Autoharp

An autoharp is a curious instrument. It is strung in some semblance of a harp, but the strings are so close together as to be impractical for plucking.

You have to strum it, yet fretting it would be silly, since there is no fretboard.

So to play it you use a system of string-dampers, conveniently labelled according to key, which you simply press firmly, and then strum the strings. Thus you have, automatically, the sound of a small-scale harp - high and thin.

Again, MCC comes through. Margruite finds an Oscar Schmidt autoharp that is fully functional and, except for the one on the D minor damper, fully labelled.

It needed tuning, but the tuning key that it came with was too large, so I happened upon the realization that my bicycle-wheel spoke key (one to accommodate multiple sizes of spokes nipples) might work. And it did, at size 11.

Rode 32 ks today. All gravel, except for a half mile of concrete (past Green Valley), and one mile of dirt (the second mile south of Kleinstadt) . Though the dirt road was soft and muddy for about half of it, my quasi-cross baby loved the grass on beside the mud, and that worked just fine.