Autoharp building and repair | Fret Or Fret Not

Recently, a musician from Louisiana sent me an “Old Black Box”, or rather, a thirty-six string, twelve chord Oscar Schmidt autoharp that was manufactured in 1958. As with many of these older “A” models purchased on-line, from families, or from estate sales, it was covered with dust and gunk. Still, it had possibilities so the owner had it polished and restrung with Schreiber “Old Model A” strings. It was sent to me in excellent condition for a couple of useful upgrades.

The twelve- chord chord bar set was also in excellent and original condition. The 5/16 inch wide bars had plastic golf tee buttons in two rows and were carried in slotted plastic holders. I was commissioned to make a three row set with wooden buttons and carried upon quieter and easier to play chord combs.

Originally, these instruments were set up for play on the lap or a table while strumming between the chord bars and the anchor end bridge. Many modern players reinstall the entire chord bar assembly closer to the anchor end to allow more playing space in the treble area when holding the autoharp upright.

The owner learned to play the old way, below the chord bars. He also wanted to be able to play above the bars in the high treble area. To accomplish this I made chord bars 3/16 inches wide which made the chord set narrower. By repositioning the set in the center, there was now 1-1/2 inches above and 1-1/2 inches below the chord bars allowing play both ways.

Another upgrade involved adding a thirty-seventh string tuned to D6. This was done by extending each of the bridges by 1/4 inch and installing a tuning and hitch pin.

I tried to retain the aged/historical appearance by coloring the new chord bars and holders black and installing a used tuning pin to match the old ones.

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I began building traditional style autoharps for Marsha and myself in 2008. We were unhappy with manufactured autoharps that, even when new, required costly and time consuming mechanical modifications to make them play properly and meet our musical needs. Custom built luthier instruments were not affordable to us so I began making my own.

Soon after, I began offering autoharps for sale. Each one was different, defined by my experience and the customers needs. There are many, many ways to make an autoharp and for that reason I had never had “models” to choose from. I still don’t have models but to make ordering decisions easier, I’m going to describe some basic categories with options and prices.

Much of my work has been building quality, affordable left handed autoharps for left handed musicians and those who want to play the instrument on their laps without having to cross their hands. The few left handed models produced by factories decades ago have been of disappointing design and almost impossible to find. New left handed autoharps are available from most autoharp luthiers but at a higher price

My goal is to offer well built, handcrafted, great sounding autoharps at a cost somewhere between the $350 to $550 cost of new Asian manufactured autoharps and the $1200 to $2500 cost of those made by other American luthiers. Currently, that cost is $900.00 for my basic autoharp that includes many wood and setup choices. Features and prices for my autoharps can be found in the header above.