The Acoustic Guitar Forum

Go Back   The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Harp Guitar

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #16  
Old 05-12-2014, 07:34 PM
zombywoof zombywoof is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 9,356
Default

I have not had one for a very long time. Many years ago I owned a Gibson Harp Guitar. Bought it from a store that had it hanging on the wall as a decoration.
__________________
"You start off playing guitars to get girls & end up talking with middle-aged men about your fingernails" - Ed Gerhard
Reply With Quote
  #17  
Old 10-11-2016, 08:02 AM
Emerald Guitars Emerald Guitars is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Donegal, Ireland
Posts: 222
Default

Hi everyone,

Great to see a section of AGF dedicated to harp guitars. As some of the guys kindly informed you, we certainly do have harp guitars which are part of our standard range - the travel-sized Synergy x7, the full size Synergy X20 and then we also have the Synergy Uke which is such a fun instrument. We also offer lots of customisation options from super trebles to extra sub bass strings. There's plenty of information on our website, but may we suggest you check out our friend Tony Barnard demonstrating three different models of our harp guitars on YouTube. We hope you enjoy and please feel free to ask any questions!

Best Wishes

Sean

Synergy X7 (Standard) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KhxmQ3OdlE
Synergy X7 Super Treble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf0ChrBPhGo
Synergy X20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYPdDESXBxQ
Reply With Quote
  #18  
Old 10-12-2016, 02:39 PM
LARPUP48 LARPUP48 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Southern California
Posts: 14
Default Harp Guitar

Bout 7 mos ago I purchased a Tone Devil from Gregg Miner. Couldn't be happier. The HG tone is absolutely beautiful and playability is a 10. As someone else mentioned, these are not entry level instruments. Without reservation, highly recommend. Enjoying the heck out of it.
__________________
Lar
Reply With Quote
  #19  
Old 11-02-2016, 10:35 AM
cotten's Avatar
cotten cotten is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Middle Georgia
Posts: 27,040
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by trek1500 View Post
...I know Muriel Anderson is an accomplished player and I like watching her videos on You Tube.
I ran across this video of Muriel playing what to me is a most interesting harp guitar. It's her Mike Doolin nylon string, overhead bin, 20 string guitar with "dragon whisperer" half-step tuners on the 7 bass strings, designed to be tuned a full step higher... Mike's harp guitars are wonderful! If I were ordering one, this may well be the way I would go! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUlc-rQSWKc

cotten
Reply With Quote
  #20  
Old 11-02-2016, 11:00 AM
jay7347 jay7347 is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: The foothills behind Loveland Colorado
Posts: 1,914
Default

Unfortunately for those interested in owning one of his guitars Mike Doolin has retried from building in order to concentrate more on his playing. I haven't heard him play but I can imagine its probably on the level of his wonderful luthiery skills.

-jay
__________________
'22 Gretsch Falcon 6136PE (Midnight Sapphire)
'16 Lowden F35c (Mountain Rosewood) (For Sale)
'07 Bashkin OM (Cedar/Mahogany)
'98 SRV Fender Stratocaster
Reply With Quote
  #21  
Old 11-02-2016, 12:55 PM
ewalling ewalling is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 20,772
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by mchalebk View Post
Emerald Guitars builds a carbon fiber harp guitar. I believe they start around $2000.

Check it out in this video featuring Martin Blanes (aka Paper Kitten on AGF).
Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly does the harp bit add to this playing? All he seems to be doing is plucking a fairly inaudible bass string occasionally.
Reply With Quote
  #22  
Old 11-02-2016, 07:43 PM
Bax Burgess Bax Burgess is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: SE PA
Posts: 2,482
Default

Can bass translate all that well in a video that's less than hi rez? I'm guessing that playing a harp is the most rewarding way to experience the vibe. Someday I intend to try different gauge bass strings with one of these, most specifically the Emerald Synergy X7 Super Treble - whose high trebles are the biggest temptation for me.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old 11-16-2016, 08:46 AM
Emerald Guitars Emerald Guitars is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Donegal, Ireland
Posts: 222
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by ewalling View Post
Excuse my ignorance, but what exactly does the harp bit add to this playing? All he seems to be doing is plucking a fairly inaudible bass string occasionally.
Hi ewalling,

Here are a few other videos by Tony Barnard demonstrating our harp guitars.

