I see you dig Clemson.......wow nice instrument ......my cousin Olga had one of these

Here is a picture of an autoharp my uncle (of Pawprint Autoharps) made for me a few years back. Notice that the main tuners for each string are zither pins. But down below are fine tuners which are adjustable with a tiny allen wrench.

As Ken has explained, it can be hard to tune a string with great precision using those zither pins; the fine tuners allow more nuanced adjustment. And incidentally, this autoharp was a prototype. My uncle now covers up those fine tuners with a nice piece of wood. We all agreed that this version reminds us of a teenager's braces.

--
Dusty T., Northern California
Site Moderator

As a musician, you have to keep one foot back in the past and one foot forward into the future.
-- Dizzy Gillespie

thanks this is all new to me......learn something new here everyday

My Keith Young dulcimer has pegs and the beads for fine tuning. I was amazed at how well they work. Took it to Portage PA Dulcimer Day and was able to get in tune and then re-tune very quickly andaccurately with them. I think this will now be my "go to" dulcimer!

Fine tuners (there are several kinds including tuning beads) are often used on instruments that have wooden violin style tuning pegs, as well those with autoharp style steel tuning pins.

Many people have trouble hitting the desired note accurately with those kinds of primary tuners. Fine tuners let them get more accurate tuning. The idea was first developed with Violins/Violas etc back in the Renaissance. Fine tuner beads are on a portion of the string which is higher at one end that the other (usually between the bridge and the tailpiece), and as you push/pull the bead along it slackens or tightens the string in very tiny amounts.

I`ve seen them used with zither pin`s already, cranking the zither pin to a certain note but it still needs a slight adjustment to get it right on.

The micro adjustment can be done with the " tuning bead " .

since I'm the green leaf rookie here ....my question is what is the purpose?....does its keep em in tune better and how?......I see some with them and not.....seen a lot of older Dulcimers with just 3 made of wood ...saw one with black metal ones?

updated by @ravenmadd-garcia: 02/18/19 07:31:47AM