Is an old 12-chord autoharp worth restoring?

October 4, 2011 3:22 PM

I was just given a 12-chord autoharp, not in great shape. How do I figure out if it's worth salvaging, and if so, what are some good resources for learning to play?

I've been teaching myself hammered dulcimer for the last year, and have been really enjoying it. Somebody visiting my house saw it and said they had a similar-looking instrument they were given years ago and had no clue what to do with, so they passed it on to me.

I was hoping for a psaltery, but what I got is a 12-chord Chrom-A-Harp autoharp. I'm still curious enough to see if it's worth fixing up.

It's incredibly dusty and has 3 strings broken or missing. What do I look for to figure out if it's worth putting some money in to? I saw an old question that mentioned checking that it doesn't have a sunken top. Would that be visible to the eye, or do I check with a straight edge?

We have a folk music centre across town that I could maybe take it to for cleaning and restringing, but I'd rather buy the strings and do it myself if it's easy enough. I assume it's similar to a dulcimer in that you shouldn't take all the strings off at once to retain some tension? I can check to see if the store sells strings, but I assume they're easy enough to find online? Can you suggest any sites? Especially ones that ship to Canada... I have a chromatic tuner for the HD, so if I do restring it I'll be able to tune it.

And if it is worth fixing up, what are some good sites / books / whatever for beginners music? Any other resources to help me learn more?

posted by valleys to Media & Arts (12 answers total)

Best answer: If it is in fact pretty old, the sound is probably better than a new one.

Do note that the Chromaharp (tm) is the same instrument, different brand, than an Autoharp (tm). In any question of googling for parts, make sure it is Chromaharp and only Chromaharp you're searching on.

Almost all places will only sell a whole set of strings. Might as well replace them all. I got my autoharp strings and a couple other things (tuning wrench) from Elderly Instruments. Do note, however, that the felt may come off as you start to play it. This is kind of a PITA to replace and indeed, I have the felts for mine, but have not done it yet.

If you already play the hammered dulcimer, I guess you don't need to be sold on the autoharp oeuvre, but THIS and THIS could be YOU (ok, maybe THIS could not be you). Your tastes may be different, but I personally don't care for the autoharp rehab of modern songs, although there are exceptions.

Even a person as musically obtuse as myself can learn (a lot from) the autoharp. The whole principle is you don't have to think about the mechanics of fretting. So when you depress the C key, all the other strings are silenced except for do, re, mi, so, la, do, re, mi, etc. (CDEGA, CDE) So too with the other chord bars. It is then absolutely trivial to play a melody in the key of your choice. The strings cover the whole chromatic scale, as on a piano, except for the lowest three or four bass strings.

Take, for instance, "Rocky Mountain" (PDF), that you may have learned in school (do do do MI do do do MI do do mi SO SO).

In this vein, make sure you press the chord bar fairly hard, so that the other strings really are silenced all the way. This is how to play a melody. However, most of the autoharp literature(!!) focuses on accompanying another instrument.

If you google "accompaniment chords" for the song of your choice, or if you see some wack notation [G] in the middle of the lyrics, this means you should depress the G bar at the time that you (or your vocalist) is singing the word in question. You will see (hear) that they are not fucking joking about this. For example, in "Cannonball Blues," the line reads:

from Buff[G]alo[D] to Washing[G]ton (source)

No matter how tone-deaf you are, if you press D and strum (anywhere on the instrument) while singing "lo," then G and strum on "ton," you will hear the change they are talking about.

So, yes, it will take some $ to replace the strings, but I say if you don't have it now, put the instrument away until you do. It was free! And it's invaluable for anyone who takes folk music seriously. If at some future point you want to buy one, having chucked the better-sounding older one, you'll be annoyed a/o not do it at all.

Have fun!
posted by skbw at 4:35 PM on October 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

If anyone tries to give you bogus crap about 12 chord bars not being workable, show them this (Sara C.), which I think about settles it.
posted by skbw at 4:59 PM on October 4, 2011

Response by poster: Wow skbw, thanks for the detailed response. As always, AskMeFi astounds me! Thanks for clarifying what it is that I have, and for all the links.

After reading your notes I thought to google my hometown & autoharp, and the first result was a youtube video of the owner of the folk music centre I mentioned giving a detailed introduction to the autoharp! I suspect they'll have strings and anything else I may need. Guess I'll take it over there and get an opinion about it. I'd be more than happy to put some money into new strings to give me something new to experiment with.

