Tom Noe Knutsen Convertible Hawaiian 3

"An interesting story regarding the convertible Knutsen is the ugly-duckling-to-swan transformation and Dan Most's involvement in that. I was in Danny's Music in Everett one day in early 1994 and they had a "Weissenborn" for sale for $700. I knew it wasn't a Weissenborn, but it was a wooden Hawaiian guitar and so after a little haggling, I bought the guitar for $600. By then Dan and I were good friends, and I told him I thought I had a Knutsen. So he came over and looked at it, and said,"I can't believe you paid $600 for this pile of crap!" It was as described on page 110 of the book. Danny Mangold (Danny's Music) had told me to put the heaviest strings I could find on it to try to bring out the sound, so I did and the headstock snapped off. I glued the headstock back on and just hung the guitar on the wall. Then one fall Saturday in 1998, I decided to work on the guitar a little while watching a UW Huskies football game. I took a putty knife and started peeling the thick coating of Varathane off the back, and then I peeled up the veneer on the back. When I discovered the original convertible neck and hardware inside the reconstructed square neck, I called Dan and told him what I found. He came right over and was quite excited. He says, "You're not going to do any more work on this guitar!" With that, he put the guitar in his car and drove off. About a month later, he returned the guitar to me, beautifully restored!
The original neck, which was made of brittle Douglas fir, had been thinned (to accommodate the box walls of the square neck) and weakened, which is what caused the headstock to snap off under string tension. Dan created a whole new neck and headstock out of koa wood and used the original hardware brackets. The guitar is now wonderful sounding, is one of my favorites, and was used as the front cover and back cover of the book!"
Additional photos and information can be found in From Harp Guitars to the New Hawaiian Family by Noe & Most.

Knutsen Archives Inventory Number		HCW3
Category		Convertible Guitars
Body Style		"Weissenborn-shaped"
Current or last known owner		Tom Noe
Year (approx)		1914-1920s
Label		remnants of yellow "New Hawaiian Family" label
Label Code		LA2
Courses / Strings		6 strings
Frets		raised metal to 12th fret, then inlaid wood
Scale length		25"
Neck Joint		convertible bracket
Woods	Top	spruce
	Back & Sides	koa
	Neck	unknown
	Fingerboard	unknown
	Bridge	unknown
	Headstock veneer	unknown
Binding, trim	Top	rope
	Back	none
	Fingerboard	none
	Headstock(s)	none
	Soundhole	rope, wood
Inlay		Pearl dot fret markers
Pickguard		none
Dimensions	Upper Bout	10"
	Lower Bout	15"
	Body at endpin	4-1/8"
Comments		Instrument pictured in Noe/Most, p.110-111