What in the world? Are you telling me that I missed a harp guitar patent for this site?! Actually, no. But for a moment, it sure seemed like I did!
In early 2026, an instrument surfaced in London at the Gardiner-Houlgate auction house and soon made the rounds on a few Facebook Groups. Speculation was typical for this type of thing:
“You don’t see many harp tenor guitars these days.”
“I can only describe as a six-string tenor guitar, or I guess a harp-tenor or extended range tenor?”
“I don’t wholly understand the thought process with this one, as the two ‘extra’ strings are the same scale length as the four main ones, so it doesn’t really seem to offer any advantage over just playing a six-string guitar.”
“Two strings are not frettable so they are drone strings.”
Well, it was none of the above and the truth of it is even stranger! Read my in-depth article on this fascinating invention:
The Len Shevill Patent Combination Guitar
That was a fun one, and one “accomodating” man indeed 🤗… this is an unusually altruistic motivation in a patent:
…Therefore Tenor banjoists anticipating the increased demand for the guitar and at the same time fearing the displacement of the Tenor banjo are attempting to learn the guitar in increasing numbers. The playing of the guitar by a player of the tenor banjo, however, presents difficulties, inasmuch as the neck and fingerboard of the banjo to which the player is accustomed is considerably less in width than the neck and fingerboard of the guitar, with the result that the player finds the guitar comparatively clumsy and difficult to handle.
I found the article on the Shevill combination instrument very interesting, thank you. I think looking at the blonde instrument that it is one and the same as the one just sold. I bought the instrument and am now planning to restring it since the current strings seem higher pitch than intended.