How would you ever play this instrument?

[bigbike]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Extremely-old-Double-neck-harp-guitar-o-mandolin-Flamed_W0QQitemZ350259991778QQcmdZViewItemQQptZGui tar_Accessories?hash=item518d1f54e2

Found this while parusing ebay earlier tonight. the left side neck appears to be not too wide, yet there is room for 6 strings? Of course there are 5 currently on the instrument, and no frets. SO I am thinking maybe someone tried to string it like a fretless 5 string banjo. The right side neck definately reminds me of a guitar. Has anyone ever seen anything like this and if so how is it played?

[MikeEdgerton]

It's just missing a string. It looks like a European harp guitar.

[goaty76]

The additional harp strings are used as drone strings. They are usually struck then played over on the regular guitar side.

Phil

[allenhopkins]

It's a harp guitar, with a lute-shaped body; not surprised it's German, since lute-shaped guitars seem to have been made fairly profusely in the early and mid-20th century in Germany. Looking for a "lute guitar" to use at Ren Faires (an idea I've since discarded), I found 99% of the eBay listings were from Germany.

The bass strings on the unfretted neck are struck and left to ring while chords and melody are played on the fretted neck, in the standard style of playing. There are variants: the late Michael Hedges used to play melody on the open bass strings, while maintaining an ostinato figure on the fretted neck using pull-offs and hammer-ons. If you get interested in harp guitars, there is a wonderful harp guitar website. (http://www.harpguitars.net/) Gibson made the giant "U" series harp guitars in the 1920's, and Dyer made some of the best-known and most respected harp guitars (and harp mandolins as well) around the same time period.

[bigbike]

Thanks for the info on the harp guitar. Never heard of it before. I guess there are all sorts of strange instruments out there. I have always wondered how one plays those 5 string harp instruments, again usually german made. I know they must be some sort of harp, but just what I am not sure. I thought THEY were harp guitars:) of some sort. Shows what I know:redface:

[MikeEdgerton]

There were/are plenty of them built in the US as well. Gibson made them as well as many other builders.

[bassthumper]

I just happened to have Stacy hobbs "christmas Music on a Harp Guitar" playing when i clicked on this stream...Stacy is an amazing,talented fingerstyle guitarist. (mando content, the first Wayne Henderson mandolin i ever saw stacy was playing )

Muriel Anderson is also an exquisite harp guitar player. i would recommend checking either of these two out on you-tube for a sample of what beautiful psaltries Harp Guitars are.

[catmandu2]

I always enjoyed Pat Metheny's Linda Manzer harp guitar:

[DeamhanFola]

Doesn't Robbie Robertson from The Band play a harp guitar in the closing moments of their concert film The Last Waltz?

[bigbike]

There were/are plenty of them built in the US as well. Gibson made them as well as many other builders.


So what happened, was it the line was dropped because they don't sell by the thousands and are a specialty item?

[allenhopkins]

So what happened, was it the line was dropped because they don't sell by the thousands and are a specialty item?

Well, the harp guitar never caught on in the mass market. Perhaps it was too large and expensive; perhaps the playing technique was too intricate, or the combination of guitar and bass was more suited to two separate instruments played by two separate musicians. Gibson's U series harp-guitars are marvelous appearing instruments, large carved-top, oval-hole bodies with gracefully-arched harps to hold the additional bass strings. But playing an instrument of that size and complexity is, honestly, not for everyone. The extra sound that one could derive from a harp guitar, turned out not to be worth the extra money, size, and technique requirements. At least that was the market's determination.

At one point Gibson stated that the harp guitar was going to totally replace the standard guitar, as the next stage in the instrument's evolution. Didn't happen, obviously.

[T.J.]

With the lute back, and with the second pegbox at the top of the second neck, it looks like it was meant as a theorbo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theorbo

From the looks of the instrument from eBay, bad string choices were made over a long period of time....

[allenhopkins]

With the lute back, and with the second pegbox at the top of the second neck, it looks like it was meant as a theorbo.

I'd agree, except that the fretted neck is definitely a guitar neck. The pictured theorbos have 8-, 10-, or 12-string lute necks. It may be a guitar/theorbo hybrid, similar to the lute-bodied but guitar-strung instruments that were made in Germany before WWII, and that still crop up frequently on eBay.

[OKMike]

I ran into a guy at Winfield that was building them, so it is possible to buy a new one.

Mike