Home

 

About

 

Book Info

 

New Era Guitars

 

Magazine Articles

 

Annual Harp Guitar Gathering

 

Vintage Larson Instruments for Sale

 

A Dyer Discovery

 

Links

 

 

 

 

 

 

History of the Harp Guitar, A Synopsis

By Robert C. Hartman, 2003

This is meant to be a drop-in-the-bucket history addressing the origin of the harp guitar and the hollow neck concept, as the complete deal would be a small volume.

I have read recently of the invention of the harp guitar by Orville Gibson  and the hint of Chris Knutsen as the inventor of the one arm hollow neck guitar. My research seems to disprove both statements.

According to Duncan Robertson's article in "Frets Magizine", Nov. 1979, I quote:

"The origin of the harp guitar dates back to the end of the 18th century, when the luthiers of Europe were looking for a replacement for the standard guitar.

The first true harp guitar was produced in Paris around 1773 by a harp maker named Naderman. It had six standard fretted strings and six open bass strings. Each bass string had a thumb lever, located on the back of the peghead, which raised the pitch a semitone. Naderman called his instrument a 'Bisex' meaning double-six. Instruments of this sort were then termed bass guitars."

Not only was Gibson not the innovator or inventor of the harp guitar in or about the year 1902 there were a number of other American makers in that time slot as well as those in Europe some of whom pre-dated Gibson. These included Bohmann, Lyon & Healy and the Larsons of Chicago, and Regal Mfg. Co. of Indianapolis just to name a few from the Midwest alone.

Another concept of thinking is that Chris Knutsen invented the hollow one-arm harp design used in his harp guitars and harp mandolins. One ad of the Knutsen products dated, Dec. 21, 1897 emphatically states, "C. Knutsen. The Inventor, Sole Patentee and manufacturer of the 'One Arm Guitar.'" One could probably credit him with the term "One Arm Guitar" but the hollow neck idea dates back to Europe by at least 50 years.

This information I quote from the "American Lutherie" magazine, Spring 1992 by Jonathan Peterson.

"Fredrich Schenck, who was another of Johan Georg Stauffer's students. Schenck worked in Vienna between 1839 and 1850 and built a variety of instruments including harps, harp guitars, lyre guitars, and wappen bass guitars.

Schenck's are the earliest hollow-armed harp guitars that I have been able to find, predating Knutsen's patent by at least 50 years. In the context of the development of this design, it is interesting to me that Schenck was also a builder of lyre guitars. Lyre guitars were being built in the late 1700s. They were certainly pleasing to the eye, and enjoyed a degree of popularity, but were clumsy to play and generally did not sound as good as guitars. In 1806 Simon Moliter, a Viennese composer and guitarist said, 'Its tone-though stronger than that of the guitar, on account of the larger body-is nevertheless dull and as though held back within the instrument' If a builder were trying to develop an instrument which combined the best qualities of the guitar and the lyre guitar, a hollow armed harp guitar would be a logical result.

Schenck's work influenced Luigi Mozzani, who was a musician as well as a luthier with a real flair for design. He went on to produce a wide range of fantastic instruments that included guitars, lyre guitars with sub-bass strings, and hollow-armed harp guitars."

I have found other accounts that date the harp guitar back to the mid 1600s. In 1659, Giovanni Granata published music for harp guitar with 7 extra bass strings. In the late 1700s Gerard J. Deleplanque built a 10 string harp guitar. Another student of Stauffer, named J. G. Scherzer built a 10 string harp guitar in 1856.

Most of the harp guitars built by 1900 were made for gut strings. The harp guitars of the Larson brothers and possibly those sold by Regal Mfg. Co., an Indianapolis based firm, 1901-1904, were possibly the only ones built for steel strings. I have no way to confirm this but I suspect the Larson's built at least some of the Regals from that period. (Guitars and harp guitars.) (Not to be confused with the later Regal Co. in Chicago) I have also seen Bohmann harp guitars built at the turn-of-the-century having steel strings but can't say if they were originally built for steel strings.

I have written a more comprehensive account for my next and final book about the Larson Brothers of Maurer & Co., Chicago, 1900-1944. It will include harp guitars and harp mandolins under the Maurer, Dyer and Stahl brands. Also about the Knutsen connection to the Larsons and the Knutsen style instruments they were commissioned to build for W. J. Dyer &bro.. Hope it to be in print in 2004.

by, Robert Carl Hartman, author of "The Larsons' Creations-Guitars and Mandolins". Published 1996 by Centerstream Publishing

Includes a CD by the talented Muriel Anderson playing 11 different Larson instruments including all sizes of flat-top Larson guitars, a f-hole Prairie State, mandolin and harp mandolin, octave mandolin and Dyer harp guitar.