 Autoharp Pickups |
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| Autoharp Pickups The best way to amplify an autoharp for public performance is with a high-quality directional mic pointed at the thing and someone running sound who knows what they're doing.But that's not usually an option. Open mics, shared stages, last-minute gigs, etc. often leave you scrambling for any old thing to help your audience hear your performance. If you're a singer holding your autoharp in upright position, you may be able to share your vocal mic with your 'harp, the way Mother Maybelle Carter did back in the day. But if you don't have a mic, or if you're thrown into a situation at the last moment, what do you do? There are basically two and a half options:
In the following section, I'll be speaking generally about various classes of pickups, because products "come and go so quickly." Many clever designs turned out to be impractical in real-world use, and several companies that made decent products simply didn't make enough money to keep making them. Magnetic PickupsLike the pickups on an electric guitar, magnetic pickups designed for autoharps contain little coils and magnets designed to pick up the vibration of the strings."Mag" pickups for autoharps have to be long to pick up vibrations of all 36 strings. The pickup is installed under the strings (you can't see it because of the chord bar cover). Most of the current batch, like the pickup Pete D'Aigle is selling as of this writing (June, 2024, below) have only an output jack and no controls or active electronics. You can plug them right into a guitar amplifier if you want. To plug into a mixer, you might want to use a preamp of some sort. Note: To avoid excess low-frequency "hum," the "ground" of the pickup shoud be grounded into the "string bed." Running a wire to the string anchor or bridge does the job. Sadly, this isn't always shown in the installation materials.  The pickup above is designed for aftermarket installation, and it does require a little drilling on your instrument. Pete has recently put up a YouTube video showing how to install it. Don't drill holes in your 'harp unless you're familiar with this sort of work. A similar pickup is built into Oscar Schmidt's current "acoustic/electric" autoharps, such as the OS110 21AE and the OS73CE. Over the years, mag pickups have been sold that would more-or-less just clamp on, but they don't seem to be available now. Pickups without controls may seem overly simple, but they're the result of a long line of less-than-successful experiments. A few versions, like the discontinued Oscar Schmidt pickup to the left below, have included volume and tone controls, but no active electronics. To keep the size down this version had a 1/8" jack and very tiny controls. For whatever reason, it was not all that successful, and it's no longer made.
Some versions, like the 1967ish DeArmond shown above right have been made with larger control knobs and 1/4" jacks. Unfortunately, wherever those knobs were mounted, they either cluttered up the face of the instrument or they got in the way, so those versions didn't last long either. For a time, Oscar Schmidt experimented with active electronics, including an EQ that was set into the edge of the thing. Unfortunately, cutting into the frame to fit the electronics eventually caused many of them to collapse in on themselves. Click on the photo below right to see a bigger photo of the warping and delaminating that has destroyed this once-state-of-the-art instrument.
File under "It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time." At this moment, I'm trying to decide whether to sell mine cheap to someone who will play it or salvage the usable parts (for example, the chord bars, etc., are worth more than the 'harp at this point.) A few companies have occasionally offered similar aftermarket products, but they come and go. The current wisdom about magnetic pickups for autoharps is that a passive pickup without tone and volume controls is probably the safest solution. You can always add a belt-mounted preamp if you want to control the volume from where you're standing. (Shatten's Mini PRE is a good option). Pros of Mag Pickups -
Cons of Mag Pickups
Piezoelectric PickupsPiezoelectric pickups are based on factory-made ceramics that give of tiny electrical charges when they're stressed. The technology has been around since the 1940s (at least), but it was only in the 1970s, that it improved to the point where musical instrument companies began building piezoelectric pickups into their acoustic guitars.
