INTRODUCTION

For those wishing to skip to the heart of the matter, just jump to the end of this article.  However, as it took me quite a while to get there, you may find the provenance, and my eventual analysis worth reading first.  What started out as just an interesting little blog - from something I unearthed in my harp guitar “To Do” folders - ended up as an extensive and pretty exhaustive 10,000 word research project, so I published it here on the more permanent site – even though it has less to do with actual harp guitars than standard guitars.

As this site is of course harp guitar-specific, I should note that I am going decidedly “off topic” and referring to what nearly everyone today considers the standard “12-String Guitar.”  In other words, the regular steel string guitar with 6 double courses (the 4 lowest strung in octaves, the top 2 in unison) – not a 12 string harp guitar such as a Dyer with 6 on the neck and 6 subs.

So what does the 12-string guitar, popularized by dozens of memorable players from Leadbelly to Leo Kottke, have to do with harp guitars…in fact, two completely different families of “harp guitars”?

I propose that the ubiquitous 12-string guitar may have partly evolved from and been inspired by two previously overlooked instruments: An early non-floating-strings instrument called the “harp-guitar,” and the true harp guitar with floating strings.

All the previous theories I could locate were that the 12-string was inspired by double-course guitars from south of the border, like the baja sexto, or developed in the workshop of some American factory like Oscar Schmidt.  Michael Simmons has written a couple articles over the years on the 12-string which are worth noting. Probably the latest in 12-string circles is the increasing awareness by esoteric collectors and players of the little-known early (very early) Holzapfel 12-strings. Then there are the ongoing studies of obscure New York Italian makers.

There has been some mention (Simmons, again), though little follow-up discussion, of my main candidate – specifically, an instrument by Rene Grunewald, which is the key to our puzzle.  Michael shows a c.1904 ad for this 12-string instrument.  But we have to go back a little further.  Feb 8, 1896, to be precise.

That’s when one Carl E. Brown, of Columbus, Ohio, filed his patent application for his own “harp-guitar” (you’ll remember from my Organology thesis that anyone is free to call their invention a “harp guitar” – it needn’t be a version of the harp guitar with floating strings, as classified today).

Brown’s curious patent (#568,108) has been on this site from the beginning, on the Patents page and in the “Harp Guitars in Name Only” Gallery.  It consists of not 12, but 10 strings, which I believe is an important observation and distinction for our purposes of “12-string guitar evolution” and provenance.  In other words, my stance is that this particular 12-string variant would not have existed without there being a 10-string first, and this instrument was invented for a very specific use and effect – and very much “of its time.”

The Grunewald instruments (at least the 10-string version) list Brown’s patent number on the label, and thus these labels would seem to point to a possible obscure beginning to the 12-string guitar story.  So I’m surprised more attention hasn’t been paid to this.  But the real evidence comes from reading the weekly Music Trade Review of the period and understanding the context of the prose, and also that of the related BMG world (“Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar” community), as focused through The Cadenza, and later, Crescendo, magazines.

PART ONE

Before I delve into these magazine appearances, let me present our Part 1 Cast of Characters:

Carl Brown: A (definitely wacky) inventor, from Columbus, Ohio.  Some of his work seems to have had to do with the piano, but besides his groundbreaking 10-string guitar (its only real flaw being the novelty “olden days” shape), he also invented the laughable “Harp-o-chord,” that unusual harmonica and zither combo.  The appearance of a tuxedoed professional demonstrating the instrument in the advertisements assures us that Brown was serious.  He also patented 3 other fairly useless zither designs, the “Harp-Zither” - a simple, though attractively-shaped, fretless zither – and 2 other “zither body shapes” which were actually produced and sold, though they had only 3 or 4 strings each!  (You occasionally see them on eBay, where they are easily mistaken for toys).

And now, with access not only to a nearly full run of Cadenza magazines, but also the recent Music Trade Review (TMTR) online archives and still-growing Chronicling America online archives (please have it, I’m sure I haven’t found every relevant entry), we can see a better timeline of the Brown invention and its subsequent manufacture. 

Equally important, we can see the reasoning behind the instrument, and visualize its intended audience.

April 11, 1896: TMTR: “The Harp-Guitar”  

This is the first news of Brown’s 10-string invention, which has been on display in a local store “for the past week.”   The necessity to describe in detail the new stringing and tuning makes clear that it is considered a “novel” concept for a guitar.  Mention is made of the tone, which “resembles two instruments…the mandolin and guitar” (not a harp and guitar, as Brown’s patent pronounces).  Though cryptically stated, the writer alludes to a “simple arrangement” (a device to be explained in a later issue) via which the effect of either a guitar or mandolin “can be produced.”  They mention the patent application, which had occurred 2 months prior (Feb 8).  The primary purpose of the patent invention is clearly stated at the outset: “…to combine the features of a harp and a guitar.”  

