rather than the slightly fiddly extra dowel that the warp winds around on the Schacht.
I have plenty of room in my studio, so that's not such a concern. However, I was hoping that someone here had actually woven on the two looms and could possibly compare the two. And tell me how adjustable the height is. The one main flaw I noticed was that it seemed that you might be able to adjust the loom to an ergonomic height, but I"m not sure how far up you can go with the loom on the stand. Any recommendations would be much appreciated.
That being said I've warped my Schact for a few pieces and will be happily weaving away over my summer holidays!
Cheers,
Erica