For the past 40+ years we have lived in rural Darke County Ohio along the head waters of the Wabash River. From time to time we’ve viewed satelite photos only to see a greyscale images of our wooded three acre property between farm fields and the river reservoir.
By coincidence, Marsha happened upon one of those real estate websites that describe properties by outlining the boundaries. Much to our surprise we have been living in perhaps the only autoharp that can be seen from space.
This site has been waiting way too long for an update. In the months preceeding the present we have moved from our self-built home and workshop of 40+ years to the home and town that I grew up in. We often quip that we have “downsized” to a bigger house.
It may be said that, “If you want to make an omelette autoharp you have to break a few eggs strings”. That, indeed, has happened in the meantime with the completion of a couple of new instruments, repairs and upgrades of several autoharps, and the seemingly endless search for tools and materials mislaid in the move.
Anyway, I am back and hope to post about upcoming commissions and projects that include a Prizim autoharp, a Tom Morgan autoharp #2 restoration, a travel dulcimer, and a Child ‘Harp that will be for sale.
Thank you for your patience.
Nearly two years ago I received a commission from a multi-instrumentalist in Nashville Tennessee. We were to invent a unique new instrument based upon the Marxophone.
The Phonoharp Company’s Marxophone was an early 20th century fretless zither that was played with a system of spring steel hammers. The instrument played two octaves in the key of C. Typically, the right hand would play paired melody strings with the individual hammers and the left hand would strum four sets of accompanying chords. A single tap of a hammer would produce a single note. By holding the hammer down, the hammer would bounce on the string pair producing a mandolin type tremolo.
The musician wanted an instrument with this unique sound for his session work and the movies that he scores. For me, this was an engaging creative challenge combining my autoharp and hammered dulcimer knowledge with designs and materials I have never before contemplated.
Unlike the Marxophone, this instrument was to have no chords, only the hammered melody strings. While the Marxophone had two octaves tuned to a diatonic scale in the key of C, this instrument has three octaves tuned chromatically from C3 to C6. Being diatonic, the Marxophone had a single row of “keys”. This chromatic instrument has two rows set up somewhat like a piano keyboard with the bottom row for the naturals and the top row for the sharps.
Designing this from scratch without extant examples was a challenge to say the least. The construction of the body was much like building a large heavy autoharp. Laying out the string array involved the spacing of sixty-four strings so that the keys would be comfortable to play and the brute wouldn’t be too large to handle. It was necessary to keep the speaking length of C6 (from bridge to bridge) around eight inches to prevent breakage at that pitch, and eighteen inches was determined to be the optimum length for the longer bass strings, again to keep the instrument a more manageable size.
Scale calculations were preformed by the string maker, Greg Schreiber. Pitch and string length are considered when calculating the optimal diameter and tension for each note. The string pairs from C4 to C6 are plain wire. The bass octave, C3 to B3, is single wound strings designed with windings only between the bridges. With the average string tension of the 64 strings being 45 pounds, the total tension that the structure must bear is 2795 pounds.
Oh My!…. now the hammers….designing them was the most difficult tedious issue here involving countless hours of “trial and error” to achieve the desirable degree of “bounce” and a more consistent feel between the two rows of keys. Coils and coils of spring steel were evaluated for their flexibility and resiliance. Dozens and dozens of hammers died in the quest to success. A complete two octave prototype instrument was sent to the musician for evaluation. Sound files were sent and finally the problem of bounce was solved.
The hammer heads are slices of 5/8″ oak rod. The full length of spring steel for each hammer is 3/8″ wide by .005″ thick. Five thousands inch thick spring steel of this width is so flexible that it makes me think….. “thick foil”. To remedy some of the droop, it’s reinforced underneath by a section of .008 that is terminated just beyond the key.
The hammers are mounted on a rail near the anchor end of the body. Two screws secure each hammer and allow for alignment with its string course. The flexible hammers are mounted at an angle that permits the head to swing freely between the string course and the upper stop bar. The underside of the stop bar is padded with two layers of felt to suppress the noise as each hammer bounces up.
The strong, one piece maple pinblock frame is backed with 6mm Okoume plywood. A carbon fiber soundboard has a (pun alert!) striking appearance as well as sound. The sides, bridges, covers, keys, and trim are curly soft maple.
About The “Cryptoclavier” Name
The musician is invested in cryptocurrency, particularly in Bitcoin. A clavier is a keyboard instrument with strings.
In addition to the many domestic and international venues where he performs, he hopes to entertain at cryptocurrency events. Embedded in the sides of Cryptoclavier are two Bitcoin medallions showing both front and back sides.
The back side reveals a QR-code. To show their appreciation, event participants can scan and tip with Bitcoin.
This has been a challenging and fascinating collaboration with a creative multi-instrumentalist. I for one will be listening to movie scores and watching for YouTube videos hoping to hear this unique, one-of-a-kind Cryptoclavier.
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 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.