August 22, 1896: TMTR: “A New Musical Novelty”

This article announces that Brown’s patent (at left) has now been granted.  The pear-shaped body is described as having “the general form of guitars of ‘ye olden time…’ (whatever that’s supposed to mean) – which was probably intended to add to its “novel” aspect.  It then repeats the details of the stringing and tuning.   

Next is the claim that this arrangement makes it “much more simple than on the guitar, (due to) the air being picked with the thumb on the double strings, while the accompaniment is played with the fingers, and thumb when unoccupied, upon all the available strings.”  This verbiage is taken from Brown’s own patent, though the phrase must be looked at in context – for the amateur guitar style was then much as described; the thumb played a simple melody, with fingers playing a (generally higher) simple accompaniment.  In other words, the point is not that Brown’s new instrument was the first to introduce this style, but that it was created to better take advantage of the basic style.  As this somewhat confusing point occurs throughout several years of advertising (Grunewald still using it in 1904), and to confirm that this was indeed the playing practice of amateur guitarists at the time (I am no expert), I went to the source: Jeffrey Noonan, author of The Guitar in America.  No one has studied the early literature and music more than Noonan.  He summed it up for me thusly: “The ‘bass solo’ style was very common for amateur players - even as late as the 1920s The Cadenza (or maybe Crescendo) published some solo arrangements by Sophocles Papas (as close to Segovia as you could get) - and every one of his arrangements was in the ‘bass solo’ style.  Lots of the late 19th-century solos in the magazines were in this style and were clearly aimed at the amateur player.”  

Though Brown did not pass up the opportunity to tout the “increased” tone and volume of “nearly double that of the guitar” (after all, every new builder and inventor did this routinely), the crux of his invention was the added octave strings on the 4 low courses.  But again, this was not to create a novel means of introducing a strange new playing style – the thumb melody – but to expand the musical range of what was already a common amateur playing style (the “bass solo” style).

This is made clearer in the next sentence, when the writer explains that “the fingering is much more simple than upon the guitar, for by means of the four extra treble strings, one is enabled to render almost any ordinary piece of music with the left hand in the first position, there being two and one-half octaves under the hand in this position” (italics mine).  Get it?  They’re describing the characteristic well known to 12-string players – that either the low or high octave of the 4 lowest courses can be accented (naturally occurring depending on whether a down-stroke or up-stroke is used on the pair of octave strings); or they can even be separately plucked.  Brown’s idea then is to just leave the left hand in first position, period, and let the high octave string in those 4 low courses extend the melody upwards.  This is assuming the amateur player can get the hang of this tricky transposition!  Brown seems quite confident, as the article claims “On the guitar there are eighteen frets, while only four or five are needed upon the harp-guitar.”  There you have it!  It goes on for a couple more paragraphs about how much easier it will be to play all the popular airs and such.

The tone is given additional press (“autoharp or mandolin” plus guitar), with “volume…being nearly double that of the guitar.”  Strange that there is still no allusion to a “harp” tone, as that is the name of the new instrument, and the only term used by Brown in his patent.  With nary a mention of mandolin or autoharp effects in Brown’s patent, I would propose that the TMTR writer perhaps saw and heard an actual instrument, and drew their own conclusion (and a more accurate one).  Next, the “double instrument” feature is explained a bit more, describing how by “throwing a small lever it can instantly be converted into an ordinary guitar, this being accomplished by silencing the extra treble strings.”  The patent clearly shows and explains this device: 4 hooks on a bar mounted across the soundhole are positioned over the high strings (the ones that make it sound “mandolin-like” or as Brown states, “harp effect”).  The lever linkage pulls them down out of the way, leaving just the standard 6 strings accessible…in theory.

Finally, we learn that “two prominent manufacturers will place the instrument on the market this coming fall.”

Before continuing, note that we’re still talking about Brown’s 10-string.  There are two simple reasons why Brown didn’t include twelve.  Just like today’s 12-strings, the physics of string technology don’t allow a 24-25”-scale steel string that can be tuned to a high b’ – so the octave configuration must necessarily stop at the 3^rd G string.  Modern 12-strings of course double the E & B for balance and to better approximate the “jangle” of the octave courses.  Brown was only interested in extending the range of pitch in first position – so he saw no point in just adding another unison string.

At the “Gordon musical merchandise warerooms” (in New York), the first of Brown’s “two prominent manufacturers” places the instrument on the market.  I don’t know who built Gordon’s instruments; it probably could have been any number of East Coast shops or factories.  Whoever it was copied Brown’s patent drawing (and likely the prototype(s) pretty closely, except for the headstock, which is instead a more interesting and attractive asymmetrical shape.  We may never know whose design this actually was.

