Oh T, those were lovely. The last one in particular seems designed to be held as shown-- cutouts for player's legs...My Music Maker says it is called the Pierapiloshka (phon) Pierre-ah-pee-low-shkah which is the name of a Byelorussian bird like our nightingale if I recall right. when I play outside birds do coe to see what bird is singing in their territory, and they will answer it if I pluck a birdsong. At least they did with the original high-pitch stringing. These are cheaply made and I think their charm is the immediate access they provide to music and the affordability factor. Throw away the tacky little cards that come with this model that show where to pluck to make a song!!!!! And just play it.
As to tone-- the last time I got one, they had a quite a few in stock. I discovered then that the tone varies tremendously from one to the next. Some are bright, some richer, some just have ugly sharped overtones when the string rings. It matters which way you hold each one-- some make better sound out the front, some make better sound from the back as it resonates. That may be why people hold it different ways in the pictures. And I think you would put out more volume holding it strings out.
I play my autoharp tabletop style, but upside down and tilted at the same angle you'd use for a writing desk. (Strumming toward me.) That means most of the sound comes up to my face and over my head, and when I mike it instead of using the pickup, I hang the mike sort of in front of my forehead. But when I play all-acoustic, I have to be in front of something that will bounce the sound back out to the people or they get just the high tinkly tones and no volume. I bet in medieval times they were pretty smart about that and the players would position themselves carefully in relation to the right kind of stone wall. Our church is heavy stone with a thin skim of plaster inside, and this makes for good soundboarding both behind me, and, coming back to me from across the church when the sound gets that far. Natural monitor for the players, altho a bit time delayed!
The best sound I've gotten from the lap harp has come from good strings enhanced by good room acoustics, such as our wonderful soundbox of a church, so I am thinking a little miking may help, thru the bass amp I now use for autoharp. Not sure yet if miking or using pickup will be best.
I handed mine to a mandolin player once whose instinctive response was to cradle it in the bend of his elbow, strings out, and flatpick it. He thought it needed an accidental added but I find it fine diatonic and I can always retune a note if needed to make a mode work within its little range. I would like it to have about another half octave to make Carolan tunes fit.
Another trick I use with it when playing alone is to declare "Doh" to be movable. I have a band of paper with the scale lettes on it wrapped around it and going under the strings. The bottom string may actually be tuned to F but say I want to play a Carolan piece, out of the book, in D. I slide the band until that F is labeled D and then I can play anything, automatically transposed to F or whatever I am tuned to. Some of the notes will actually be the relatively sharped or flatted note of the letter name, but who cares, I just read the staff and ignore the accidentals of the key signature. That way I can at least learn just about any written melody and start working on how I want to sing it, until I can get to my autoharp and play the chords in the key written. So it makes music study quite portable and I take it places I would never take something as hard to tune as an autoharp or hammered dulcimer. I use a 2-octave child's electronic keyboard for the same tune-learning portability, especially when waiting in the car for teenagers I am chauffering.
I may get another one or two and tune them in different keys if I ever get excited about playing it with others.
BTW, I did try hammering the lap harp but the strings are too close together. It almost worked though, using chopsticks for hammers!