Autoharp History Overview

In my own research, I kept finding autoharps from other manufacturers, so I've included a few brands that Blakely ignored. Oscar Schmidt purists are often offended to imagine that anyone else ever built competitive instruments worth playing, but I've gotten my hands on a few. and I find them delightful.

That said, there are many variations even of the most common models, and no one resource - even Blakely's - could cover them all. What I've tried to do is to provide an overview of the general trends that influenced autoharp design and availability since the late 1800s. As a result, there will be what some folks consider major omissions. But if you come across an unusual autoharp, this article may help you figure out where it fits in.

Born of a "Zither" Movement - Autoharps were one of many commercial attempts to bring music into essentially non-musical households that started in mid-to-late 1800s. Traveling salesmen hawked similar devices from the East to the West. Mail-order catalogs listed instruments that "anybody could play."

The focus was often on different kinds of "zithers," instruments with a row of strings like a small piano soundboard. The "chorded zithers," like the one shown to the right, were designed so you could easily play a chord with one hand, while playing the melody with the other. See our article "Autoharp Precursors" for several examples.

Stopping the "Wrong Notes" Versus Playing the "Right Notes - In the early 1880s, Karl August Gütter of Markneukirchen, Germany, built a chorded zither that made it easier to avoid playing the wrong strings.

He put rows of felted bars across a row of diatonically-tuned strings. You would push down on a bar to stop the strings you didn't want to hear and strum them all. He received a patent for the instrument in Britain about 1884.

Part of Gutter's patent application is shown at the right. Apparently by the time he was awarded this patent in Britain, he had already sold the manufacturing rights to another Bavarian, Herman Lindemann. By 1890, Lindemann was frustrated that several manufacturers in Germany were selling the instruments he had sole right to manufacture, under the names "volkzither" and "autoharp."

Zimmermann's Claim of Ownership - Lindemann may not even have known that, beginning about 1885, American inventor Charles F. Zimmermann was also making copies of Gutter's design, under the name "Autoharp." (Zimmermann did, apparently, originate that term.)

Zimmerman falsely claimed that his instruments were protected under a patent he had already been awarded for an entirely different instrument.

But Zimmerman wasn't actually all that interested in selling instruments. He was really on a quest to change the way people wrote and read music. He saw his products mostly as a tool for promoting his numbers-based notation scheme (long since abandoned). Consequently, the earliest Zimmerman-branded autoharps have chord labels that make little sense to people used to reading actual music. (See our article on "Early Autoharp Chord and Note Numbers" for clarification.)

About 1893, Zimmermann sold his autoharp business to Alfred P. Dolge, who owned a piano string company, though he continued to work with Dolge to suggest improvements.

Dolge's autoharps continued to carry the Zimmerman name but added the line "Made in Dolgeville." When Dolge's business failed, the autoharp line was picked up by Phonoharp, a manufacturer whose previous lines included other kinds of zithers.

An early Zimmerman autoharp, as manufactured by his first successor Alfred P. Dolge. Click on the image for a bigger photo.	The Model 73, designed during the Dolge era, became Oscar Schmidt's most popular autoharp from the 1930s to the 1950s. Click on the image for a bigger photo.

Oscar Schmidt - By the 1920s, Phonoharp was struggling. Oscar Schmidt, who had a history of making other kinds of zithers, as well as banjos and guitars, purchased the autoharp line. Schmidt's company replaced the bizarre chord button labels, abandoned some of the less commercially viable models, and focused on the "bigger and better" ones, including the 12-string Model 73, which remained their most popuar line for decades.

The company also took the step of registering the name "Autoharp" as a trademark, despite the fact that it had been in common use internationally for close to thirty years.

BTW, I have a video that discusses some of these early instruments here.

Radio Setback - After all those years of autoharp promising to bring music into the home, radio came along, and that was even easier to play than the autoharp. The autoharp and its ilk took a back seat to broadcast music programs for years.

That, along with lack of meaningful competition probably contributed to Oscar Schmidt's products virtually stagnating between the late 1920s and the late 1960s (yes, they eventually offered different colors and three more chords, but the profile and most features stayed the same).

String Bands Drive a Comeback - Outside of the mainstream music industry, rural string bands that had played in barn dances and the like for decades began getting radio airplay. And a few of those string bands used autoharps.

Through the influence of musicians like Cecil Nutt and Sarah and Maybelle Carter, the autoharp made a comeback. And sales picked up again, though not enough to convince the Oscar Schmidt company to make too many improvements.