The woodcut shows the same pear-shaped, “‘ye olden time” body and distinctive bridge shape.  However, the whole reason for the bridge shape is the extension for the lever for lowering the high strings.  This is not included, nor the device itself in the soundhole (as in the patent drawing, above) - though its effect is mentioned in the text.  This is the first time that the tone of a “harp” is brought up; specifically, with all ten strings engaged, it is a “harp”; with the 4 extras silenced, it is “converted to guitar” – exactly that of Brown’s original premise.

All things considered, the vibe is still more of a “novelty” instrument.

October 2, 1897: TMTR: “Harp-Guitar – A New Invention”

The second of the prominent manufacturers, Rene Grunewald, unveils his harp-guitar (under the same patent).  It is not yet pictured.  While many TMTR “articles” reek of favoritism (quid pro quo if not payola), evident in the obvious advertising hyperbole, the level is amped up here, perhaps by Grunewald, himself?  Essentially describing the same playing advantages as the previous notices, the copy is well worth reading, as you guitar players will discover that you may very well have wasted “years of tedious practicing” learning how to run “up and down the fingerboard” for nothing!

Before we ridicule Grunewald too strongly, it should be noted that the claim of being “famous in musical circles all over the country” was not without some merit.  The Louisiana Grunewald firm was then large and well established, and Rene’s mandolin factory had been mentioned several times by this point, with notices of success exporting vast quantities of (bowl-back) mandolins, and later guitars, to other countries.

Still, the true newsworthiness of The Music Trade Review must fall under some suspicion.  Certainly they were much more impartial than the Cadenza, and later Crescendo, magazines, which rarely included a single glad-handing sentence about any manufacturer or brand name who was not one of that issue’s advertisers – yet TMTR’s “stories” and notices – intended for the trade rather than the final customers - seem intended to hype the topic, first and foremost.

January 22, 1898: TMTR: “The Grunewald Harp-Guitar”

Grunewald’s instrument is now shown, and we see that his company wisely chose to use a normal guitar-shaped body.  All other particulars seem to match Gordon’s – the asymmetrical 10-string headstock and the distinctive bridge, though once again, the required (and alluded-to) lever and hook assembly are mysteriously absent.

The write-up is similar to the last one, and even longer.  Grunewald and/or the writer revert back to tone comparison to a “concert autoharp” or “mandolin and guitar.”  They are now even more strongly advertising this as something for a beginner or amateur, an instrument that can be “mastered…with a few days practice” unlike the standard guitar.  Though still “novel,” someone at TMTR seems to be pushing this as a practical, useful instrument.

(At right) Later on, while still a 10-string model (at right), Grunewald appears to have switched to a standard bridge, with the same 2 strings under one bridge pin, and separated on the saddle by a tiny pin.  The headstock appears to be the same asymmetrical design.  Note the same label as in the previous instrument.

Back to our story:  

February 12, 1898: TMTR: “The Grunewald Harp-Guitar”

What’s going on?  Not a month later, the trade journal again highlights the new instrument, with the same woodcut and 2 columns of hype, claiming that it is “attracting considerable attention in trade and musical circles.”  In fact, “all who have examined it are unanimous in proclaiming it to be a radical and practical improvement upon the time-honored guitar.”  True?  There doesn’t seem to be reason to totally discount the report, yet where are all the surviving instruments?  Perhaps all south of the border, as the company’s activity there is again specifically mentioned? 

This time, in the tone department, they’re having their cake and eating it too, describing the “quality of tone (that) resembles that of the mandolin and guitar, or more particularly that of the harp…”  Personally, I consider a mandolin and harp very different (!) - the mandolin being steel strung, high and bright with short sustain, while available harps were all gut strung and meant to ring.  Note that the “autoharp or mandolin” clues have informed us from the beginning that Brown’s original instrument and the two manufacturer’s were almost certainly all strung in steel (or silk & steel), which at the time was intended for amateurs and not “serious” guitar players.

This piece ends with another reminder that the “ordinary guitar…is an instrument upon which…comparatively few can play.”  It sounds like the Grunewald harp-guitar may indeed soon supersede it!

April 16, 1898: TMTR: A short blurb tells of a Grunewald agent’s success in Mexico and soon South America with the harp-guitar.

September 10, 1898: TMTR: “Rene Grunewald Forging Ahead”

Now things are getting serious.  First, they’re already talking about the “now famous harp-guitar.”  We then learn that Grunewald is planning to aggressively market the instrument (along with his mandolins) throughout the United States, but also in Cuba and Puerto Rico (America’s “new possessions”). Further acclaim of the still-10-string instrument and much name-dropping regarding Grunewald mandolin testimonials follows.

October 15, 1898: TMTR: “The Harp-Guitar”

A month later and TMTR is really taking this seriously, insisting that “The new American harp-guitar…is considered by experts, soloists and amateurs as the acme of perfection.”  For the first time, we are told exactly how the melody will be played in first position via the paired octave strings: “The air will sound in a clear treble, bass, or plainly in octaves, with great volume, by simply engaging the treble of the parallel strings with the thumb and its larger companion with the first finger.”  Man, can you imagine a beginner doing that with a few days practice?  They’re telling me I can pluck just the skinny string of the pair and get a melody with “great volume”?  How many modern 12-string players can do that?!

