Autoharp

Back in 1964 I bought an Oscar Schmidt autoharp from the Sears catalog. It was a good-sounding, black, 12-chord instrument that cost all of $75 or so. I played it a lot and occasionally performed with it during my "folky" days. Unfortunately, while I was in the Army and stationed at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, I hocked it for some ready cash and never tried to get it back. It's probably still somewhere in "tornado alley."

Several years ago I got a catalog from Musicmaker Kits. They had many put-it-together-yourself folk instruments, which I immediately started buying and putting together. One such project was this autoharp. It turned out to be one of the most challenging kits I built. It was even more challenging than the harp kit I got from Lark in the Morning.

As you can see, it turned out very good, it works well, and sounds like it's supposed to. As soon as I finished it, Igot right back into playing Wildwood Flower, just like in the old days.