BERMUDA TRIANGLE: AutoharpFaqs

In the early 60's there was Nothing to amplify the autoharp.The best I could come up with was a contact mic (Radio Shack ??) It sounded awful but it did work, and eventually magnetic pickups for autoharp came out and I got two. I ran 2 channels either or both just amplified or one or both to effects. Had two Gibson Maestro G2 effects units. the same that reputedly Hendrix used on several recordings. They were great for harp, with triggered wah and fuzz, tone, percussion etc. Most guitarists that I knew at the time thought the Maestro was garbage, but Hendrix's use of one has made them collectors items.

Then I fell in love. A rack mounted Eventide Clockworks phase shifter- what a beautiful sound- a bit noisy but who cared. In todays money it ran about 4K. After that came a Lexicon Prime-Time digital delay. That item cost the equivalent of 2 years rent on our NY apartment. Then i got really squirrelly and attached 5/ 25 cent transducers that were surplus from a pinball machine. Mounted those on the harp and ran them into a Linndrum sound module- allowing me more percussion / drum simultaneous rhythm effects and upsetting any traditionalists that crossed my path.

ps. I did get a degree from Wentworth Institute of Technology, at the top of my class, and won, on merit, two scholarships.

I also worked for Cannon Guild,a premier harpsichord maker in Cambridge Mass. on the design and developement of the first electromechanical harpsichord. The prototype etc. was then sold to Baldwin Piano Co. and marketed as the 'Baldwin Combo Harpsichord'. What a suprise when going into Bell Sound Studios in NYC several years later to record the EUPHORIA album, sitting right there in the middle of the main recording room was one of 'MY' harpsichords. I've since learned that the Baldwin has been used by Paul McCartney and the Beach Boys, among others.