December 3, 1898: The Houston Daily Post: Display Ad

A separate C. Grunewald store in Houston, Texas at 310 Main St. lists “Harp-Guitars” among its inventory.  "C" must be Clifford, brother of Rene.

April 8, 1899: TMTR: “The Harp-o-chord the Latest”

This tells of Carl Brown’s second invention, the “Harp-o-chord.”  Clearly, the TMTR editor is a Brown fan!

September 10, 1899: The Sacramento Record-Union: News Announcement

A short entry announces Brown’s new Harp-o-chord invention, and includes “who made such a success of a ten-stringed harp guitar, which he brought out some two years ago…”

December 23, 1899: TMTR: “A New Guitar”

An interesting little press release (with a typo of “1889” in the heading, so don’t get confused) from Brown’s firm in Columbus, Ohio, that mentions the “new 10-string guitar recently invented…manufactured by the “New Orleans branch of the Columbus Harpochord Co.”

Curiously, the address given (West Bond St.) is different than the Grunewald’s factory (Conti St.), so the question is: Is this a new facility unrelated to Grunewald, or simply a department of, or new location of, Grunewald’s original factory?  It’s curious that Grunewald – surely the bigger “name” – isn’t mentioned, nor have we heard anything of him in TMTR for over a year.

If Grunewald was indeed still the manufacturer, this would indicate that at the very end of 1899, Grunewald still had not come up with the 12-string version.  However, if Grunewald was out of the picture, could he have been now creating his 12-string?  And if he broke off from Brown, could he still call his 12-string version “the Harp-Guitar”?  What’s missing is a 12-string specimen showing the label, which would presumably be under the original Brown patent.  Or would it?  None of the next Grunewald ads mention a patent.  December, 2015: A surviving 12-string finally appeared, but it only has the Grunewald stamps, no label.

Irrespective of this puzzle, note the key sentence of this notice: the claim that “The New Orleans house is sending them out by the hundreds, and the sales are enormous.”   Again, if true, where are the surviving instruments?!  

August 19, 1900: The Houston Daily Post: Display Ad

The Houston C. Grunewald store announces “Have just received new lot Harp Guitars of…$10.50.” There is no way to know whether these were 10-strings or 12-strings.

1901-1902: Here is where our trail grows cold, as nothing further on the 10- or 12-string Brown or Grunewald (to say nothing of Gordon) harp-guitar appears in The Music Trade Review (that I have found through searching.  Someone next needs to carefully read all pages of all weekly issues).

There is an ad in the S. S. Stewart Journal issues of April and May, 1901 for Grunewald’s new “Special Guitar," but this is only a 6-string guitar with their "new improved patent combined bridge and tailpiece" (the patent does not appear to have granted). There is no mention of their 10- or 12-strings.

The Cadenza

After the end of the Music Trade Review 10-string write-ups above and the 1901-1902 “lost years,” Grunewald came back blazing with full page ads in The Cadenza for a couple years running.  These were seen by most every “serious” guitar player in America, and various levels of amateurs.  While TMTR catered to the trade, The Cadenza catered to the customers – the players.

December, 1902: The Cadenza: Grunewald advertisement

Grunewald takes out a full-page ad highlighting his 12-string Harp-Guitar in the December, 1902 issue.  The “new invention” claim in this case was simply that the old Brown invention is now a full 12-string guitar.  I think Grunewald is “starting over” – trying to “re-set” the double-stringing concept in the public’s imagination.  There is no reference to the earlier 10-string or Brown’s patent, though later on, his brochure text clearly mentions the same first-position playing technique as the “point” of the extra strings.  There is no reference to the Grunewald ad in this issue’s “Trade Department” as normally occurred.

But when did the actual instrument first appear?  Note that ad copy such as “A New Invention!” was often used for years (in this case, at least 2 or 3), so it doesn’t necessarily mean that the instrument was brand new this very month.  Yet as of this writing, this is the earliest Grunewald 12-string date I am aware of, so until more evidence turns up, we can’t say with certainty who built the official “first 12-string guitar.”

In December of 2015, a surviving 12-string finally turned up, but it has no label - only the Grunewald crescent stamps.  Incidentally, the owner of this oak back & sides instruments says "This guitar is a monster and I am quite the snob regarding tone.  I have an original Stella twelve trapeze, a Bozo twelve and a Gallagher twelve.  None can touch the Grunewald for tone!"  

January, 1903: The Cadenza: Grunewald advertisement

Grunewald’s second full page ad concerns his other main business: supplying heads for banjos and drums.  This time the editors included him in the “Trade Department,” proudly explaining how they designed the artwork for his ad themselves.  