These past few months I have been working with Purnash, a popular musician and multi-instrumentalist who performs in venues across Asia, the subcontinent, and beyond. We have combined our ideas to reinvent the swarmandal and build a hybrid that he has named “Raagaharp”. Raagaharp has a diatonic tuning schedule in the key of Eb for for his vocal range, and a combination of specially constructed lock bars for the deletion of specific notes within the immense variety of ragas he performs.
I am only familiar with western musical concepts as they apply to folk and old time music. I cannot understand or explain ragas. They are described as improvisations on a construct of modes, scales, and notes, each to affect the emotions of the listener…. and there are hundreds of them!
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 fixture can hold one or two bars at once and also serves as a hand rest. Inlaid in the underside of the cover are two strong magnets for attachment. The cover is easily removed and replaced for changing out the bars.
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….
Eb is S F is R G is G Ab is M Bb is P C is D D is N
I address musical notes as sharps and naturals from A to G. The completion of this task required some careful translation. For example, a note like Eb to me is D# but on the tuning strip it appears as S.
The musician finds the sound of most swarmandals to be unpleasant and for his custom instrument he requested a warmer, less brilliant sound, particularly in the treble area. I tried to accomplish this with an African mahogany soundboard and by using Delrin rod for the bridge caps. Delrin is a hard plastic material that will render less sustain than the harder brass rod that I usually use.
At his request, I applied a matte lacquer finish over a specially formulated Benjamin Moore color called “Hale Navy”. This color seems to appear blue under some lighting and black under others. Obtaining this color in spray form was pricey but the attractive appearance is worth the excessive cost.
I admit, there is little difference between this Indian zither and the autoharps that I have been building over the years. Creating this instrument and listening to Indian music has been a wonderful exposure to Eastern musical culture enabled by an amazing musician and new friend.
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.
Many manufactured autoharps have simple, round sound holes while a few have no sound holes at all. Some luthier built autoharps have distinctive sound hole designs that identify their brand and are even trademarked.
I attempt to make each of my instruments unique. The sound hole treatment is one way I have of making an instrument visually distinctive while at the same time drawing attention to the fact that the instrument was custom made. I enjoy working with my customers in choosing a cut out shape, a laser cut rosette, or a custom inlay of their personal design.
The Fretorfretnot workshop has been unusually busy lately. I work by myself building one or two instruments at a time, performing stringed instrument repairs for a local music store, and servicing pianos around ten local counties in two states.
During the early pandemic shut down and the following months, I restricted my piano work to the large spaces of churches at times when no one else was present. Only recently, since my three Covid vaccinations, have I resumed working in private residences. Catching up on nearly a year’s work has seriously cut into my workshop time. For that reason I have had a dream of taking on a few employees to ease my workload.
And a dream it was! As I slept, a small crew (elves?) assisted me with some of the more tedious tasks of autoharp construction. Alas, they had disappeared by morning, never to return. I would like to believe that they responded to some of the many help wanted signs posted in our area and found employment with fair compensation, benefits, and a living wage for their important work.
I recently completed is this thirty-seven string diatonic autoharp in the single key of A. I built it for ourselves because Marsha and I are trying to sing along with our instruments more and find that the key of A is a comfortable range for our voices. Being a single key diatonic, it has paired string courses in the middle octave and only the notes needed for chords in the key of A. This produces a very rich and full tone that works nicely for strumming accompaniment and playing melody.
The tuning schedule begins with the lowest string, D2, and ends with the highest string, D6.
Fifteen chords are arranged in a “Bowers” type setup with major chords in the center row, sevenths in the top row, and minors in the bottom row. This familiar arrangement is in place on all of Marsha’s instruments and permits a sort of “motor memory” to kick in when she changes from one autoharp to another, even if in different keys. Seven of the chords are “color chords” for enhanced arrangements.
The instrument has a 1/4 inch thick solid spruce soundboard. The one piece frame is laminated maple pinblock with a laminated maple back. The side veneer, end cover, and chord bar covers are made of curly maple. Chord bars are maple with alternate bars painted black. Black tuning pins, bridges, Schreiber fine tuners, and purfling complete the black/white motif.
I realize that the title of this post is kind of a stretch but it’s embarrassingly indicative of how my mind sometimes works. “My Name Is Morgan But It Ain’t J.P.” is an old time song that was covered by The New Lost City Ramblers. Mike Seeger, a member of the trio, famously owned and played an autoharp (not on that song) built by Tom Morgan of Morgan Springs, Tennessee. It was in admiration of Mike Seeger’s Morgan autoharp that prompted an Ohio musician to obtain the one I’m about to describe.
Long story short…. this beautiful instrument arrived in 1980 fully finished but absent the chord bars. For various reasons Mr. Morgan could not complete the chord set but instead sent along sufficient rough stock of Brazilian rosewood for their fabrication. The instrument has slumbered peacefully and unplayed for over forty years until it came to my workshop last October.
