Alan Beardsell up in Canada makes one cool-looking harp guitar. Only 2 or 3 built so far I think. The other day, fellow Canadian Martin Larose sent me this photo of himself with his new Beardsell harp guitar (at left). His (work-in-progress) site’s song samples sound like he’s got lots of techniques and ideas, and it’ll be interesting to hear what Martin does with this high-end instrument (2 songs on his upcoming CD feature it, he says).
Meanwhile, I’m still dying to see and hear one of these…would one of you owners (Martin, Esau Simmons?) please come to a Gathering so we can paw at it?! Unfortunately, the new clips of Henry Kaiser stopping by Alan Beardsell’s place to demo one of these don’t cut it for me. Seriously, Alan – are you expecting to advertise the presumed fantastic tone of this instrument through Henry’s – ahem – creative techniques?
Hey, I know Henry’s a big name in Modern Creative Guitarist-land, but he’s gonna give harp guitars and harp guitarists a bad name! At the very least, it would have been nice to hear just one properly plucked sub-bass string (honestly, it’s not that hard to do), which I bet sound really great and potentially useful, besides their obvious suitability for random, Hanna-Barbera cartoon sound effects. Though, admittedly, I may be too “old fashioned,” I have nothing against Henry – I just feel sorry for that beautiful harp guitar!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK4vYNW5kwk
Hi Gregg,
I can confirm you that I’ll be attending the gathering next October.
Meanwhile, stay tuned…I should be able to post a few vids in the next few days.
Martin Larose
http://www.martinlarose.com
The recording and video was made when Henry came to Winnipeg (where I live) as a featured performer at a guitar show. As you have said, Henry is a past client of mine, so he contacted me asking if I had a harp ready that he could make a recording with. I did, so he did, and we had fun. the recording/video is simply a document of that morning. Its current. When the next thing happens I’ll post that too.
True – Henry owns a 6-string Beardsell, and is a high-profile name in the guitar world, so obviously Alan would ask him to try it. Alan was gracious and made no comment about the experience…he tells me he’s actually on his 5th HG as we speak!
You’re right, I went to YouTube to see the video. Yikes-at least Alan seemed to be enjoying the experience. Sometimes when someone has a rep people hear that and think they’re supposed to like it. An interesting phenomenon in our star based system.