The Harp Guitar
Hello folks,
In my last post, I wrote about why I am so enamoured of the carbon fibre guitars from Emerald Guitars of Ireland. I mentioned that my first Emerald was a harp guitar and a couple of folks asked me to elaborate on what a harp guitar is, where they come from and what makes them, in my perspective, so special.
The image above is of my own Emerald Synergy Harp Guitar. The concept is straightforward. The lower neck, pictured on the right is tuned by default to the standard E guitar tuning that we know, E, A, D, G, B, E so we can play the chords, riffs and runs that we already know.
The upper neck, having no frets is what is sometimes called a drone neck. Each string is tuned to a single pitch, and that’s what it does. My harp neck has six strings tuned low to high as F, G, A, B, C, D where the D is one step below the open E on the six string neck.
When I play solely on the lower neck, the harp strings will resonate in frequency with the dominant notes being played. This creates a richer sound field and adds a subtle bass level to the overall guitar tone. I will also pluck harp strings in accordance with notes or chords on the lower neck to add a different flavour to the overall sound of the song.
History
Harp guitars first showed up in the late 18th century, particularly in Austria, France and Italy. The strings on the harp neck were referred to as sub bass or floating strings. Acoustic guitar aficionados will recognize the name Georg Stauffer who as we know influenced CF Martin the 1st. Stauffer made harp guitars which were used by classical and what are referred to as parlour musicians.
When harp guitars came to North America, luthiers such as the Dyer Brothers and Larson Brothers modified the design to make the harp neck hollow to allow it to resonant more and be louder.
Image courtesy Jake Wildwood
Luthier Orville Gibson made harps as well, starting with the Style U. It’s harp neck was solid and held ten harp strings. Style U guitars were archtops and while large, produced a wide range of lower tones to compliment the six string tones. Gibson’s skill in mandolin bodies contributed significantly to the sound of the Style U. Gibson also produced what was called the Style R guitars which were a less expensive and less flamboyant version of the Style U.
Image courtesy Gruhn Guitars
Gibson also made a few harp guitars in their Style O lineup, but the most common and popular was the Style O Artist, an archtop six string with a very unique body design, but not a harp guitar. Fewer than 100 Style O harp guitars were made.
In the late 20th century, harp guitars experienced a niche resurgence among musicians. Luthiers like Emerald Guitars who use carbon fibre enabled the top of the harp guitar to be solid enough to tolerate percussive tapping in addition to playing the strings themselves.
Current Day
Today we find harp guitars remain a niche marketplace with a variety of strings on the guitar neck and on the harp neck. Celebrated harp guitarist Jamie Dupuis plays a twenty string harp guitar and brilliant musician Muriel Anderson is known for her playing a three position harp guitar with 12 low pitch strings in octave pairs, a six string neck and a further eight higher pitch strings on the lower bout.
Image courtesy Muriel Anderson
Personally I find her work inspirational and compelling.
Wrapping Up
The harp guitar is still very much a niche play, but artists like Ms. Anderson and Mr. Dupuis have demonstrated the versatility of the harp for more than classical or traditional parlour music. Check out videos of Jamie Dupuis’ rendition of Metallica tunes on the harp guitar that you can find on YouTube. If interested in harp guitar and in the area of Newmarket Ontario Canada, reach out to me and perhaps we can meet up and you can see and try my own Emerald.
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