I have to admit that I prefer the cuddly “instrument heads-on-the-hoof” to the creepier catch phrase alluded to at the top of this article.  

February, 1903: The Cadenza: Grunewald advertisement

Grunewald’s new ad announces “The Grunewald Harp-Guitar” as “The King of Guitars” with similar hyperbole.  The Cadenza writer (either Editor C. L. Partee himself, or assistant Charles Adams) apparently paid zero attention to Grunewald’s first illustrated full-page ad 2 issues prior, and finally wakes up.  Here, in the “Trade Department,” where he pays lip service to his paying advertisers by parroting the advertiser’s own text and catch phrases, he makes the mistake of not bothering to learn about (or remember from two issues ago!) Grunewald’s instrument.  Instead, “knowing” what an actual harp guitar is, and reading “12 strings,” he makes the obvious assumption and tells the readers that the new guitar has 6 sub-basses.  Ooops!

This amusing error nevertheless illustrates how familiar the BMG community (“serious” players of banjo, mandolin and guitar) was with true harp guitars, but completely unfamiliar with the concept of a double-strung guitar.  Just as was earlier seen in The Music Trade Review articles, a double-strung guitar was not recognized as a “guitar” at all, but as a strange new novel invention!

Obviously, the Cadenza editor has been informed (probably by Grunewald himself, who I hope got a free ad out of it!) that he screwed up on his helpful description in the last issue.  This time, he takes pains to explain the instrument (with nary an apology).  Again, this helps demonstrates that, in Partee’s world the 12-string was then completely unknown.  He includes text that is clearly taken directly from advertising material supplied by Grunewald.  This, in fact, matches exactly that of the brochure found recently (shown next).  Specifically: “Every guitar player knows how easy it is to play a bass solo on the guitar and at the same time to carry an accompaniment.  This same principle is applied upon the Harp-Guitar, the air being picked by the thumb…”  This would be the last Cadenza ad by Grunewald.

The infamous envelope (left) obtained by Fretboard Journal’s Michael Simmons contained the full brochure on Grunewald’s 12-string.  Postmarked Feb 17, 1904, the earlier Cadenza listings suggest that this brochure had been out for a year or more.

Again, there is no mention of the original Brown patent, which may or may not have covered Grunewald’s slightly-altered instrument.  Regardless, for better or worse, Grunewald retained Brown’s name.

To understand what impact the above may have actually had on the development of the 12-string guitar, one needs to have an understanding of the importance and role of both The Cadenza and Music Trade Review magazines, and also their audience (readers). 

For The Cadenza, nothing beats reading through the actual journals.  Barring that, Jeffrey Noonan’s indispensable book The Guitar in America provides a great socio-musical overview.  Though it was geared towards amateurs, most of these men and women were nevertheless attempting to learn to read music and play “serious” parlor music.  In fact, a battle would often heat up over whether they should be playing only gut-strung guitars.  At least as far as the Cadenza editors were concerned, steel-string guitars were loud, crude “folk” instruments.  Yet many of their advertisers (like Grunewald) were clearing offering steel-string instruments – so the editors’ and columnists’ stated or implied views were anything but consistent!  Since everyone who advertised in the magazine was given equal treatment in the “Trade Department” monthly columns (a useless bit of “news” consisting of nothing more than the overly-flowery editor parroting what they read in the submitted ads for that month), it was left up to the reader what to believe or explore in their musical pursuits.  Again, it’s interesting to observe that the Cadenza editors were totally unfamiliar with the concept of a 12-string guitar at the turn of the last century.  It’s also important to note that, even though steel-strung, the Brown/Grunewald 10-string (and later, 12-string) “harp guitar” was clearly geared toward the then-common “thumb melody” (“bass solo”) style of much of the Cadenza’s readership.  The fact that it did not appear to catch on (judging simply from the extremely small number of surviving instruments) doesn’t mean that awareness and attributes of the new steel-string double-course guitar did not become widely known from this exposure.

In fact, the 10>12-string “harp guitar” got a potentially much bigger boost – and for a completely different audience – in The Music Trade Review.  I don’t know the circulation numbers for either Cadenza or TMTR, but they were the primary periodicals available to the rapidly growing population of fretted instrument aficionados, and must have had some impact.  For TMTR’s part, they were serving the retail side of things.  Again, while the lack of specimens makes it appear that few of the small to large music stores across the U.S. fell for the bait and ordered the Grunewald instruments, it’s likely that the retailers, and more importantly, the other manufacturers, became familiar with the concept.  How could any guitar maker or factory not notice such a heavily-marketed new “guitar invention”?

By a strange, if frustrating, coincidence, it was during the 1901-1902 “lost Grunewald years” – when no advertisements appeared and Grunewald’s “harp-guitar” morphed from 10 to 12-string – that our new cast of characters appear to have entered the fray.  Whether any of them saw the Grunewald hype in either the Cadenza or TMTR, we’ll never know – but I doubt it unlikely.

