Standard Top

Cherry Top

The Signature Super Star is made from the finest select woods, as are the Commemorative 'harps, and is my most customized instrument available. It can be ordered with a select curly walnut or fine cherry back and sides, or top and sides, and with a premium Sitka spruce soundboard either on the top or back of the instrument. Each hardwood has its own tone quality. The placement of the soundboard also makes its own quality of tone. The Super Star incorporates the advanced frame and bracing design found in the Commemorative 'harps. This instrument, like the Commemorative 'harps, has a very balanced, full sound with a very strong bass and clean, clear melody range.

In the summer of 1991, I asked George to make me a chromatic autoharp with a walnut top and spruce back. We went up to the top of George's barn where he stores his wood and found a beautiful piece of quarter-sawn walnut. I specified a 21-bar arrangement that gave me the naturals from Eb to D, sevenths from F7 to E7, minors from Cm to Bm, and the three diminished 7th chords. Also, I had George incorporate the fittings for his patented Orthey Bars. This would allow me to play the instrument chromatically or diatonically. In addition, the use of a key of A Orthey Bar would give me that key by changing the A7 to an A natural. The instrument already had the D and E7 chords necessary for this key. If I were to own just one autoharp, I felt this would be the most versatile. And so it proved to be.

In September, about two weeks before the International Autoharp Championship in Winfield, Kansas, I went to George's to pick up my new 'harp. He brought it out and handed it to me. It was as beautiful as I had expected. Anticipating a breaking-in period, I told George before I played it that I would not be playing this new instrument in the upcoming contest and not to think I didn't like it. He understood. However, after the first strum, I couldn't believe the sound. It was pure, clear, and sounded as though it had been played for years. I immediately changed my mind and started practicing my four contest tunes on the new 'harp.

When George made my 'harp, he also made another 'harp from the same piece of walnut. (There was only enough wood to make the two 'harps.) That 'harp went to Winfield as one of the prizes for the International Championship. As luck would have it, this was to be the year I would win the contest. So, in addition to the beautiful walnut-topped chromatic, I became the proud new owner of its sister, a G-D-A diatonic model with the impressive mother-of-pearl Walnut Valley logo inlaid into the walnut top. These two 'harps remain my favorites to this day.

Ivan Stiles

Ivan's Favorite is now available in the same quality walnut and spruce as the originals, and bears a distinctive logo brand designed by Ivan.

Several years ago, while visiting Patsy Stoneman at her home near Manchester, Tennessee, I noticed a large wild cherry tree in her back yard. Strange this is southern Tennessee, not West Virginia or Pennsylvania mountain country where I would expect to find such a large tree of this kind. Thinking about that tree so far south with a long growing season, surely it would have a more open grain, wider annual rings, and be less dense and lighter in weight.

Jokingly, I said to Patsy, "If your cherry tree ever falls down, I would like to have the base log to see how it would do for 'harps." We all laughed. That tree was surely 100 years old and had weathered many storms.

About a week later, Patsy called. "I don't know how you did it, but that cherry tree blew down last night. Your log is here waiting," she said.

So off to Tennessee I went to get that, hopefully, perfect no ant holes, squirrel hole or gumspot blemished 26" diameter log. All the way home to Pennsylvania, truckers on my CB would holler, "Hey, 'Pops,' whatcha gonna do with that big old log?" I responded, "Well, I'm gonna make autoharps out of it." Truckers, "Really?"

Watching the planks coming off the saw at the mill continued to show and thrill me with as near perfect cherry wood as I had ever seen. The wood was indeed lighter in weight, a bit softer, and had wider annual rings (grain) than our northern wild cherry.

With Gregg Averett breathing down my neck wanting the first experimental 'harp of that tree, I took one board and set it on two bricks atop my shop stove and cooked it. It got so hot I couldn't touch it and was dry in three days. CAUTION: DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

Within two weeks, that first Patsy Stoneman cherry tree 'harp was finished. It surely met and exceeded the wishful expectations that I had when I first saw that tree.

Patsy, being a patient person, sat through the first year and a half of new cherry 'harps from her tree. Finally, she called me and said, "GEORGE, where's my cherry 'harp?" It was delivered to her in April of 2000 and it is Patsy's Favorite.

PS. Thank you Pop Stoneman and thank you Patsy Stoneman Murphy for your efforts in continuing the legacy of old time autoharp.

Made only from cherry trees from Patsy's own back yard. When those trees are gone, there will be no more. Back and sides of quarter-sawn cherry. Solid Sitka spruce top. This is a specific model of the SUper Star hapr and is identified by the distinctive brand on the back. My lifetime craftsmanship guarantee.

