Young Autoharp

This was custom built for me in the mid ‘80’s by DC area luthier Keith Young of the Mill Run Dulcimer Band. It has a curly maple back and sides and a spruce top and looks perfectly traditional. But there has never been another like it. It has 37 strings, removable chord bars, with a custom arrangement for easier fingering. It is what I call “semi-diatonic” and plays fully in C, G and D. Certain strings are doubled for more volume and carefully selected others aren’t. Some notes are missing, so it isn't’ fully chromatic. This was an experiment that turned out like I hoped. And any audience is defied to tell which are the missing or doubled strings! It emanates a sound that must be direct from the heavens.