A final observation on the Brown and Grunewald 10-strings: Ironically, after doing everything they possibly can to distance their “superior” instrument from the lowly 6-string, they mention the patented device that hooks all 4 octave strings and lowers them out of the way, so that the player can just go back to playing their standard guitar (“from harp to guitar”).  Apparently, they felt they could have their cake and eat it too!  But it does illustrate that they truly considered the “normal guitar” and their 10-string “harp-guitar” two distinctly different instruments (as do many modern 6 & 12-string guitarists today – I know I do).  

And now our Part 2 Cast of Characters:

Still, here was a smoking gun worth tracking down!  I noticed that all the early Holzapfel specimens are always “circa” dated – apparently none are dated inside.  Asking Neil for provenance to hopefully put this matter to rest, he graciously sent me a scan of the rare document at left, allowing me to share it with you.  This is indeed evidence that shows that on February 3rd, 1902, Holzapfel & Beitel rented to a customer (with “option to buy”) a new or used 12-string guitar.  Until recently, this appeared to be the earliest proven date for an American “12-string guitar."  

Update, May, 2016: In the June, 2016 issue of Vintage Guitar, Peter Kohman revealed the existence of a letter dated December, 23, 1900 from the Holzapfel family archives discussing a commission for a (presumably built and sold) H&B 12-string guitar.  This then moved the H&B date up about a year and a half.  Now we can be comfortable stating “1900-1905” for H&B 12-strings.

Note the shared bridge holes on this pre-1905 H&B owned by Neil Harpe

But were Holzapfel & Beitel 12-strings known back in their day?  Curiously, I have yet to come across any specific ad or mention of a Holzapfel or H & Beitel 12-string guitar…or have I?

It was while working on my article about George Dudley that I received an exciting new and important clue.  That article ends with a presentation of two incredible Holzapfel & Beitel harp guitars – one an undated, but labeled surviving specimen owned by Fred Oster (at left), the other (at right) Dudley’s own incredible 36-string (also undated), which I attributed to Holzapfel & Beitel due to its evident similarities and was later corroborated by an incredible (undated) letter in the Hopzapfel archives from George Dudley inquiring about the delivery of his harp guitar ! See Vintage Guitar, June, 2016).  In addition to the impressive number of twelve sub-bass courses – single in the known specimen and double (!) in Dudley’s – each has 12 strings (6 doubled courses) on the neck.  If only we could date them!  Both are definitely around the turn-of-the-last-century, but how close to 1900 (or before) is the crucial detail pertinent to the present topic.

But then Michael Holmes shared this fascinating tidbit: "Music Trades in 1900 (I didn't record the month, so perhaps the MT Annual) had an article about Holzapfel & Beitel building 'large 24-stringed guitars and 12- stringed mandolins for The Hollywood Mandolin Orchestra' of Baltimore. They were probably 12-stringers, not 24." 

To fully appreciate the possibility above, it helps to be familiar with early American harp guitars and what they were actually all about.  For the two key customer demographics – namely, ensemble accompanists (in banjo, mandolin and guitar clubs ranging anywhere from small quartets to full plectrum orchestras) and public entertainers (clubs, restaurants, theaters, ritzy parties) – the harp guitar was a popular instrument.  But it didn’t seem to necessarily be the extra musical range of the bass notes performers were after.  They weren’t interested so much in range as in projection and volume.  Thus, the main impetus behind American harp guitars was actually: bigger + more strings = more volume.  The floating bass strings were an obvious way to get more strings, more bass projection, and more notes (pitches), but why stop there?  Doubling the neck strings would have been an easy way to get even more volume and extra notes.  And so it would not surprise me in the least if the “birth of America’s 12-string guitars” wasn’t partly jump-started with doubled-course harp guitars by Holzapfel & Beitel and other builders.

Additionally, a decade later, Chris Knutsen would make harp guitars with certain neck strings doubled, including a few with a full 12-string neck (at right).  Several other pre-1920 harp guitars with 12-string necks by different makers are also known (Coulter, Favilla, and others unlabeled).

To re-cap:  

Evolution and Rise of the American 12-String Guitar
(as postulated by Gregg Miner)

• Feb 8, 1896: Carl E. Brown, a musical instrument inventor, submits a patent for a new 10-string guitar he dubs “the Harp-Guitar.” It has a pear-shaped body; the 4 low courses are strung in octaves, while the 2 high strings are single. There is a lever to grab the 4 high extra strings and move them out of playing position. He already has a prototype hanging in a local music store.

• Sep 22, 1896: The patent is granted.