Several years ago, Joe Carter, son of A.P. and Sara Carter, told me he had heard the greatest sounding fiddle in the world. It was made of mulberry. He asked me if I could make a mulberry 'harp, and I told him "Sure, if I had a mulberry tree of greater than 24" diameter to produce good quality instrument wood." In the spring of 1993, Joe cut down a huge mulberry tree he found in a field near the Carter Fold in Hiltons, Virginia. He was something to behold arriving at my shop in Newport, Pennsylvania with a 3000 pound mulberry log in the back of his pickup truck.

After clearing the log of any metal, having it sawn and kiln dried, production of the first mulberry instrument was undertaken. The question haunted me that if mulberry fiddles are so great, how come nobody makes them? The first three instruments were made and the results were less than fantastic. Mulberry is very hard, and not like any wood I had used before. After thinking about it and making some design changes, another prototype autoharp was made for Joe's cousin, Helen. Now we had a quantum leap to the best sounding instrument I had ever produced. Having made two more prototypes that both proved to be equally excellent, I had to admit that Joe Carter did indeed know something that nobody else knew.

Joe and I discussed and agreed upon a Carter Gold 'Harp. These mulberry 'harps come with a choice of premium Sitka spruce or redwood sound boards. Joe designed the logo above.

To be discontinued when Joe Carter's wood is gone.

At the age of ten, Ernest Van Stoneman first laid eyes on his grandmother's autoharp. Nineteen years later, in September, 1924, he wrote and recorded The Titanic, one of the earliest million-selling recordings ever made. It was the first 'harp recording ever produced. Pop made many recordings with his solo 'harp, the last being in 1968. Pop was the patriarch of the famous Stoneman Family.

At the '94 Mountain Laurel Autoharp Gathering, I suggested to Pop's daughter, Patsy Stoneman Murphy, a star in her own right, that I would like to build a commemorative autoharp in her father's name. She agreed. I cut a large Chinese chestnut tree at the Gathering site. Early in 1995, we went to visit Patsy to make final plans for the Stoneman 'Harp. Patsy and Murph allowed me to take a Chestnut tree from their estate. I still wanted a "piece of Pop's life" in the 'harp; something that knew his hand and heard his music. The Murphys went with us to Galax, Virginia to the Stoneman homestead. The current residents had recently removed an oak shed which had been built by Pop. We procured a section of that shed to complete the 'harp. I was then ready to make the Stoneman commemorative 'harp using chestnut from our woods for the back, chestnut from Patsy's estate for the sides, and a piece of oak from Pop's homestead for the arm rest. These woods complement each other aesthetically, and the sound of this 'harp is rich, full, and very well balanced, with a bit of old-time rolling deep within its soul.

AUTOHARP (DULCI-HARP) PRICE LIST DR. GEORGE ORTHEY, MASTER LUTHIER - SINCE 1964
DESCRIPTION	PRICE
DULCI-HARPS & PARTS
Superstar 'Harp Body	1350.
Ivan's Favorite 'Harp Body	1350.
Patsy's Favorite 'Harp Body	1350.
Carter Gold 'Harp Body	1350.
"Pop" Stoneman Commemorative Body	1250.
Walnut Bar Set (Includes Bar Holder) Per Bar:	12.
2- or 3-Key Diatonic Harp Bars with Lock Bars	250.
ACCESSORIES - PRICED WITH INSTRUMENT
Soft Case by Blue Heron	125.
Hardshell Case	145.
Built-In Magnetic Pick Up	100.
Orthey Precision Aluminum Fine Tuners	180.
Quick-Open Chord Bar Holder	125.
Orthey Bars (minimum order, 3 bars) Per Bar	25.
MISCELANEOUS PARTS
Felt (per foot - minimum, 10 ft)	$2.00
Springs	.10 ea
Tuning Pins	.35 ea
AUTOHARP UPGRADES
Restringing (strings not included)	70.
String Sets (customized)	60
Walnut wood bar set (includes bar holder) 8 - 21 bar: per bar	25.
Installation (bar set)	40.
Pennsylvania Residents add 6% Sales Tax Custom Harps Priced By Agreement
SHIPPING:
Dulci-harp Shipped fully insured by registered mail	45.
$5.00 minimum shipping on small orders - amount depends on the size and quantity of the order. Call or write for details.
International shipping	Call for info
Make checks payable to George Orthey (not Orthey Instruments) and send to: Orthey Instruments · 18 Burd Road · Newport PA 17074
Chord bars are selected and placed on each instrument according to the owner's specifications
Pennsylvania Residents add 6% Sales Tax

Orthey Instruments · 18 Burd Road · Newport PA 17074 717 567-6406 · 717 567-9469

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