UnCallous(ed)

[omorka]

Picked up the autoharp. Thanks, bkwrrm_tx! (And extra-special thanks to lolleeroberts, who put us in touch!) Have spent the last forty minutes fiddling with it.

The bad news: two strings are broken and need to be replaced. I don't know if Rn' R sells strings for these things or not. I'd rather not have to order them online if I can get them locally. The extra guitar strings I have for the acoustic I failed to learn to play lo, a year and a bit ago don't seem to be the same width and certainly aren't the same length. Also, while it came with a thumb pick, I probably need a finger pick, too.

The good news: despite the fact that thing probably hasn't been tuned since the years still started with a 1, I got it more or less into tune with itself, without breaking any more strings. No guarantees of it being in tune with anything else in the universe, but now it sounds more or less okay when I press a key and strum it. The keys are a bit sticky, but the pads all seem to be intact. I can play "What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor" and "We Come From the Mountain" on it without sounding too stupid.

Now I need to learn how to play it upright instead of flat on my lap, and where the damn keys are so I don't have to look at them all the time. It's definitely a keyed instrument rather than a valved one, but I managed to learn a bit of clarinet, sax, and flute in the long ago and far away, so I imagine this will be much the same - and I don't have to memorize a set of fingerings this time, just where the dang keys are. (No frets for me!)

The case is a bit banged up. Still serviceable, but clearly needs the traditional coating of bumper stickers and decals to cover up the scuffed patches. I might have to hit up Instant Attitudes for some of theirs soon.

I imagine I can at least pick up a few things for this by Apollocon, for the filk room. We'll see, anyway.

Comments

[bassfingers.livejournal.com]

I'll have to take a look at how they're tied/anchored. It may be possible to find guitar strings in the right gauges and just cut them to length. Likely easier than finding specific autoharp strings in town. (That said, I'd be curious to hear local luthier Neal Sargent's take on it... No idea if he'd ever service such a device, but I can picture him puzzling over it for a bit.)

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Sure. You going to be at Bagels tomorrow? If you are, I'll bring it along.

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

Happy to help. As for strings, you could try Melody's harp shop. I know they have harps and hammered dulcimers, but I can't recall if they carry autoharp supplies or not.

[omorka.livejournal.com]

Well, an autoharp is really a chorded zither. I guess a dulcimer would be reasonably close. Where are they?

(Silly strings. Valves don't break. Well, okay, they can, but when they do it's a really big deal.)

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

Here's a link to their website

http://www.folkharp.com/

They're off Hwy 290 and Huffmeister Road - the Northwest side of town. The website has a link to a mapquest page.

It's a neat store to browse through, even if you don't find exactly what you're looking for.

[asland32.livejournal.com]

I don't know where/what Rn'R is, but there is a harp shop up 290 (past my place).