Installing the Chord Bar Conversion kit

The most common case is that of replacing a 12- or 15-bar chord bar assembly with a 21-bar chord bar assembly, so these instructions assume that this is what you are doing. If you are installing a 15-bar assembly, there will be slight differences, but the differences are minor and should be self-evident.

Before beginning the conversion, carefully inspect the body of the instrument for any loose joints or other problem that should be attended to first.

Also, please take a glance at the Caveats section (3.3 below) to be aware of a few problems that you may run into.

Removing the old chord bar assembly

The conversion kits contain all of the parts for the new chord bar assembly, so normally none of the old parts will be reused. In the case of an older instrument you may wish to keep them in order to have all of the original parts to the instrument, or you may wish to keep them as spares for potential repair of other instruments. Otherwise you may safely discard them after completing the conversion.

1. Remove the covers from the old chord bar holders. They are normally each held in place by three small screws.
2. Remove the chord bars and springs.
3. Remove the chord bar holders from the body of the instrument. They are each held in place by two screws, one at each end, and sometimes an additional one in the middle.
4. Fill the screw holes and touch-up.

   The new screw hole locations will be different, so at this point we need to fill in the old ones. Wooden Q-tips or bamboo shish-ka-bob skewers are good potential fill material for the screw holes. They may need to be shaved a bit to fit. Use ordinary wood glue to glue them in and cut them flush with the surface of the instrument.

   You do not need to try to achieve a perfect finish match, which is very difficult to accomplish anyway. All that is necessary is for the color to be similiar to that of the surrounding area, such that it does not unnecessarily attract attention to itself. You can use almost any kind of color that is a near match for the surrounding surface. If the body of the instrument is black, you can even use a felt-tip marker. The end grain of the filler piece will generally take color easily, and will tend to come out darker than anticipated, so in general it is advisable to use a slightly lighter than desired color.

Installing the new chord bar assembly

1. Determine the location for the new assembly and mark the screw hole locations.

   Prior to locating the new chord bar assembly, there are a couple of considerations to keep in mind.

   1. The older autoharps were made with the idea that the player would be holding the instrument on a lap or table and strumming the strings along the right hand edge, between the bars and the fixed end bridge. Most modern players do not do it this way, because the sound is generally better if the strings are strummed in their middle. Nowadays the chord bars are generally located close to the end of the instrument to allow more space for reaching the shortest strings while strumming in the modern fashion. When looking at the position of the chord bar holder near the bridge, you still need to allow at least 1/8 - inch clearance for the cover.

   2. Because the newer autoharps are made in Asia to the metric system of measurement, there is a very slight difference in string spacing. You can generally place the conversion kit chord bars in such a way that they will damp or clear the strings properly, but in some cases you may need to trim some of the felts slightly with a sharp razor or utility knife blade.
   To establish the proper chord bar location, place a couple of the chord bars at either end of one of the chord bar holders, and rest them on the strings. Notice that the bars have a hole at one end and a slot at the other. The end with the hole must go at the side of the autoharp nearest the short strings. Now check the clearance at the open spaces between felts and try to align the chord bar holder such that all of the strings to be allowed to vibrate will clear properly and all of the strings to be damped will damp properly. What you do not want is to have a string resting on a corner of a felt, such that it will neither be properly damped nor allowed to sound clearly.

   Once the holder is placed where you want it, use a sharp pointed tool to mark the screw centers.

   Note that the holder on the slot side should be placed as near to the edge of the instrument as possible, near the outer edge of the bars (possibly contrary to first impression), to insure that the screw holes will fall completely within the wood underneath the top.

2. Predrill the holes, using a 5/64" drill bit.

   NOTE: Double check the drill size first, in case there is any difference in size (over time or batch of screws) from the screws measured at the time these instructions were written. The drill size should be large enough to accomodate the body of the screw, but smaller than the threads.

3. Screw down the chord bar holders, taking care to include the angular metal mounting brackets which will hold the cover. These slip under the recesses in the bottom of the plastic chord bar holder and the screw passes through both.
4. Place the springs and chord bars over the chord bar holders.

   The standard order of the chord bars is:
   Eb,         F7,         Ab,         Bb,         C7,         Bb7,         F,         G7,         Cm,         C,         D7,         Gm,         G,         A7,         Dm,         D,         E7,         Am,         A,         B7,          and     Em,
   where the Em is at the end nearest to the fixed end of the strings, and Eb is nearest the center of the strings.

   The standard order of the chord bars on a 15-bar autoharp is:
   Eb,         D,         F7,         Gm,         Bb,         A7,         C7,         Dm,         F,         E7,         G7,         Am,         C,         D7,      and     G.
   

5. Before placing the buttons in the chord bars, it is adviseable to clip the ends of the narrow tab portion which fits into the chord bar to a 45° angle at each end, such that it will be impossible for the button portion of the neighboring key to catch on it. This will cure a common sticking-key problem before it gets a chance to occur. Then place each button in its corresponding bar, arranged in three rows so as to fit through the holes in the cover plate.
6. Gently fit the cover plate over the buttons. The buttons can be moved around with the eraser end of a pencil or other tool in order to get them located where they need to be for the cover to fit properly. Then screw the cover plate to its angled mounting brackets.