Assume a Position - Early autoharps and the instruments that preceded them were typically played in the lap, like an Appalachian (mountain) dulcimer and most zithers. Country songwriter Cecil Null is given credit for popularizing the vertical position, playing it across the chest, pushing the buttons with the left hand and strumming with the right. He's also credited with recommending changes that made the instrument easier and more comfortable to play in that position, including rounding the corners and moving the chord bars down to make it easier to strum the strings above them.

OS' top-of-the-line instruments expanded from 12 to 15 chords, and at some point the buttons changed shape. But the original profile of the instrument, designed to lay in the lap or on a table, could be painful for many folks to hold.

Other Manufacturers - In the meantime, several European manufacturers were still making autoharps. Though, like Zimmermann's, they were mostly based on Gutter's design, they diverged from US-built autoharps in several ways.

The most prolific German manufacturer was the Hopf family, whose use of a rose decal on their instruments caused them to be called "Rosen." In the 1950s, the GDR (East German) government nationalized the music instrument industry. The Hopfs were forced to abandon their rose decals, going to a wildflower decal instead. And the GDR-mandated brand name "Musima" appeared on many of their instruments.

In spite of pressures that drove many other manufacturers out of business, the Hopf family managed to keep building instruments like autoharps and zithers. In fact, they still make autoharps today, though they seem a little pricey to me.

You'll occasionally see autoharps with different arrangements, like this pushbutton autoharp that turns up in the UK, Canada, and Australia. It's designed so that you can play 3-chord songs in F, C, G, and D simply by moving your hand over to another "block" of buttons. (Don't let the chord and note names confuse you too much. Sharps are indicated by an apostrophe. So A' is what we would label Bb, and F' is what we would label F#. And the little squares indicate that those are 7th chords. Yes, it's not exactly standard notation, but folks who owned them adjusted quickly.)

Other Brand Names - In the meantime, Oscar Schmidt also manufactured autoharps that other companies sold under their own brand name, including MEG, Silvertone (Sears), and Airline. But until the late 1960s, they all had the Model 73 profile and construction.

Competition Drives Innovation - Though other brands were being made and sold outside the United States, Oscar Schmidt seldom had any real competition in the US until Rhythm Band, Inc. introduced the original Japanese-built "Chromaharp."

RBI mostly made musical instruments for elementary music teachers, generally simple percussion instruments. But they realized that fewer and fewer classrooms had pianos or teachers who could play them.

Autoharps were the logical solution, but Oscar Schmidt's line was expensive for what it was, and the instruments hadn't been significantly updated since the 1920s.

So, the newly designed "Chromaharp" started out as an aid to elementary school teachers. But by the late 1960s, it was a competitor for Oscar Schmidt's instruments. They had rounded edges, so they were easier to hold, and they were built at least as well as the contemporary Oscar Schmidts.

RBI's 15-chord Chromaharp had rounded edges and other improvements that drove the Oscar Schmidt company to significantly update their line. Click on the image for a bigger photo.	Oscar Schmidt's first 'Type B' Autoharp, the OS-15. Click on the image for a bigger photo.

Oscar Schmidt redesigned their autoharps "from the ground up," creating what autoharpists now call "Type B" autoharps (above right). They changed:

• The way the strings attached,
• The shape of the instrument, and
• The position of the chord bars (to better enable strumming above the bars)..

They also removed the "bridge" that used to run alongside the tuning pegs, instead replacing it with a series of metal dowels similar to those used on harps. Interestingly, there was a period of overlap when both kinds of Oscar Schmidt's were being made at the same time. The old-style 'harps were generally being sold through other brand names, such as Silvertone while the new style was proudly sporting the Autoharp logo.

Soon both Oscar Schmidt and Chromaharp added 21-chord versions. Chromaharp's 21-chorders tend to be built more solidly than Oscar Schmidt's' entry level 21-chorders, but Oscar Schmidts have an innovative design that makes customization far easier. And Oscar Schmidt eventually offered upgrade models, something Chromaharp has not done.

An Age of Experimentation - Having actual competition drove both companies into a period of experimentation that produced a wide range of instruments, some pretty strange looking to modern eyes. These included:

• Children's autoharps (Chromaharp's "MiniharP" and Oscar Schmidt's "EasyChord").
• Autoharps meant to be held horizontally like a guitar (Chromaharp's "Chromalin," and Autoharp's "Guitarro").
• Autoharps built into carrying cases for elementary school teachers to use (Chromaharp's "Portaharp" and OS' "Educator")
• Autoharps that made it easier to play in "Folk-Friendly" keys like D and A (Chromaharp's "Bluegrass" and OS' 15-chord "Appalachian")

Chromaharp also made an electric autoharp with geared tuning (the "Chroma II") and a massive 27-chorder for churches and other organizations to use (the "Caroler").

