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The first appearance of a harp guitar in
Gibson history is the instrument built
by Orville Gibson himself at the very end of the 19th century. The guitar has
Orville’s usual classic features - massive sides and back and outrageous neck
and headstock inlay. This one has a most peculiar look. Note
that the basses are almost in the position of
zither bass strings. Apparently the harp
strings have a chromatic scale probably starting with a D# and finishing with an
E one octave below.
The
Orville harp guitar front, back and detail of the unique head. (Photo from Acoustic Guitars & Other Fretted
Instruments by Gruhn & Carter) Article by Benoît
Meulle-Stef with the help of: Mr Gruhn for original
catalogue material and help. Gregg Miner for help
with English, photos and formatting. |
