Revenge of the Autoharp

The Autoharp is an instrument designed to simplify the act of making music. Whether by someone with little musical experience, or as a simple way to accompany without distraction, it is beautiful in its simplicity and can produce a very pretty sound. I have never spent much time studying the Autoharp, but as with many things, my new position with Volkwein’s Music is affording me many opportunities to expand my horizons.

One of my projects today was to restring an Autoharp. One of my coworkers had warned me to charge sufficiently for this, noting that he had discovered the joys of this job many years prior… For such a simple instrument, it still managed to complicate my life. It has 34 strings, and uses tuning pins similar to a piano. The strings pass under a mechanisim that has strategically placed felts to mute notes not in a particular chord.

The Mechanism…

As I began, it didn’t occur to me to remove the mechanism to make removal and installation more simple. I also didn’t think to remove all the strings first. So I struggled along, one string at a time. About half way through, I decided I could remove all the remaining strings and then replace them. While I removing them it came to me to remove the four screws holding down the mechanism and thus expose the strings altogether. This was accomplished with ease and as I set the mechanism aside, I discovered that the sides of the mechanism were not attached and out sprang a dozen springs! Well that is a problem for later.

The Impailer…

So I continued to remove the strings. Nearly done with this task, somehow one of the strings broke as I was unwinding it, it sprang back and impailed my finger! Once I figured out how to get it out, had found the first aid kit and a bandaid, I finished removing and replacing the strings. All this took 3 hours of my life…

Moral of the story, never underestimate a simple instruments ability to become complicated.