[gfirob]

Some are made with "spruce" tops which are actually plywood. I think the most expensive actually have spruce tops. Upscale autoharps for old time or Carter family tunes are usually marketed as "Appalachian" but all are not the same. It is also fairly easy to restore used auto harps, replace the felt sets and so on, if you find a good used one that needs work. They are also pretty easy to play with finger picks since you are not really picking single strings but just getting into the neighborhood of the note. They are fun.