Synergy X7 (Standard) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KhxmQ3OdlE
Synergy X7 Super Treble https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf0ChrBPhGo
Synergy X20 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYPdDESXBxQ

Thanks

Sean
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old 11-16-2016, 01:30 PM
Alan Carruth Alan Carruth is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 4,180
Default

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.
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old 11-17-2016, 08:41 PM
Gregg Miner Gregg Miner is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Oct 2016
Posts: 21
Default

Respectfully disagreeing with Al (who is one of my heroes, I own his "Beast" after all!). In my experience of listening to hundreds? thousands? of instruments (archlutes, harp guitars, etc) played acoustically in concert (with or with mics), I have no problem hearing bass - all the bass that the instruments are meant to include in their range, unless it's a lousy instrument. Obviously some are better made than others. Whether my ear-to-brain is being fooled and I'm "filling in" the fundamental only from its higher harmonics, I couldn't say (tho Al can prove the physics - I'm just happy that it's one of natures miracles!).
I played an all-acoustic show with a half dozen antique harp guitars a few weeks back in a large room and people were blown away with the sound(s).
I would highly recommend that the skeptical or curious come to a Harp Guitar Gathering (I'm hosting next October in Carlsbad, CA) and hear many different variants being played properly and well (and, when not in concert, acoustically, in every nook and cranny throughout the weekend).

Last edited by Gregg Miner; 11-18-2016 at 10:31 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old 11-18-2016, 01:20 PM
Alan Carruth Alan Carruth is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 4,180
Default

Well, 'English Bass' is a well known phenomenon. When you're building a pipe organ and want a 32' C note, but the ceiling is only 24' high, it's the way you get that. You use a 16' pipe, and a 10-2/3 foot pipe, and an 8' one, and so on, to produce all the overtones of the 32' pipe. The ear and brain provide the fundamental, although it may not sound as 'full'.

I'll second the advice about going to a harp guitar gathering. I've only made it to two, but they were well worth it. Maybe by the next one I'll have another harp guitar to show. Then I'll have the same problem I did with 'the Beast': spending too much time playing and not enough building. Greg really did me a favor buying that one, although I do miss it. Anyway, there's plenty going on at the gatherings. I always end up once more proving that I'm no longer the party animal that I never used to be.....
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old 11-18-2016, 02:33 PM
cotten's Avatar
cotten cotten is offline
Guest
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Middle Georgia
Posts: 27,040
Default

This "resultant" stop in pipe organs is relatively common, and can be quite effective.
Quote:
(Two) stops use this acoustical effect to produce tones in the 32' and 64' octaves, using smaller (and thus less costly) pipes than would normally be necessary. One of these stops, labeled as 32' or 64' pitch, is comprised of two ranks which sound the 1st and 2nd harmonics of the desired pitch (that is, an octave and a twelfth above the desired pitch). For a 32' stop, the two ranks are 16' and 10-2/3'; for a 64' stop, the two ranks are 32' and 21-1/3'.
http://www.organstops.org/r/resultant.html (Be sure to listen to the sound clips at the end of the article.)

I'm not sure how this resultant, difference tone, or combination tone (various descriptions for the same acoustic phenomena) relates to harp guitars, but in pipe organs it is a handy way to produce very low pitches without having to have very long pipes.

cotten
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old 11-18-2016, 04:54 PM
Nort Nort is offline
Charter Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: So. Ca.
Posts: 749
Default

Greg Miner: "Harp Guitar Gathering Carlsbad October 2017"

Now on my "to do" list
Reply With Quote
Reply

  The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > Harp Guitar

Thread Tools





All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:28 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, The Acoustic Guitar Forum
vB Ad Management by =RedTyger=