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OS21 Made More Folk-Friendly
https://www.creekdontrise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=324
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Author:  paulrace [ Wed Aug 08, 2018 11:49 am ]
Post subject:  OS21 Made More Folk-Friendly

A reader who has read our article on making autoharps "Folk-Friendly" (https://creekdontrise.com/acoustic/auto ... toharp.htm) writes

Just followed your directions and added the F#m, Bm and Emajor chord bars to an OS21. Worked very nicely, although I had to trim the supposedly pre-cut felt in a few places to get the string to ring properly. I also checked the other chords and found several with a muted string, including several (Dm, Em, where the bass strings were not cut out at all. But many thanks for the instructions. I currently play guitar with a mountain dulcimer group and now I can try to add in the autoharp on a few songs.

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Thanks for getting in touch and letting me know how things went. The string distance on those things wavered back and forth more than you'd think over the years, as they rebuilt their jigs, etc. Hope it wasn't too complicated. Also, I notice that on one of my late Type A 15-chorders, they didn't cut slots for a couple of the bass notes. What is THAT about?

Since I play that one mostly in C, the other chords aren't that prominent, so fixing that isn't a priority. If I start using autoharps more in groups, I'll be doing some rebuilding or at least re-felting anyway.

Here's a fluke; I've acquired a Chromaharp Bluegrass, which has a more folk-friendly tuning than the standard 15-chorder. But the strings are all shot, so it's a rebuild anyway. That's the price of doing research so you know whether the "common wisdom" is actually wisdom, or just guesses that have circulated so long that they become accepted as fact.

https://creekdontrise.com/acoustic/auto ... layout.jpg

Bb, Cm, and G7 are useless for my purposes and could be replaced with sharp-friendly minors. But the thing's oly value is as an oddity, so if I ever rebuild it, I'll keep the setup the same. I have other 15-chorders that are better candidates for a diatonic conversion or some such anyway.

In the meantime, I have too many other things on the workbench. Let me know things work out,

I'm glad your project has succeeded. I'm sure you'll find good uses for it in no time.

Paul Race

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