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Old 07-25-2014, 05:25 PM
Wade Hampton Wade Hampton is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Chugiak, Alaska
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Bruce, pre-WWI Gibson archtop harp-guitars are actually fairly common in the United States: I've seen at least a dozen of them over the years, mostly hanging on the walls of music stores with "Do Not Touch" and "Not For Sale" signs on them.

They do come on the market now and then, though, and the prices are surprisingly reasonable most of the time. The reason for that is that the serious harp-guitar players (and there ARE such people,) tend to prefer the design of the flattop harp-guitars built by the Larson Brothers under various brand names such as Maurer and Dyer. Here's a modern reproduction of one:


Here's the late Michael Hedges with some:


and here he is with a Knutsen harp-guitar, which was the design that inspired the Larson Brothers:


Just for grins, here's a vintage photo showing a trio that featured the harp-guitar:


The website that features these photos can be found here:

http://www.harpguitars.net/iconography/icon-larson.htm

And just because it's such a cool photo, here's one more picture that shows a harp-guitar player with buddies who have matching mandolins:



Hope this helps.


Wade Hampton Miller
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