At this point you should be ready to play. Test the sound resulting from each chord bar in turn to check for any problems.

Conversion Kit Caveats

There are some problems that you may run into as a result of the compromises that arise in our modern economy. Unfortunately, complain as we may, erratic quality control is a fact of modern life and is the price we pay for getting instruments as affordably as we now do.

Aside from the string spacing issue covered earlier (see Section 2.5.2), we have noticed the following problems:

• Sometimes the spacing of the felts on bars is somewhat sloppy. Usually this is not bad enough to really cause problems, though one may have to trim a felt or two for proper clearance of a string. If necessary you may return the bar to us for exchange or, if you prefer, refelt it. (Please be aware that the color of the felts will likely be different)

• Occasionally bars will simply have incorrect felts. Again, you may return the bar to us for exchange or, if you prefer, refelt it. (Please be aware that the color of the felts will likely be different)

• A far more common problem is uneven felt heights, the symptom being that even though the bar has the correct felt spacing, when you press it and strum the strings, you can hear one or more (usually several in the same region of the instrument) incorrect strings vibrating along with those that belong to the chord.

  Note that if you have fine tuners on your autoharp and the fine tuners are not lined up evenly, they can cause the same symptoms. First slack off all of the fine tuners that may be low untill all of the fine tuners are lined up, then test for uneven felts. (If you have fine tuners on your autoharp, keep in mind that the fine tuners are for fine tuning only. They should always be slacked off and lined up before retuning the instrument and the instrument should be tuned using the regular tuning pins. Then use the fine tuners as needed until retuning becomes necessary again.)

  Note also that there is a related problem which is simply due to the nature of the instrument: Because of the general design of the autoharp there is no way to avoid some of the bars falling at node points of some of the strings. The symptom that results is that harmonic overtones of these strings will sound (rather than the natural note of the full length of the string) along with the desired notes of the chord if the bar is pressed lightly. The only solution to this problem is to be sure you press the bar firmly, and perhaps modify your pick attack on the strings so as to less easily cause the affected strings to vibrate in their harmonic modes in spite of the felts trying to damp them.

  It is also quite possible that both of these problems may occur in the same location. The unevenness of the felts in this case would only make the harmonic problem worse.

  Once you have determined that the problem is due to uneven felts and not to harmonic locations, the solution is to remove the bar and level the felts. To do this you need a long, flat piece of sandpaper. A belt sander works nicely for this if you happen to have one (it works best with the machine turned off and doing the sanding manually). Otherwise you can either get sandpaper with a sticky back or otherwise glue or double-stick sandpaper to a flat surface. If you're going out and getting paper for this purpose, I would reccomend 80 grit, but you can use coarser or finer grit paper according to what you have available. Holding the bar over the sandpaper, simply sand the felts until all the surfaces are even.

• On 15-bar chord bar kits, the ends of the bars are not always exactly the same length or evenly cut at the ends. Firstly, make sure that you use enough of the bars when establishing your chord bar holder locations that the spacing will be adequate (It's a pain discovering that you set your spacing using the two shortest bars in the set!). Then if necessary you can use a file to correct irregular bar ends. You want to make them both square and smooth.

  It should be noted that when the 15-chord bars are made properly, the felts overhang the ends of the bar very slightly, providing a buffer against the bar hanging on the wall of the slot. Unfortunately they are rather inconsistent in this respect lately, but when inspecting and modifying the bar ends, be aware that a slight overhang of the felt is the preferred configuration.

• Also on 15-bar models, the springs now come glued to the chord bar holder with contact cement, which greatly simplifies assembly. But occasionally an excess of the glue will be in the way of the springs, not allowing them to be depressed adequately. One can use naphtha to clean the excess glue. The easiest way is to put a little naphtha in a spray bottle and spray it over the interior side of the chord bar holder, then use cotton swabs or the rolled up end of a piece of paper towel to clean each channel down as far as possible till the spring can be completely depressed.

Finally, a problem that is not related to manufacture that you may run into on older autoharps:

The string tension keeps the body of an autoharp constantly under great stress. Over time this will result in distortion of the body shape. As long as the plane of the strings remains flat and all the joints are solid, the autoharp can still be used, but it may be necessary to make shims to fit under the chord bar holders on one or both sides in order to maintain the spacing between the raised chord bars and the strings. Most frequently the bass side, being longer, will need a shim and the treble side will not. Sometimes the shim will have to be tapered, needing to be thicker on the end near the center of the instrument. The need for shims will depend on the current state of the instrument on which the bars are being installed, so we cannot give any more detailed instruction than to use judgement based on what you see when installing the bars.

If you have any problems that you are unable to solve (hopefully you will not), feel free to contact us.

Arnold M.J. Hennig
Elderly Instruments Repair Dept.
April, 2003