Meinhold Autoharps

One exception, apparently, was Theodor Meinhold, who appears to have paid the license fees to build autoharps based on Gutter's design. His initial contribution to zither/autoharp development seems to have been - .not a physical instrument - but "song sheets" you could slide under the strings to show you which note to pick next when playing the melody.

When he started building autoharps, though, his quality and inventiveness were top tier.

Note: Though I have enough information to make some comments on these, I don't has as many details as I would like at this time, so please forgive me if our article seems a little skimpy. Most of what I have been able to track down has come from auction sites and "What is this?" posts on autoharp forums. I am also indebted to a "Loopholes" web article that describes a Preciosa and provides background information on Meinhold. If you have a Meinhold autoharp and would like to share pictures and information, please contact me, and we'll be sure to give you credit for your input.

Early versions include 3, 5, and 6-chord versions. Like early 5- and 6-chord versions by Zimmerman and Hopf (Rosen), they represent a logical outgrowth of Gutter's basic design.

Unlike, say, Zimmerman's 5-chorders (designed to play 3-chord songs in C and F), Meinhold's 5- and 6-chorders were designed to play in one key and support it well with related minor chords such as Dm, Am, and Em. Consequently, the strings are tuned diatonically.

Like other manufacturers, Meinhold's chord bars used a numbering scheme. On the 5- and 6-chord examples shown at the right, C, G7, and F would have been shown as 1, 5, and 4 (much like they would be in today's "Nashville" scheme. The minor chords, though, were shown in Roman numerals.

On the "Marguerite" (below right) VI, II, and III represent Am, Dm, and Em, all of which occur naturally on a C major scale. The labels also included the words "dur" for "major," "sept" for "seventh," and "moll," for minor. Most examples I've seen include the English as well.

That said the numbering scheme may not have been consistent on some of the very early models.

As Meinhold's instruments developed, the "calligraphy" on his autoharps became more elaborate.

Multiple Key Options - It also seems that Meinhold made at least some of his autoharps in two or more keys. As an example, the "Preciosa" is nearly identical to the Marguerite above, except that it is tuned to a diatonic G scale, and the chords are G, D7, C, Em, Am, and Bm.

Also, one early illustration included in a "Loopholes article shows a 5-chorder similar to the one near the top of this article, but tuned to play in F. (The Bb chord bar is labeled "A," a common German practice.

Bigger and Better - Meinhold continued to expand his line, including some very clever features in at least one.

I was able to track down few photos of a 9-chorder labeled Schengrin, but, unfortunately it's difficult to determine from the photo which chords are included. (The clearest photo I've found shows a Shengrin whose tuning has been altered. Another photo I've found is missing parts of the chord bar labels.

The Shengrin top two octaves seem to use a C major scale that includes C# and F#, but no Bb ("A#").

My best guess is that it was built to play in the key of G and D. Chords most likely included are C, D7, G, Em, Am, Bm, A7, G7, and D.

Not many other Meinhold autoharps in this range have surfaced since I began my research, but if someone were to come up with a 7, 8, 10, or 12-chord Meinhold with a name in fancy script, I would not be surprisedl

Biggest and Best - The largest and most ambitious Meinhold autoharp I've spotted so far is the "Miranda," which was also manufactured under the name "B&M Miranda."

Unlike nearly every other autoharp ever made, the Miranda contained three complete chromatic octaves.

Even more remarkable, a chord bar shifting feature allowed them to play 36 separate chords - 12 major chords, 12 seventh chords, and 12 minor chords.

Miranda's shifters allowed each chord bar to move one or two strings over, Unlike Zimmerman's "Shifter autoharps," which worked by squeezing little levers that would pop back when you released them, Meinhold's shifters would hold their place until you moved them again.

If you decided, say, that you wanted to play a song in the key of C, the first shifter would be set to the lowest, first position for a C chord. However, to get an F chord, which you would also need, you would set the next shifter to the third position, and the next one to the middle position.

No doubt Meinhold's instruction book explained how you would set the autoharp up for each likely key. The following table shows the chords each shifter could play.

I shaded the shifter positions you'd most likely use for songs in the key of C. As you can see, it's not intuitive.

Also, you will notice that the Am is a long way from the C, which doesn't help.

Sadly, if you wanted to play the next song in D, you would not only have to move most of the shifters, but you'd have to adjust your hand position radically. Unlike some other autoharps that had fewer chords, but made it easier to transpose (change a song from one key to another).

Contemporary Competition

When the earlier Meinholds were first built, the most popular Zimmerman design was a 5-chorder that could play only in F and C. So the 5- and 6-chorders probably held their own.

But the Miranda - ostensibly Meinhold's flagship product - was actually harder to play than 10- and 12-chorders from other vendors, because the other vendors kept the chords you were likely to use in any given key close together. Frankly, both the Zimmerman 12-chorder and the Canadian Pushbutton 10-chorder were easier to play, even though they played in far fewer keys.

Though Meinhold died in 1913, his company continued production for some years after, though I'm not sure how longthat was. And the Miranda seems to have been licensed to another company, who issued them as the "B&M Miranda."

So it's hard to say when production of Meinhold's autoharps actually ceased.

But the biggest competition for autoharps of all kinds was the radio. And, eventually, the phonograph. Folks no longer had to depend on some famiily member learning a tricky - and possibly limited - instrument to have music in the home.

The only thing that kept Oscar Schmidt's autoharps from fading into obscurity was their adoption by string bands like the Carter Family. Had there been analogous popular German groups who used the German-built autoharps in their music, the Meinhold autoharps may have been able to keep it up.

As it is, dozens of similar zithers, autoharps, psalteries, and related instruments faded into obscurity during the 1930s. Some Meinholds still turn up from time to time, though, and a few are likely worth reworking to make them playable.

Next Steps

• Our "Playing Autoharp Overview" article goes into more detail about playing more advanced songs in more advanced styles, including playing the tunes to songs, using fingerpicks.

  The same article also provides links to several helpful videos that cover essentially the same content. So if what we wrote doesn't make any sense to you, the videos might.

• Our "Autoharp Repair Overview" article explains the basic workings of autoharps. Every autoharp owner winds up doing some minor repair on their instrument eventually. Hopefully this article (and others) will show you there's nothing to be afraid of.

• Our "Tweaking Autoharps Overview" explains the most common "hacks" people perform on their autoharps to make them more useful for their preferred style of music, etc. We don't recommend any of these to beginners, but some people do, so we're giving you this resource in case you want more information, or if you just want to know what terms like "semi-diatonic" mean.

• One other major resource is our downloadable book Your First Autoharp.. This is a result of years of answering user questions that, frankly, most autoharp books do not begin to address.

  Learning to play an autoharp that is in repair and perfect tune is one thing. Owning an autoharp, is another. Countless readers who have acquired autoharps through gifts, inheritance, thrift shops, auction sites, or impulse purchases have no idea where to begin, what to look for, how to troubleshoot minor issues, and so on.

  Of course, we also have tips that ease you into playing all sorts of tunes. One reviewer has said it has more "meat and potatoes" than other, much more expensive books.

  Please click on the picture for more information.

Other Publications - In addition to those online resources, many good instructional books and dvds are available. Check our "Autoharp Publications" page for details.

Conclusion

So there's no downside and a lot of upsides to learning and playing autoharp.

And if you can jam with other people, that's even better.

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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