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Started March 2008
A musician caught the harp guitar bug while attending the 5th annual Harp Guitar Gathering (HGG5) in Oct 2007 and contacted me about building a custom harp guitar.
I had built another harp
guitar similar to the one in the sketch that we used as a starting
point for the new design. Over several weeks the design evolved
thru several iterations. We mailed sketches back and forth. Here
are some of the concepts we considered:
We decided to use Englemann spruce for the top which is not available in pieces large enough for a harp guitar so I planned to use a 2 piece bookmatched set for the top and a third piece for the bass arm.
The seam of the bass arm
was incorporated into the design to create a lute shaped body.
We planned to use 12 super treble strings so the lowest super treble string had to be as long as possible. Locating the super treble bridge lower on the body kept the string length as long as possible.
To tune the super treble
strings, viola fine tuners would be used so that the 12 tuners
would fit close enough together.
This sketch is fairly close
to what we ended up with for the final design. There are 7 sub
bass strings, 6 melody strings and 12 super treble strings for
a total of 25 strings.
Since I had never used this arrangement of viola fine tuners for super treble strings, I built a mock up of the super treble section to see if the concept would work.
It did work! And it also helped me to visulaize the stresses on this part of the instrument so I could brace it approprately.
Now it was time to start
building...
I started the conconstruction
by cutting a frame out of baltic birch plywood. With this method
there is no assembly form required. The plywood rim becomes part
of the guitar and makes a rigid foundation for attaching all of
the tuning machines.
The walnut sides were bent
over a hot pipe then glued to the rim to crate a rigid structure.
The three piece englemann
spruce top was glued to the rim.
The walnut back is ladder
braced with spuce braces similar to a 6 string guitar.
A view from the inside showing
the bracing on the top. I have used a double X bracing.
A custom made K&K pickup
is wired to a stereo jack.
The completed body prior
to final sanding.
Once the lacquer has been
applied, the bridge is glued on and it's time to start stringing
it up- a long process for a harp guitar!
CHere is the completed guitar
ready for action.
The 2 pegheads with rosewood
veneers. The basses are wound nylon strings and the melody strings
are phosphor bronze.
The basses use Peghed geared
tuners which are light weight and hold the tuning well.
The super treble strings
are steel and start at G (1st string 3rd fret) and are tuned diatonically.
A capo for the super trebles
was requested by the customer. It's basically a heavy steel bar
that clamps on to the strings to raise the pitch by a step.
Some modifications were
needed once the the harp guitar was built. A piece of ebony was
added under the screws to keep them from digging in to the soft
spruce top. The hook or point was also added to help keep the
guitar from sliding off the players leg. It makes a big difference
and is much easier to hold.
This shows the button head
screws that anchor the strings. Basically the screws act like
zither pins to pre-tension the strings but keep the cutaway area
open so there is nothing in the way of your hand.
The viola fine tuners pull
the strings up to the final tension. The strings are color coded
to help the player find the right string.
For more information on this harp guitar please follow this link.
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