• Fall of 1896: He engages two different firms to build it – the Hamilton Gordon Company and the Rene Grunewald Company. Gordon will make theirs in the shape of the patent design; Grunewald will make the body with a traditional guitar shape. Each is called “The Harp-Guitar,” licensed and protected under Brown’s patent.

• 1896-to-1899: In The Music Trade Review, Brown’s invention is mentioned 3 times, the Gordon version is shown once, and the Grunewald is featured at least 6 times.

• c.1900-1901:

  • Sometime between late 1898 and late 1902, Grunewald has doubled the two remaining high strings, creating a production 12-string guitar, still called “The Harp-Guitar,” and possibly still under the original Brown patent (this still remains unanswered).

  • During this same period (by the end of December, 1900), Holzapfel & Beitel has begun building similar (though larger-bodied) 12-string guitars. They may have gotten the idea from first building double-course harp guitars.

  • Meanwhile, C. Bruno & Sons has also introduced a 12-strings-on-the-neck harp guitar, though not a simple, single-neck 12-string.

  • In addition, Bohmann builds a custom 10-strings-on-the-neck harp guitar by c.1900, and possibly as early as c.1895.  Bruno also built at least one 10-strings-on-the-neck harp guitar seemingly patterned after Grunewald’s 10-string headstock design.

• The 12-string Grunewald harp guitar continues to be advertised (in The Cadenza) and marketed through at least 1904. Meanwhile, Joseph Behee in Kansas introduces his 12-string lyre guitars.

• This continual visibility of the Grunewald instrument (first 10-, then 12-string version), through both The Music Trade Review and The Cadenza (the main “business” and “consumer” periodicals, respectively) feeds the awareness and interest of both musicians/customers and other manufacturers.

• Independent of the Brown/Grunewald double-course “harp-guitars in name only,” builders of true harp guitars incorporate doubled courses in their extravagant creations (and perhaps only later transitioning this stringing over to single-neck guitars).

• Holzapfel’s instruments and potential Italian “one-offs” inspire inspire the eventual Oscar Schmidt 12-strings, while Lyon & Healy (and others) make instruments like the parlor-size Grunewald but eschew the old “harp-guitar” naming gimmick, taking 10 and 12 strings on the neck into the mainstream.  The American 12-string guitar is established!

Additional Observations:

What about 12-strings south of the border? What about Italian and other European immigrant influences?

I haven’t addressed the influence of Mexican or Latin American double-strung guitars of various types on the 12-string because, A) I’m not familiar with much of the provenance on the subject, and B) have a gut feeling that they weren’t as a big part of the story as has sometimes been implied.  But I really don’t know.  As I have mentioned a couple times above: from the provenance we have in hand – the editorial text of all the periodicals – it seems clear to me that even if some form of Mexican double-strung guitars were migrating back and forth along the southern border, general United States musical instrument wholesale/retail industry – and their customers – were all but completely ignorant about such Mexican or Latin American double-strung guitars; nor was anyone among them interested in, or familiar with, the history of double-strung Baroque, and other early, gut-strung guitars.  A “double-strung” guitar was a “completely new novelty” in 1900. I do find it curious that Lyon & Healy’s first catalog 12-string was lumped in with an unusual 11-string, both as “Mexican style” guitars.  I find it hard to believe that the firm was unfamiliar with the Grunewald instrument…perhaps because they realized that it was silly to call it “the harp-guitar” and were initially unsure how to market it?

I also hear occasional rumors of 12-strings by New York Italian makers, though have seen nothing dated. With the continuing discoveries on eBay and elsewhere of old catalogs, perhaps new surprises within dated catalogs will found.

We’re still left with two nagging questions, though important perhaps only to diehard American guitar historians or 12-string geeks: 
A) Who built America’s first true "12-string guitar"? 
B) Who/what popularized the instrument? 

Until we find more date provenance on both Grunewald and H&B (not to mention Bruno, etc.), I’d say the first question is a coin toss.  For now, I’d go with saying “both of them built their slightly different versions c. 1900.”  As to the latter, I would argue that Grunewald’s was far more visible to a wider audience, but that Holzapfel’s was (and instigated) a more “modern” instrument.  In other words, both are key figures – with Brown>Grunewald getting points for the earlier invention and evolution, while Holzapfel can claim an instrument worthy of today’s collectors and players.

However, my personal pet theory is that the “first true American 12-string guitar” may not, in fact, have been our familiar single-neck 12-string guitar at all, but a Holzapfel & Beitel (or Bruno) harp guitar with doubled courses on the neck.

Red Herrings:

Michael Holmes’ answer to a reader in an August, 2005 Acoustic Guitar magazine column (which comes up in Google searches) states that Grunewald was selling his 12-string in 1898.  The included ad is the same as that of the 1904-postmark.  For the record, it was the 10-string harp-guitar available in 1898, not yet the 12- (Michael confirmed to me the understandable error in assumption as well).  

