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Vintage Larson
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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 The
first true harp guitar was produced in 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 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 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 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 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. |