Any autoharp fans/experts in the house?

[john-o]

My wife is a teacher, and was moved from middle school to preschool this year. She just recently mentioned that she might like an autoharp for Christmas, as music is so important in her classroom now. I found a site called instrumentalley.com, with a couple of decent deals, but I'm a bit over my head here... The two models are these:

Johnson FI-320 21-Chord Autoharp Chorded Zither; for $199 on sale and free shipping, and...

Oscar Schmidt OS21C 21-Chord Autoharp; for $230 plus shipping...

I wonder what "chorded zither" means, when appended to the name of an autoharp? I tried calling them, but got no answer.

Anyone have a clue?

Many TiA, as usual!
John

[graylocks]

can't really help you on Autoharp but i have become a recent fan of the ukulele as a very accessible and user friendly instrument. it would work great in a preschool music setting. try planting a ukulele bug in your wife's ear. there's a uke renaissance happening. i was at a music therapist conference last month and ukes were selling like hotcakes.

[hal]

priced from nothing to $500 on ebay - I suspect you could find a killer deal with a little work

[OWC Jamie]

well there certainly couldn't be a 21 chord autoharp un-chorded zither. :-)

I had a 15 chord zither when I was a teen. I thought I was a lot better at playing it than I was. It would disappear all the time.

[john-o]

Thanks! I'll keep looking...

[$tevie]

The only thing that I know about autoharps is that Mother Maybelle Carter could play them:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVBtvKqJoUc

[john-o]

You also should check out Bryan Bowers:

http://bryanbowers.com/

[$tevie]

john-o wrote: I wonder what "chorded zither" means, when appended to the name of an autoharp?

Okay, from Googling it appears that the term autoharp was originally owned by the Oscar Schmidt company and that the "correct" generic term is chorded zither.
But it seems the name autoharp has itself become generic, so they probably use both to be sure non-Oscar-Schmidt autoharps come up in customer searches regardless of which term is used..

http://www.folk-legends.net/instruments.html#Autoharp

[samintx]

I got an auto harp a few years ago and taught myself. It lays flat on a table and very easy to play rather than holding. It is a Schmidt. Be sure to get an electronic pit pipe for tuning. Mine is Musicians Friend model.

Holding a harp and playing is a bitch...for the part time player. Maybe the real pros can do it but I can't. The flat one is almost like playing a piano and you can easily see what to push and play songs quickly.

[Dennis S]

This is an old well-respected company in the acoustic and folk music business:

http://www.elderly.com/brand/165N_oscar%20schmidt.html

Be aware that strings for these instruments are expensive, tedious to tune and replace, and break often. Also, if you don't play it much, they will rust and sound dead when you play it after a period of not playing it.