Kat- I would agree with Spaw et al that it's worth hanging on to, at least for a while. I was introduced to the autoharp because my wife wanted to learn an instrument, and I figured the harp would be easy for her to learn at least easy songs. She tried for a bit, but lost interest in the harp and our marriage at about the same time. We divorced, and I kept the harp. I didn't even touch it for years, until I started hearing Bryan Bowers music. I was fascinated by the problem of playing melody lines on a chorded instrument, and I eventually got it, (to a modest degree). Now, I'll never get rid of it unless to trade up. And I don't even play it very often, but when I do, I really enjoy it, if it's in tune. I have to use a tuner.

I also use the left arm cradle position, and it's quite comfortable to me. 'Course, I'm a skinny little guy with not much boobs to speak of, so I can't advise you on your challenges.

You can also take the chord mechanism apart quite easily and rearrange the chord bars to a configuration that suits you. I don't even know what the standard chord arrangement is, but my autoharp makes sense to me.

Good Luck and have some fun. If after a fair trial it ain't no fun, then ditch it. But I would seriously recommend listening to some good autoharp music first, and trying to figure it out. You just may get hooked! Thanks, BlueJay