The above list contains only instruments that I've seen multiple instances of. I have also seen a few others that were made in such small quantities that I'm not sure they were ever manufactured besides a few salesman's samples.

Most of these experiments were discontinued by 1980. But a few, like the EasyChord, still come available on auction sites occasionally. (Which explains why I know more about these than most writers, and also why I need to have more garage sales.)

1980s to Today

Since none of the experiments really caught on, both Oscar Schmidt and Chromaharp have focused on making standard 15-chord and 21-chord autoharps. Chromaharp only makes one model of each, while Oscar Schmidt makes several upgrade models, especially of their 21-chord versions.

Bowers Setup - Decades ago, autoharp virtuoso Bryan Bowers reconfigured his chord bars in a way that many advanced autoharp players have followed over the years.

• Bowers revised the placement of the chord bars to make them more logical, and
• Bowers replaced the Bb7, Cm, and Ab chord bars with Bm, F#m, and E major, chords that are used in Folk, Bluegrass, and country but which are missing on most autoharps. (More information on such modifications is provided in our article "Making Your Autoharp Folk and Bluegrass-Friendly.")

Diatonic Setups - Many advanced players who tend to play in only one or two keys have modified their autoharps so that they can only play in those keys. But that means that some strings will never be played. They tune those strings up or down to double strings that are played. For example, if your autoharp only plays in G or D, you don't need the Eb, or Bb strings. Why not tune them down to D and A and tweak your chord bars to play those strings when they're playing chords with those notes? This gives a richer sound. (More information on such modifications is provided in our article "What is a Diatonic Autoharp?"}

Custom Autoharps - Since the 1980s, several luthiers have been building custom autoharps for people who want higher quality than the factories make, or who have special requirements.

And in Germany, the Hopf family is still making autoharps (and zithers).

Update for 2024 - Based on the number of musicians who have stuck around to ask questions at my clinics, I think that the autoharp's biggest problem today is lack of exposure. (That and the fact that most of them have to be tweaked to be useful in the guitar-friendly keys beloved by Folk, Country, and Bluegrass musicians.)

As I do more conversions and repairs, I expect my list of articles to continue growing. The articles I feel relate most to autoharp history are listed below.

• Mountain Music, Bluegrass, and Autoharps - How autoharps were used in early string bands and "Mountain Music," and why you don't see them as much in Bluegrass or Folk.

• Autoharp Factory Tunings - Describes the four most common chord layouts for new autoharps, and the two most common variations.

• The 5-Chord Wonder - The Model 2 3/4 lasted seven decades and set the chord bar pattern for all subsequent 12- and 15-chord OS autoharps.

• OS Appalachians: 15-Chorders for Folk and Bluegrass (Sort Of) - A delightful, but short-lived attempt to make autoharps more useful to Folk, Bluegrass, and Country artists.

• Early Autoharps Video - Paul Race explains some of the unusual features you will encounter if you start collecting these old gems.

• Early Autoharp Chord and Note Numbers - What's with the weird labeling system on early 3, 4, and 5-chord autoharps, and why do they label both A and Bb as note number 6?

• Is my Autoharp a Type A or Type B? - In 1968, following Chromaharp's lead, Oscar Schmidt reconfigured their instruments to be more ergonomic. They also changed the string attachment and removed the bridge. A late model A may still be a very playable instrument, but used model Bs tend to be in better playing condition just because they're newer. Either way, if you want to restring an autoharp, you'll find out that the strings are different between the two models. How do you find out which one you have?

• Shifter Autoharps - Discontinued by 1926, these somewhat "overengineered" instruments allowed you to play up to 16 chords with just six buttons, plus some little levers you'd squeeze.

• Hopf Autoharps - In Bavaria, where the autoharps we know and love were invented, one family has made zithers and autoharps for well over a century, usually decorated with roses or wildflowers.

• Musima Autoharps - During the East German era, Hopf instruments were reissued under the "Musima" brand name.

• Autoharp Precursors - Before the kind of autoharps we know and love came on the market, countless other instruments that also purported to make anyone a musician appeared. Most of these are mis-labeled "autoharp" when they appear on the used market, and too many folks have bought unsuitable instruments (or wall decorations) as a result. This is an overview of the major classes of these autoharp precursors.

More articles are likely to come soon. In the meantime, I hope these articles help answer your questions about these under-rated instruments.

Whatever else you get out of our pages, I hope you come away with some great ideas for "sharing the joy."

And please stay in touch!

    - Paul Race

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