Who has an OS21CE autoharp?

[whvick]

I think it is maple instead of spruce. Is that good or bad.
The “Auto Harp store” has them on sell for less than $360. Anyone ever buy from them?
Any safer buying a used autoharp than a guitar?
And should a beginner really be looking for a 15 chord instead?
Thanks guys

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by whvick

I think it is maple instead of spruce. Is that good or bad.
The “Auto Harp store” has them on sell for less than $360. Anyone ever buy from them?
Any safer buying a used autoharp than a guitar?
And should a beginner really be looking for a 15 chord instead?
Thanks guys

Maple's fine.

There are many things that can go wrong with an autoharp over time, definitely buy new if you're a beginner.

You can get a lot of music out of a 15-chord



and the six extra tone bars on a 21 take up space that's better used by your strumming hand, I think.

[whvick]

IMG_4135.jpg
So I ran into this one used. New strings would be nice but these are not terrible. Spent some time tuning and retuning. Now I am watching some YouTube on how to play. Should be lots of fun.

[guitararmy]

Congratulations!
We have two Oscar Schmidt autoharps...

[Rudy4]

I purchased a OS 21 bar new several years ago and advise potential new owners to buy new if possible. The reasons are outlined below.

Strings do sound less bright as they age, but many users go years without finding it necessary to do anything other than replace an occasional broken string.

Any potential used autoharp should be very closely examined for loose glue joints or any cracks in the main pin blocks. If there are any delaminations, loose glue joints or pin block cracks do not purchase! An autoharp that has any of those problems will soon become difficult to tune or hold tuning for very long. This is NOT what you want from an autoharp.

Tune an older harp and strum with each chord bar pressed and listen for pure chords. The other common malady is the felt pads becoming loose or even sections falling off as the self-stick glue backing on the bar felt dries out. If there's a few of these pads that have come loose then it's probably going to happen to others soon. The bar felt can be replaced, but it's more difficult to do correctly than what it might seem like at first glance. The pad openings are critical and it's easy to get them incorrectly spaced on the strings.

Any chord bar that fails to return to its at rest position most likely has a broken spring. Those are easy to replace and are available for purchase the same places that sell the bar felt.

I would always suggest purchasing a 21 bar autoharp, but 15 bar is easier to maintain. When I played a 15 it always seemed like the chord I needed was missing. It's difficult enough with a 21 bar harp!