A California musician provides an alternative & holistic health service by creating relaxing “Soundbath Sessions” with a variety of instruments. He asked me to consider converting a standard autoharp to a therapy harp.
Therapy harps are played alone and with other instruments to resonate and relax the listener by releasing emotional and physical stress. They can often be found promoting healing in hospitals, care homes, hospices, and special gatherings.
Many therapy harps are shaped and strung like autoharps. Tunings vary. Many are tuned to five or fewer notes making up a single chord with multiple strings tuned in unison.
This conversion is a pristine Oscar Schmidt model B with the chord bars removed. Because the new tuning schedule differs from the standard chromatic scale, a new schedule was calculated and a string set made for the precise diameters and tensions of each pitch.
Two or more strings playing the same pitch must be tuned in unison or they will produce audible, bad sounding “beats”. Tuning strings in unison with a tuning wrench is doable but somewhat difficult. Here is where fine tuners can make the necessary micro adjustments
The poplar soundboard and eight chord bars are colored burgundy with black for the remaining components. The finish is completed with several coats of satin lacquer.
A laser cut soundhole rosette is colored to resemble the Philodice butterfly that she uses as an online icon and identity.
This twenty-three string diatonic in the keys of G and D is tuned from A3 to D6.
Eight chord bars are carried upon combs with Delrin bases and #6 steel pins. This is an improvement over the slotted holders used in the past.
It’s been some time since I weighed in on this kinda hybrid weblog/website. Weblogs beg frequent entries and websites contain information and the mechanics of the biz. I have been remiss in both. The daily statistics, when I check them, have been heartening and I truly appreciate the many visits. I have kept up with the frequent requests for information and advice but haven’t had a lot of new content to post about my work.
I built this F/C diatonic for a musician in New York state whose mother, by coincidence, resides here in Darke County. It was so nice that she traveled here to take delivery as it’s not often that I meet my clients face-to-face.
The musician’s name means “bee” so she requested and choose a bee as a soundboard rosette. As luck would have it, Etsy had a laser cut bee ornament of the appropriate size.
Thirteen chords with two lock bars cover this two key arrangement. This “Bowers” setup has the majors in the center row, minors in the bottom row, and sevenths (+sus) in the top row.
Daigle fine tuners with an onboard fine tuning wrench complete this very nice instrument.
The swarmandal is a plucked box zither of Indian origin and used as an accompanying instrument for the vocal classical music of Northern India. Modern swarmandals are similar to western zithers in shape and construction. In fact, autoharps with the chord bars removed are sometimes used as an equivalent instrument in India today.
The strings are played open. According to the musician, for a given raga he will mute some notes and re-tune some strings. He does this on-the-fly (imagine doing this between autoharp tunes!). To change the instrument’s setup between ragas, we arrived at the idea of a combination of fine tuners and lock bars.
The lock bars of an autoharp function much like their adjoining chord bars… held aloft by springs when not in use and locked down by some sort of a wedge. The swarmandal’s lock bars will be swapped in and out as needed and seated, without springs, against the strings by a magnetic cover.
The bars are made of curly maple and felted in combinations of single and double notes. There are only seven notes in the scale but only six different notes will be muted since the keynote, Eb, will always be open. Six different bars are sufficient but I made an additional six bars with double notes.
Autoharp chord/lock bars reside on the ‘harp and are seldom removed unless they need attention. The swarmandal’s lock bars will be constantly swapped in and out. To protect the fragile felt blocks I made a case to house the twelve+ bars and included extra felt for future wear.
I included my usual tuning strip/duster that can be temporarily inserted underneath the strings as a guide for tuning. The strings are mostly in pairs and tuned to only seven notes. The notes are labeled on the strip and lock bars according to the Indian Solfeggio system….
Along the way I have made a couple of improvements on my “Child ‘Harps”. I had been making slotted chord bar holders by cutting down the manufactured plastic holders once produced by Oscar Schmidt. These work well but are a bit noisy when the wooden bars “clack” against the hard plastic. My newer Child ‘Harps now have the quieter Delrin and steel pin combs as on my standard sized autoharps.
Child ‘Harps have carried seven chords in two rows. I now offer eight chords. Here is the G/D diatonic version.
As with the Child ‘Harps’ larger siblings, laser cut sound hole rosettes are popular. there is a variety of styles available in this smaller size for this smaller autoharp.
