restoring an autoharp

RobertW,

How about a photo of the little beauty.

might need some new springs

What a coincidence RobertW . I just received a package of Autoharp felts that I'd ordered and have commandeered the kitchen table to restore the felts on a couple of old Autoharps.
My first attempt at restoring old 'harps was converting a Chromaharp to a C diatonic. An old high school boyfriend of Maggie's gave it to her about 50 years ago and she never used it much.  As you can see, the front has warped some.
I'll admit that I miss the C7 chord, so there is a "B" string with a fiddle fine tuner on it that I sometimes tune down to "Bb" and the CMa7 chord becomes a C7.  The fine tuner is just so I can find the string quickly.
 


The two that I like best are my D/G semi-diatonic and my A/E semi-diatonic.  They have both been refinished and revamped.  They started as Chromatic 15 bar 'harps.  I tried to strip the finish off the black box before making it into an A/E semi-diatonic, but, since I couldn't get all the black off, I used a transparent black stain and put a white pinstripe around the top..

   

RobertW,Derick,Jim,
Since the string labels have been changed and removed, I have a template that I slide under the strings when I tune them.  I also move the chord bar assembly towards the bottom of the 'harp so I can more easily reach the treble strings.

Jim,thanks for the link. My research so far tells me the string spacing is different between '68 and a current models, so current 15 and 21 replacement kits will be probematic. I will have to reglue the old felts using the glue residue and common sense as guide... I have no idea if any are missing. And i cannot find a felt layout chart