We were doing some antique picking / garage sale-ing today and I ran across this 1960's (most likely, perhaps 1950's) Oscar Schmidt Autoharp for $9. I had to snag it.
It's pretty rough with a separating soundboard and bridge. The strings are most likely the original ones, give the amount of rust on them. The tuners are also rusted. The pads aren't too badly worn but the springs aren't that great. And, it's missing all but 2 press down knobs.
Here's the bridge and soundboard problem...
I'm not sure how much restoration work I should put into it. The strings alone would run about $60-80, maybe more. The springs and other parts would be another expense. I could fix the soundboard and bridge with glue and clamps. So, I'd be in it maybe $100-150 and given a new, modern, autoharp is about $250, it may not be profitable to restore it.
Would you restore it or just flip it as is?
Replies
strip it and put a neck in it . and make a 3 stringer , you aint gonna find a cooler cigar box than that .
I would restore it just to keep it.
Or.. I would strip it and turn it into something extraordinarily weird just for the giggles.
Anyway.. I like it, I just want to see what noises I could create from a thing like that.