Hi Bev and Jerry,

It may well be that the problem lies in the strings themselves. The old black body autoharps had the highest pitched full length strings of the wrong type for correct tone or intonation. There are too few wound strings and the lower plain steel strings just don't sound right.

I've had the same problem you describe on several instruments and they were cured with a bass string change. You can get custom strings from Autoharp Works. Make sure that you get wound string replacements for the lowest 3-5 plain strings.

If the instrument is structurally sound, increasing all the bass guages about a thousandth of an inch will improve both tone and ease of tuning.

Love ya,
Ray