In March 2007 I bought a Lutz harp guitar top from Shane Neifer (one of the first he had cut and sold) and I’ve finally got round to making a “proper” harp guitar with it (apologies to Alan C - it's not a harp guitar in the "true" sense and I'm following your MIMF build with great interest). The first harp guitar I made used some of Shane’s “packaging grade Lutz” and I sold that one a year ago. This one has been a year in the making and I’m glad to have one back. I had been waiting for the right b/s wood to go with Shane’s magnificent top and early last year it arrived when I was given a wrecked old mahogany Edwardian Bureau. Most of it was veneer over pine but the sides and writing table were solid. The sides were Cuban mahogany but the writing table was very light (both weight and colour wise) and could be Honduras or Cuban. Joel Thompson kindly cut the wood into sets for me and the writing table set was perfect for my harp guitar:
My design is based on my Grand Concert model Samhain and is called “Samhain Fada Lámh “ (Samhain Long Arm). I liked the way multi-scale works for these instruments and had used it on my Taropatch Harp Ukulele – the bridge naturally gives the increasing length for the sub-bass strings and activates more of the middle area of the top. Also as it is meant for dropped tunings the fretted neck gives sweet trebles and string bass notes.
Main specs are:
Grand Concert sized with 630-660mm fretted scale lengths (24.8-26”)
Six sub-bass strings on a hollow arm with scale lengths 730-845mm (28¾ - 33¼”)
Lutz spruce top
Reclaimed mahogany b/s
Mahogany neck and hollow arm peghead
Claro walnut binding with bwb purflings
Old Brazilian Rosewood bridge, headstock and peghead veneers, end graft and heel cap
Old Brazilain Rosewood and rope purfling rosettes and side sound port
Indian Rosewood/mahogany laminated fingerboard bound with Claro walnut
Gotoh tuners with hand made wooden buttons (Old Brazilian Rosewood on the fretted neck and Indian Ebony on the hollow neck)
Hand rubbed pre-catalysed lacquer finish (over Z-poxy pore fill on b/s) and Tru-oil on the neck
Current tuning is FGABbCDADGAD and stringauges are 70,66,59,52,52,56,42,32,24,18,14. This gives just under 300lb string tension.
Some pictures:
The top rosettes:
And the side sound porthole:
Some features came out by Serendipity – the sub-bass strings are lower than the fretted ones were they are played. This actually suits my playing style very well and gives me a good view of both the sub-bass and fretted strings. If I need the sub-bass strings higher then I can fit some string posts on the peghead at a later date. Some features are by design: this is quite small by harp guitar standards and the hollow arm is narrower and not as deep – I am very much influenced here by the British maker Stephen Sedgwick. Mult-scale harp guitars aren’t that common but they do exist – French maker Cédric Verglas makes them for example.
Here’s the top bracing and the back/rimset:
I’m very pleased with the sound already (strings went on on Friday) and as the Lutz opens up it will mellow more. I recorded a piece of mine called “Winter Sun” this afternoon using my usual set up of a single AKG1000S mixed down with flat EQ and no added effects.
Thanks for looking and listening.
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But then there's a Baritone acoustic lap slide (perhaps with extra bass and treble strings), a "true" parlour harp guitar (12" or less lower bout and 24" or so scale length - although it may be multiscale and expand a little into the bass) and then maybe we can keep each other company making a Hurdy Gurdy - Debbie wants one 