A more recent build is this thirty-six string, fifteen chord chromatic I built for a gentleman just beginning his autoharp journey. His preferences included a Celtic cross sound hole rosette, an all black finish, and a salvaged OS tuning label at the anchor end.
This instrument resembles the old black model A autoharps of the past but features all of my modern improvements for tone, volume, stability, and play ability.
Apertures (sound holes) in stringed musical instruments have been studied, experimented with, and designed for a variety of acoustic functions and characteristics. While a sound hole’s size, shape, and position certainly influence tone and volume, its appearance is what catches the eye and creates a kind of identity.
This thirty-seven string, fifteen chord diatonic autoharp plays in the keys of G and D. The Sitka spruce soundboard features a weeping heart sound hole and curly maple bridges. Walnut trims the sides, chord bar buttons, and tailpiece.
The fifteen maple chord bars are arranged in a custom, three row layout.
Added options are Daigle fine tuners and a Schreiber electromagnetic pickup.
A musician from Tennessee recently commissioned this custom autoharp with several features that, to me, are very similar to the fifteen chord Oscar Schmidt and ChromaHarp models of the past. Over the years those A style chromatic models with their round sound holes, fifteen chord bars in two rows, and laminated soundboards underwent many improvements by their manufacturers. This musician seems to favor that style of instrument and was able to specify several construction, setup, and cosmetic improvements to suit his preferences and playing style.
Most of my builds have been set up for playing in the area above the chord bars with the high treble strings unobstructed by the chord bar covers. This chord set is positioned closer to the tuning pins to permit play below the chord bars at the anchor end. Many of the old OS A models were arranged this way until playing the instrument upright became common and the bar set was moved south by their owners or the factories. This instrument is designed to be played on the musician’s lap with the left hand at the chords and the right hand playing near the anchor bridge.
The old A models chord bars and buttons were 5/16 inches wide. I reduced these bars to a 1/4 inch width to narrow the array while leaving the buttons wide enough as to not require caps. The maple buttons are of a similar style to the older fifteen chord ‘harps and the chords are selected and arranged to the musician’s preference. He prefers a higher action (the height of the felt above the strings) for more vigorous chording. I set the travel high as requested but included extra self-sticking felt strips for under the covers should he choose to adjust the bars lower.
The modern improvements in the construction of this instrument include a solid spruce soundboard with tuned bracing, a one piece laminated frame, and quiet chord bars mounted on Delrin and steel pin combs. The chord bars, covers, side veneer, bridges, and tailpiece are made of African mahogany that has been stained dark brown. The musician requested that I not apply note labels under the tuning pins so I included a wooden tuning strip/duster that can be positioned under the strings to aid tuning.
A custom built autoharp such as this can be built with the preferred features and options that improve playability and appearance. Sometimes it comes with a surprise: as the owner noted, “I was in shock at how light it is!”.
I have recently located a source of laser cut ornaments in a variety of subjects. Most are too large to inlay as a sound hole rosette but with many of them, I can trim away the bordering areas for a good fit.
Here is a new custom thirty-six string chromatic autoharp. My standard, one piece pinblock frame features a spruce sound board, laminate back, and 3/16 inch thick walnut veneered sides. Matching walnut was also used for the brass rod-capped bridges, tail piece, chord bar covers, bridges and chord bar covers.
The fifteen chord bars are made of curly maple. The contrasting buttons are capped with walnut.
As a landlocked luthier here in Ohio, I truly miss the ocean. Marsha and I have lived in a coastal town on the Great Barrier Reef. We have wandered beaches in Florida, Cape Cod, Oregon, Nova Scotia, Iceland, and Ireland. We even spent two months at sea working on a container ship that crossed both Tropics and the Equator. With only some photos and a smattering of shells to sustain our fading memories, I sometimes regret leaving those experiences behind for life in the flatlands.
This thirty-seven string instrument has twelve chord bars shaped like waves. The three rows of buttons resemble white caps. Bridges, chord bar holders, tail cover, and side trim are made of curly maple dyed bright blue to show an iridescent, wave like grain.
A laser cut rosette adorns the sound hole and bare footprints cross the sandy colored solid spruce soundboard.
The laminated back has been painted bright blue using netting as a stencil. Captured in this fish net is a colorful jellyfish soundhole.
Fret Or Fret Not 
You must be logged in to post a comment.