Thread: Harp Guitars
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Old 11-16-2016, 01:30 PM
Alan Carruth Alan Carruth is offline
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ewalling wrote:
"All he seems to be doing is plucking a fairly inaudible bass string occasionally."

The problem with the harp guitar is a basic issue of acoustics: the instrument is too small to produce much sound at the fundamental frequency of the lowest strings. After all, the lowest sub-bass on a lot of harp guitars is down around the lowest note on a bass viol. There's a reason those things are so big...

Instruments with sub-bass strings have been used for a long time, and players tend to love them. I have a friend who plays a lute that is six feet long: back in the days before wound strings that was the only way to get a low note. It has the same problems as all acoustic instruments with sub-basses: you can't hear the low notes more than a couple of feet away. I suspect that's why all such things have been tried and found wanting in the past.

These days harp guitar players use pickups and amplifiers to get those low notes to work for the audience. I suspect that has something to do with the current revival; at last the folks out in front can hear what the players have been enjoying all along.
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