I recently completed a custom autoharp for an Ontario musician and performer who was somewhat inspired by my “Autoharp In The Key Of Sea” ( see post May 19, 2022 ). I created his first themed autoharp, “The Dove”, eight years ago (see post December 10, 2017) which he still enjoys today.

The solid spruce soundboard is colored with a blue aniline dye and decorated with a self adhesive overlay that features two dolphins leaping from the sea. The painted chord bars are profiled to resemble waves and the curly maple trim is dyed to match.

“The Dolphin” is a thirty-seven string, twenty-one chord chromatic set up in three rows. 7ths lie on the top row, with majors in the middle row, and relative minors on the bottom row. An extra row of minor 7ths was included that can be substituted into the bottom row when needed.

Other features include Daigle fine tuners with an onboard tuning wrench, A Schreiber electromagnetic pickup, and custom Schreiber strings. Because the extra chord bars will be swapped in from time to time, the chord bar covers will need to be removed more often than for regular maintainance. To prevent the damage from frequently removing wood screws, I have installed threaded steel inserts that accept brass machine screws.

The Okoume laminated back is painted using fish net as a stencil. A small soundhole/carry hole is decorated with a sort of alien jellyfish.

The happy owner, Rene St. Aubin, collected his new instrument at The Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering which takes place each year at a university in Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. An exciting feature of the Gathering is the MLAG Autoharp Championship Contest. US and international autoharp musicians travel there to compete in this juried competition. This year Rene was a contender.