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Topic: Is This a Lap Instrument? |
Tony Lombardo
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 2:50 am |
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This instrument is hanging in a local music store. It is missing some essential parts that would have allowed me to answer this question myself. Pardon my ignorance, but I cannot figure out if this thing was meant to be played lap style or like a standard guitar.
Thanks in Advance
Tony L. |
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Noah Miller
From:
Rocky Hill, CT
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 2:55 am
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| It's a harp guitar, meant to be played Spanish (standard) style. Some players regard the extra strings as sympathetic drones, while others pluck them for added bass. |
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Jeff Mead
From:
London, England
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 5:30 am
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Can't see anything obviously missing.
What else were you expecting to see? |
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Bill Sinclair
From:
Waynesboro, PA, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 5:31 am
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| I'm guessing that this was a budding Luthier's experiment with an existing guitar. The botched fingerboard and custom bridge don't appear to have been done by the same person that did the body. Michael Hedges popularized the Gibson Harp guitar in the 80's and there probably weren't enough of the vintage ones to go around at the time. In addition to plucking the bass strings, he used them for "hammer-on" bass lines. |
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Tony Lombardo
From:
Alabama, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 7:04 am
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| Jeff Mead wrote: |
Can't see anything obviously missing.
What else were you expecting to see? |
Well, like I said, I don't know anything about this stuff, but I figured if it had a high nut It would probably be a lap instrument, but the nut doesn't look original, so I don't know. That was my (probably wrongheaded) thinking anyway. |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 8:05 am Many similar beasts here
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www.harpguitars.net
_________________
"Gopher, Everett?" |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 10:14 am
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| It's not an experiment it's a very normal harp guitar. Thousands of them were made, but they've gone out of popularity. I saw a lot of them in Germany and Switzerland where they seemed to be popular to accompany the piano accordion. |
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Ulrich Sinn
From:
California, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 10:34 am
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where I'm from that's called a "Kontragitarre" and it really just extends the bass with open strings. plucked like a normal guitar.
_________________
Redline Resophonic
MSA Superslide 12-string Reece Anderson tuning, dropped down to B
MSA “The Universal†in Reece Andersons Bb universal tuning, raised to B
TomKat Amp
how I earn a living |
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Ulrich Sinn
From:
California, USA
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 9 Aug 2014 10:55 am
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Notice that both of the videos above are from Austria and Germany. As I said, that's where they have always been the most popular, in the Alpine regions. 
The instrument has taken the place once occupied by the theorbo and chitaronne.
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