Knutsen Convertible Hawaiian Guitar
Owner Tom Noe tells me of this instrument:
"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.
(image copyright Tom Noe)
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 |
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