My ecclectic friend Kelly came by with her latest buy from EBay: an Otto Schmidt autoharp that, based on the logo design and lack of a date stamp, was manufactured in 1955-64 in China.
Kellyâs not musical (bought it because it was cool and the price was too good to pass up), so she left it with me to figure out what to do with it. After a few minutes of staring, strumming and plucking I understand the theory of it. And when I play a chord I hear it needs tuning.
Are there any vintage autoharp players on the forum? Do you know who the Justin Sandercoe of autoharp teachers is?
I remember them, from 50 years ago. We had them at school. Elementary school for sure, maybe junior high even.
I thought they were fun to strum on. Ya canât make a mistake other than choosing the wrong chord.
Seems like you and your friend could start doing some jammin with that. You could pick a song that the chords would be available on the autoharp. She just has to push the right button, right? Nice choice of chords it has on it too.
As for tuning it. Can ya put yer snark on it somewhere? If so, perhaps ya can get it in tune yourself.
Sorry I canât help with anything about it. But just wanted to say it looks like fun to me. My recollection of them is that they sounded good. They had a good full sound to them for having all them strings on them Iâd guess.
I donât play one, but dig the sound. Looks like a cool find. Plenty of direction and links on tuning and playing from a browser search with AI assistance (in my case DuckDuckGo). Keep at it.
Yeah, I have one and have taken lessons from Hal Weeks; he has a good YouTube channel Stalking the Wild Autoharp. He also works at DâAigle Autoharps in Seattle; they are luthiers & suppliers to the AH world. Lots of fun stuff around to learn; knowing guitar will surely give you a head start on learning. Itâs a fun instrument!
Autoharps are supposed to be good for playing chord melodies - your specialty Silvia. Who knows, if youâve been a good girl this year maybe Babbo Natale will leave one under your albero!
Iâve never seen it but I guess it just mutes the strings it doesnt need?
like those bogus devices oyu slide up guitars to play chords with one finger. This autoharp seems to better architecture for that principle and it quickly makes you âfingerpick chord tonesâ. by moving âup and downâ the strings.
This instrument has a very efficient learning curve to go from âabsolute noobâ to âcreating music with creative use of chord tones to embellish and add melodic qualityâ. This could could employ somebody quite quickly into a folky band I can imagine!
Yes indeed, a guitar tuner clamped on one of the tuning pegs does the trick. This thing sounds much better now that itâs not woefully out of tune. It takes a while to tune 36 strings. Now I can add experienced autoharp tuner to my resume!
Oh wow thats cool. You could check Emily Hopkins You Tube. She is known as Emily the Harpist. She is works with Josh and Belle at JHS on pedals for her Harp. I know Belle from her band Belle and the Vertigo Waves so I became familiar with Emily. Check her out, she may be able to offer some info.
I wish you and your friend a lot of fun with it 
