Upon one of my many eBay treggs I came across this, an amazing example of a Parlor Grand by Zimmerman.Only a few still exist, mainly owing to the extremely high price tag of $170 in 1890's.
eBay c1895-PARLOR-GRAND-AUTOHARP-ZIMMERMAN
this example is darker than the one I have pictured, but still something to be cherished.
(Image taken from fretlesszithers.com)
These are very rare indeed. I have one that needs to be restored but haven't had the time or the money to begin the project. By my own research, the mahogany ones are more rare than the maple ones. I think mine is mahogany, but it is so hard to find good quality info on these. And finding strings will be an even bigger challenge.
ReplyDeleteHi Kurt, I am finding the same with my planned restoration, both time, money, and also effort on my part of have failing me. Shall be worth it to get it done some day.
ReplyDeleteAs for Strings have a look at http://elderly.com/search/elderly?terms=autoharp+strings&x=0&y=0
I am not too sure of the top of my head what type of strings the pallor grand needs, but elderly has been a great help for me to find all things autoharp, they do both A-model and B-model sets, and possibly the only place I have come across who sell individual strings too.
If you have no luck I have contact details of a small manufacturer of hand made strings in Germany, I believe they'll try and make anything you'll need, however - probably a bit pricey
Hope this may be of help
Michael from Autoharpblog
Hi!
ReplyDeleteYears ago I purchased a Zimmerman Parlor Grand on Ebay, (with no strings); and thought I'd never find strings for this rare, next to the top-of-the-line autoharp, but I did. I had them custom-made by Tom Fladmark. You can easily find him on line. (Tom didn't believe I gave him the correct measurements, because he said he's never come across such a large autoharp!!) But he made them, and they fit perfectly. Hope this helps!
Werner