There are several features that make this a very distinctive autoharp. The woods, spruce and Brazilian rosewood, were purchased by Mr. Morgan at auction from the C.F. Martin guitar company where they had been in storage since the 1940s. The one piece spruce soundboard carries two of Morgan’s trademark “f” holes and is carved into a gentle violin- like arch. Although I couldn’t observe them because of the size and location of the sound holes, there apparently exist an internal pre-stressed truss rod and tone bars that, with a stainless steel anchor end reinforcing plate, make this a very stable instrument.
Although unplayed, the chromatic string set was forty years old and a little corroded. After much consideration it was decided to replace it with a scale designed for diatonic play in the keys of G and D. An optional F note replaces an F# in the scale to allow an F chord for play in the key of C. The chords were chosen based upon the songs that will be accompanied and extra stock was made into additional minor chords, two lock bars, and blank bars for future need.
The twelve, 5/16 inch-wide chord bars are arranged in two rows as was probably the intention of the builder. They rest upon #6 steel pins driven into Delrin bases. The Seeger autoharp bore round buttons that were sometimes broken. These chord bars were fitted with comfortable dished trapezoidal buttons made of rosewood.
Since the owner requested that there would be no visible screws, I devised a means of anchoring each holder and its Delrin base together with only two invisible screws. To provide easy access to adjust and change out chord bars I made top covers held by internal and inlaid magnets.
It was both an honor and a challenge completing this beautiful sounding instrument. Rosewood is a hard and oily wood that was not kind to tools and abrasives. I had some anxiety over making the most use of the limited and irreplaceable chord bar stock that was provided.
Finally, after over forty years of initial correspondence with the instrument’s luthier Tom Morgan, weeks of consultation in my workshop, and even a global pandemic, the patient musician and his Morgan autoharp #80002 sing together.
As a luthier for 40+ years I have built hundreds of dulcimers and a great variety of other stringed instruments. In 2012, my first foray into the blogosphere was titled “Whatshebuildinginthere” in which I wrote about my instrument building with an emphasis on experimentation, information, and encouragement to help other musicians and builders. At some point autoharps took control so in 2016 I began this new blog calling it “fretorfretnot”. I expected to carry on blogging about both fretted and not fretted stringed instruments but again, autoharps ruled. Only lately have I found the time to pound frets instead of tuning pins.
This mountain dulcimer was commissioned by a musician (Marsha) that has always played in the Ionian tuning of DAA instead of the more conventional and contemporary tuning of DAD. The DAA tuning has been traditionally used for “noter and drone” playing, that is, fretting the melody on the closer “A” string/s with a stick called a noter and allowing the middle “A” string and the lower “D” string to drone. Instead, this musician fingers chords and melody on all three string courses and uses a capo or re-tunes to play in other keys and modes. To the inexplicable astonishment of many dulcimer musicians who tune and play in DAD tuning, DAA tuning can play the same music, just using different fingering patterns.
The 1-1/2 and 8-1/2 (not shown) frets are partial frets installed under only the melody string/s
A few additions have been made to favor versatility. The 6-1/2 fret has been added to the scale for Mixolydian (or DAD) tuning. Partial frets at the 1-1/2 and 8-1/2 positions were installed under the melody course to add the extra note used in Mixolydian tunes and capoed play. Many players who tune to DAD add a full fret to the 1-1/2 position but we find it confusing and unnecessary for DAA tuning. Playing some faster melodies in DAA requires long travel up and down the fretboard and some wide finger stretches when playing chords. For that purpose a more comfortable 26-3/8″ scale length was chosen over the slightly longer scale of her other dulcimers. This small difference in scale length places the frets closer together making it easier to span chords and play faster.
The back and sides are Koa wood trimmed with grained ivoroid binding.
A western cedar soundboard, koa back and sides, wenge fretboard overlay, and mahogany fingerboard and peghead make up the body of the instrument. The four tuning machines are black chrome Gotoh planetary tuners with grained ivoroid buttons. Grained ivoroid binding trims the top and back and provides some protection from the inevitable boo-boos that attack the vulnerable edges.
Sun, Earth, Moon, and stars create a basic theme with an asymetrical shape, cutouts in the peghead, and simple pearl and abalone inlays.
The sun on the soundboard was created by first shallowly routing the shape on the cedar top and then applying gold leaf. The gold leaf isn’t actually gold but brass that comes in unbelievably thin 5.5″x5.5″ sheets. Handling this material that is only a few molecules thick is tricky. It easily tears at the slightest attempt to move it. Fortunately I could overlap the fragments without visible seams. Application took some practice and involved applying a sizing (glue) and then burnishing on the thin brass. This and the rest of the instrument was finished with multiple coats of semi-gloss Deft lacquer.
Clip-on electronic tuners are very popular with stringed instrument musicians. They assist accurate tuning even in noisy jam sessions because they “hear” the vibrations that are conducted through the clip attachment. Many styles are available but finding a convenient and reliable place to attach them on some instruments is frustrating. For this dulcimer I removed the clip from a D’Addario tuner and replaced it with a short length of 1/8″ Delrin rod. The small star in the peghead was the perfect place to conceal an 1/8″ hole for the tuner which can be inserted and removed as needed.
Fret Or Fret Not 
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