Just to clarify, I play the hammered dulcimer (most definitely not me playing), not the mountain dulcimer shown in that Joni clip.
posted by valleys at 5:29 PM on October 4, 2011

Oh! My bad. Well, there's always the mountain dulcimer, too. ;-)
posted by skbw at 6:30 PM on October 4, 2011

Replacing the strings, btw, is no biggie to do yourself since you have the tuner. If you can use a sprocket wrench, you can do it (or even if not).
posted by skbw at 6:41 PM on October 4, 2011

Best answer: I just started playing myself! I have a 21-bar Oscar Schmidt (new) but by all accounts beginners can effectively learn on many, many different harps but eventually you'll want to customize (change the felt on your bars to get different keys, rearrange them, get a new harp with more bars, etc).

Some suggestions:

- Cyberpluckers mailing list (just google). You might ask about teachers near you here.
- YouTube
- Get a beginner book (I'm using Catherine Britell's)

Also, there are lots of gatherings and weeks and events. I just went to Seattle Autoharp Week and it was absolutely awesome.
posted by R343L at 10:17 PM on October 4, 2011

Best answer: yo! If you are in Ottawa, swing by the Ottawa Folklore Center.

You are lucky. I bought an old autoharp when I was living in Montreal and had to wait a while before I could travel somewhere to get it fixed. You should really take it in somewhere to have it looked over -- just because it's older, doesn't mean it will sound better. The one I bought turned out to have slight water damage, luckily not enough to hurt the sound, but almost. And it looked just fine to the eye -- but something like that would render it untunable or just ensure it wouldn't stay in tune.

As for strings, you can buy a full set for $80 or so from most music stores (those that don't carry them will order then in for you). You can order individual strings from here. Depending on the dustiness and/ or rust....you should probably just get a whole new set to start. They do break from time to time, though, so keep that link around.

You'll want to have the pads looked at / replaced.

One thing -- if you are going to take the thing apart to work on, be EXTRA CAREFUL you do not lose any springs!
posted by custard heart at 10:27 AM on October 5, 2011

Oh, and to learn? I have an old Mel Bay book that I kind of like. Music shops should have an instructional section.

John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful has an instructional DVD out that is pretty funny.
posted by custard heart at 10:28 AM on October 5, 2011

And if you're looking for inspiration --

Cat Power


look into the Carter Family -- Maybelle Carter was famous for inventing the 'Carter picking' technique on autoharp.
posted by custard heart at 10:42 AM on October 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yep, I'm in Ottawa and know Arthur from the Folklore Centre in passing, so will swing by and see what he thinks. Their repair guy is legendary as well so if it needs (affordable) work I'll let them do it.

I've got a couple of Mel Bay books that have been my main hammered dulcimer teachings to day. I'm ready to move on but they got me through the first year.

Thanks!
posted by valleys at 12:53 PM on October 5, 2011

Best answer: The shame about the (O.)C.F. is that there are almost no movies of them, so it's hard to see Sara do her thing. I wonder, really, how much film there is of them extant, much less on youtube. There's "Cannonball Blues" I linked above, and also:

"Sweet Fern" (same "session," Newport 1965 parking lot)

"You are my Flower" and "I'll Be Satisfied" on the Johnny Cash Show

(the best part of this clip is she's clearly NOT using that wild custom autoharp and is instead playing an old one with a huge chunk out of the front) and

"While the Band is Playing Dixie" (Grand Ol' Opry?)

This last is the most instructive because you can see her hands well enough to clearly associate what she is doing with the sound coming out. There is an inherent jangle in the "Carter scratch" (that means guitar, wadr) to where it's hard for a non-musical sort to tell if the sound is the autoharp or one of Maybelle's off the chain guitar sound effects. That is why I link "Wayworn Traveler" above (I almost called it "Paths of Victory," wonder why) because it's basically 100% autoharp. (For instance, on "Sweet Fern," the Brrring brrring, brrring brrring is NOT the autoharp, like you'd think, but rather the up-strum on the guitar--look at their hands.)

Of course there is no shortage of footage of Maybelle playing autoharp, but this is, shall we say, not a realistic goal for the average person. Better to see from the master how to sing and accompany guitar with it, imho. (This is no disrespect to my main woman Sara Carter--comparatively speaking, Maybelle can't sing. Division of labor.)
posted by skbw at 8:51 PM on October 5, 2011

Response by poster: I finally got around to taking the instrument to the Ottawa Folklore Centre. The verdict was that it's in good enough shape to salvage, but as I didn't really have a clue if I wanted to play it a lot, they cleaned it up and fitted it with random guitar strings of the correct guage, rather than shelling out for a full set of autoharp strings. It sounds good. Now I just need to find books to learn from as the selection at OFC was limited when I was there. Thanks again for all the advice.
posted by valleys at 6:08 PM on April 23, 2012