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ABOUT THE AUTOHARP
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I've wanted an autoharp for about 30 years now, but I never could really justify the expense of buying one
(considering I've never learned how to play one). Lately, though, I've been getting the feeling that if I don't go
ahead and invest in getting one, I'll never have one. So, I bought a used autoharp at a fairly reasonable
price, through eBay. I was dismayed when I opened its case and discovered that it was damaged. I really
didn't want to have to send it back. I thought that perhaps the problem w/ the buttons stuck down, could be fixed
via simple adjustments, like repositioning of parts... I've got a fair amount of skill in woodworking, and a fair
amount of experience rehabbing old junk computers turning them into working machines via mix-and-match of parts,
and a fair amount of experience working with various musical instruments - so, I decided to attempt fixing the
then-unknown structure & components of the autoharp's chord bars mechanism via simple readjustment of pieces.
Being unsure of what I'd find, I took documentation photos of what I found as I worked with it. When I realized that
it couldn't be repaired without tracking down & buying new parts, I decided to return it to the seller.
The defective autoharp is now gone, shipped away - but, I've got these photos left over. So, the photos on this
page are from the set of documentation photos I shot. I'm creating this page and posting it at my website, in the
hopes that visitors interested in autoharps will learn from what I present here; learning how simple the mysteriously
hidden mechanism of the autoharp really is, and how easy it is to work with it.
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Here's the first of 3 photos I felt would be useful for this page:
In this photo, you can see how many of the buttons were either partially or fully depressed. They were stuck that
way.
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Here's the second of the 3 photos I felt would be useful for this page:
There's a lot of useful detail visible in this photo. You can see the metal tab rising up, with one hole in it. That's one
of 4 such tabs, that the hood cover of the autoharp secures to when it's assembled. You can see how the chord damper bar
has a hole in it near the end, which the post sticks up through. The spring is over the post, and the end of the bar is
supported by the spring - not really attached; just resting there. You can see how the bar is u-shaped. Each chord button
has a flat tab on its lower end, that slides freely in the groove of the "u"; again, not really attached at all -
just, resting there. (Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of a button in place on a bar... That would have been good
for this page.) You can see in the photo, several of the cushions that are attached to undersides of bars. Those cushions
mute the strings that don't fit the chord of the bar, when the bar's pushed down into contact with the strings. The strings
that are left free to vibrate, form the desired chord.
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Here's the third of the 3 photos I felt would be useful for this page:
In this photo, you can see how the plastic posts bar was a single molded piece, with the posts part of the bar, via
the detail of the 6 that were broken off. You can also see that the posts bar is attached to the surface of the
autoharp via just 2 screws. To fix the problem shown in this photo, you'd remove those 2 screws, set the old bar
aside, put the new bar in place, put the screws back in, and then move the springs off the old posts and onto the
new ones. (Simple, huh?) NOTE: Don't take the springs off the old posts until you're ready to put them onto the new
ones. Those tiny springs end up getting tangled in each other when they're in a heap, and are difficult to get
separated again.
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IN CONCLUSION
I hope you've enjoyed my little story and accompanying illustrations about the defective autoharp, and how the
autoharp mechanism is put together. If there's more to tell, I'll add it onto this page.
~~~
Scruffy Eagle
~~~
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