The Shatten AD-02 pickup, shown to the right was specifically designed to work on autoharps. (BTW, the Shatten AD-01 was designed to work on harps not autoharps, though they're usually advertised as "autoharp pickups.") At least we know they've tested them, because their instruction sheet shows photographs. If you go with anybody else's pickups, you're pretty much on your own. Here;s a tip about piezos and brands: As I understand it from my days as an electronics geek, all piezos are manufactured the same way, but not all units in the same batch have the same quality. The better manufacturers test them and discard any that don't meet "spec." The very cheap manufacturers don't bother with testing, so quality is "all over the map." It's entirely possible to buy a $16 piezo pickup that competes sonically with the $120 pickup. It's also possible to buy a $16 pickup that sounds like a duck being crushed alive. You can even get one of each in the same order. I actually use some fairly inexpensive pickups on things like my "beach guitars," where quality is a low priority, but that's not something I ordinarily recommend for "keeper" instruments. In other words, you need to decide what your time is worth - would you be better off buying one that's pretty much guaranteed to sound good and avoiding ones that might be a disappointment? Volume? - Piezo pickups like the AD-02 produce a sound that most guitar amps can work with. However, they don't have enough volume to drive some mixing console inputs. Consequently, if you're going to be taking your autoharp places where you know nothing about the amps, etc., you'll have access to, you'll probably want a preamp. And you'll probably want one with EQ so you can adjust the tone as well. Placement - Unlike the specially-designed mag pickups discussed above, piezo pickups don't stretch the width of the instrument. If you use a single piezo, you may have to experiment to put it where it will sound the best. That said, you will likely use a preamp anyway, so get one with EQ and adjust accordingly. At least one vendor of inexpensive piezos has offered a three-pickup system, with the idea that they'll pick up the whole spectrum of your instrument effectively. Unfortunately, those pickups were made for other instruments and may not fit under the strings. In addition, one or more of the individual piezos may be weak or provide unbalanced tone. Note: Neither mag nor piezo pickups will produce the full tones you would get with a good microphone. But you're not buying them for that - you're buying them to make certain people in the back row can hear your instrument even with a bad PA and poor acoustics. Pros of Piezo Pickups -
Cons of Piezo Pickups
Attached Microphone Pickups This is the "half" option. They work very well in some situations, and they are awkward and feedback-prone in others. Few autoharp players who play "out" often use these.
Most use small condensor microphones that hover over the instrument to pick up its sound. The tone can be very high quality, though the balance depends on where you place the mic. To me it seems that the best place to get a balanced tone out of the thing is also the place where it's most like to interfere with your playing, but your mileage will vary. Meyers has provided a photo of their product installed here. For their part, Meyers claims to have a high satisfaction rate. Technically, if you have a chance to test your setup before playing, and you have a good sound system and sound guy, it should provide more authentic autoharp sound than any mag or piezo pickup. For my part, I've played in far too many rushed or crowded situations to want to worry about something hanging off my instrument, or the much-higher likelihood of feedback. Several manufacturers claim to compete in this pace, but many of them come and go too quickly to establish a user base who can comment intelligently on their products. Pros of Attached Mic Pickups -
Cons of Attached Mic Pickups
ConclusionEach approach has pluses and minuses.Once they're installed, mag pickups probably win out in convenience and ability to use in nearly any environment. However, they require cleaner chord-changing technique and they don't reflect the true sound of the instrument. If you want to change volume onstage, a belt-mounted preamp is a good idea. Piezos do a better job of making the instrument sound like an autoharp, and they're easier to install and remove, but they also pick up handling noise and clatter more than the other solutions. Not to mention often needing a preamp if you're plugging right into the PA. Attached microphones are also easy to install and remove, and - in the right room - they provide the truest reproduction of the autoharp's sound. However, they may not be the best option for people dragging their autoharps into all sorts of different situations. In other words, there's no one solution that meets everyone's needs or even expectations. The best sound is always going to come from a quality separate microphone plugged into a good system, but, as a Folk singer who often does festivals and other sets where I have no control over the sound system, I seldom experience such luxuries. In the meantime, I hope this article gives you enough information to make the decision that's right for you. And keep playing, singing, and sharing, whatever else you do! Best of luck!
And please stay in touch! - Paul Race
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Several companies claim that their general-purpose pickups will also work on autoharps, though in some cases, I doubt they've every been tested.
