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Other Autoharp Manufacturers

This article will address companies besides Chromaharp and the Zimmerman/Dolge/Phonoharp/Oscar Schmidt dynasty who mass-produced autoharps for a time at least.

The claims of Zimmerman and his successors aside, we now know that the instrument we call the autoharp was invented by Karl August Gutter, of Markneukirchen, Germany. And that he sold his patent to another Bavarian, Herman Lindemann, up to two years before Zimmerman began making his autoharps and marketing them as though they were his invention.

We also knowthat countless builders besides Zimmerman began copying and enhancing Gutter's inventions almost immediately.

The Early Days

Markneukirchen, in Bavaria, was the home of countless musical instrument manufacturers, most of which were organized along guild or family lines. Violin glue formulas, brass tube bending techniques, and countless other "trade secrets" helped the guilds protect their monopolies against competition throughout Germany, and - in some case - surrounding regions.

But building autoharps and other chorded zithers seemed to be feasible for anyone with a wood shop. It's no wonder that so many folks who were basically locked out of the musical instrument manufacturing industry saw a way to turn a quick profit.

Unfortunately, the competition was steep, and most of those "fly-by-night" builders stopped making autoharps within a few years. But at least one Bavarian builder is still building today. And at least one design invented and built in Canada in the early 1900s had a good run.

Autoharp Archaeology

I'm unashamedly fascinated by history, including the history of obscure musical instruments. So when I see an autoharp (or zither, or psaltery, etc) that is unlike anything I've seen before, I usually try to learn something about it.

Often the first several things I "learn" about such instrument are wrong, probably because someone took an educated guess, and subsequent folks assumed they knew what they were talking about.

The first "German Autoharp" I bought out of curiousity eventually led me to learn the story of the C.F. Hopf family. Although their family business has suffered "ups and downs," incuding nationalization by the German Democratic Republic, they have managed to build autoharps and zithers throughout the 20th century and they are still making them today.

Later I saw several Euro autoharps that looked specifically like later Hopf models, but with the "Musima" brand name. Turned out that they were Hopf-built, or at least Hopf-designed, but the GDR insisted they use the GDR's brand name.

Some time later, I picked up an "Ideal" autoharp with an unusual button configuration. Despite the label, there were no actual manufacturer's markings on the thing. And, ironically, the model I found had been built or reconfigured for left-handers, something I didn't realize until I saw other examples, every one of which had the chord assembly turned 180 degrees from this one.

I never saw another example with the Ideal label, so that may have been added by a regional music store who was buying them wholesale and reselling them back in the day.

For a time, I was seeing more turn up in England than anywhere else, so I wondered if they were made in England. Then I saw examples turn up in Australia and New Zealand. and finally in Canada. Turns out they were built in Canada and sold by amail order catalog there, though the actual factory location is still unverified.

Another German model that turns up from time to time is the Meinhold. The first example I saw was nearly identical to the 6-chord Hopf autoharp above, except for the manufacturer's label and lack of decal. But Meinhold made several more elaborate autoharps, one of which would actually play in 12 different keys, if you could remember how to set it up for each key.

The "Loopholes" web page contains some history of this maker, who seemed to honor Lindemann's patent, while patenting several of his own tweaks, some of which were very elaborate.

Those mysteries solved, at least somewhat, there remain a large number of autoharps for which there is no certain identification.

Our Articles So Far

I'm sure we'll keep coming across autoharps we don't recognize, and researching them as much as we can. But in the meantime, here are three articles we've written on these obscure instruments so far:

Other Folks' Articles

The "Loopholes" web page has countless articles on the history of autoharps, zithers, and their builders. Specific information about the Meinhold autoharps is included here.

Conclusion

As mentioned above, there were many autoharp builders in the 1895-1930 era, most of which faded away quietly. As I see others come up I'll try to track them down. But I'd be glad for any readers to get in touch if you spot an unknown model in the wild I might have a bit of information that - put together with what you have found - may help us "nail down" another builder.

Next Steps

If you've got this far, you've learned how much enjoyment you can get out of your autoharp and a few simple songs. Recommended next steps include:

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

The most important thing is to have fun with your autoharp. There is no one "right way" to play it, no matter what some "experts" say. You learn all kinds of things about music just by playing one. In fact, a professional acoustic guitarist just told me that getting his hands on an autoharp when he was young taught him so much about music that he was motivated to take up guitar. Some 40 years later, he's the premier acoustic guitarist in our region.

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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