P.S. Don’t get confused by the 6-string “Harp Guitar” – a trademark name belonging to John F. Stratton of New York (trademarked in 1879, according to Michael Holmes; ads appeared by 1886 in the Clinton NY Courier).  These were only 6-string instruments, with one example (at left) being quite small with a 21” scale length.  According to the owner, Jake, at thewildwoodflower.com, it sounds great (with Aquila nylgut strings).  Another owner remarked in a forum that his Stratton Harp Guitar “killed” (tonally).  Presumably the “superior tone” was what warranted yet another type of “harp guitar.”  No one knows who built them; Stratton himself, his factories in Germany, Boston manufacturer Haynes, or even Bruno.  

I have recently found dates of 1888 and 1891 in the Chronicling America online archives of what are almost certainly these simple 6-string instruments, specifically: The Saint Paul Daily Globe, December 16, 1888: “GUITARS—Bruno, Bay State, Benary, Tilton and Harp guitars; prices from $6 up; fine guitar strings. Whitney's Music Store” and from the Pittsburg Dispatch, June 6, 1891: “S. Hamilton, 91 and 93 Fifth avenue…We also have imported guitars as low as $4, bound, edges inlaid, a good guitar for actual service, and the celebrated Bruno harp guitar, and everything in the musical line. Write for one of our illustrated catalogues just issued for '91.”  I believe both the 1888 and 1891 are the same instrument – the 6-string Stratton trademarked “Harp Guitar.”  Why Hamilton refers to it as the “celebrated Bruno harp guitar” is certainly curious.  Though one might initially jump to the conclusion that this was an early true harp guitar like Bruno’s 1901 model, I am virtually certain that this was not the case; rather, I believe there was some connection between Stratton and Bruno (perhaps Bruno built or supplied Stratton with the instruments, or perhaps Bruno carried or distributed Stratton’s instrument). In either scenario, we are left with however the ad writer (S. Hamilton) chose to present the instrument.

Popularity:

Just how popular was the 12-string guitar?  Scanning a run of Sears catalogs from 1896 to 1918, I found exactly zero.  In 1914 they finally added a double-neck harp guitar for a couple of years; they even offered the unusual “Portuguese Guitar” and “Italian Guitar (Chitarra Battente)” in late 1914 for 2 seasons – but never a simple 12-string, though I’m sure they eventually did (I haven’t gotten to the ‘20s and ‘30s catalogs yet).

It would be interesting to look for 12-string players in the issues of Cadenza, but normally, that’s the abode of 6-string, gut-strung guitars (though plenty of harp guitars appear).

Of the “hundreds” of instruments, specifically 10-strings, that Brown and Grunewald claim to have shipped, extremely few are to be found.  Of surviving Grunewald 10-strings, I know of perhaps just half a dozen. Of the 12-strings, I seen just two.  I’m betting that more Grunewalds, and perhaps even a Gordon, will turn up eventually in response to this online article (Update: indeed they have; the above counts were initially 3 and 1). 

And yet Lyon & Healy produced this beautiful Washburn 10-string guitar, featured in the Pleijsier book (at right, photos courtesy of Soren Venema, who once had it).  Note that it copies the Grunewald 10-string design exactly in the headstock shape (but not the bridge).  As the Washburn label includes nothing of Brown’s patent, this would presumably not have been built until after the patent had expired – in 1910.  Rather an antiquated custom instrument, if so!

Besides the early 12-strings presented in Neil Harpe’s book, I’m sure there are many others.  And as Harpguitars.net readers know, there are many other harp guitars known beginning in the early ‘teens with 12 strings on the neck: Favilla, Coulter, and others by unidentified makers.

These are just my thoughts, observations and current theories.  I’m sure the story of America’s 12-string Guitar will evolve!

Updates:
Initial publication: May ‎16, ‎2011
Nov, 2011: Updated with response from Michael Holmes and my follow-up comments.
July, 2013: I rewrote certain sections substantially, most especially adding the sections about harp guitars by Holzapfel & Beitel and Bruno.  Formerly, the 1901 Bruno 12-strings-on-the- neck harp guitar was thought to be from c.1912 or 1914, and I had this listed in the “Red Herrings” section.  My text originally stated: “Despite the name, this actually came out c.1912 (see this news bulletin in TMTR, May 30, 1914).  The curious model number is never explained.  Why would someone use an “old” date for a brand new model?...”
July, 2015: Added a third Grunewald 10-string specimen.
January, 2016: Finally added a Grunewald 12-string specimen.
May, 2016: Added another smoking gun clue of a 1900 Holzapfel & Beitel12-string (moving theirs up about a year). Also corroboration that they built George Dudley's harp guitar (unfortunately no date provenance, but just as I had guessed!). This new information came from records saved by the Holzapfel family, via Peter Kohman in Vintage Guitar Magazine.
August, 2016: Added better details on the guitarra septima, which Christies (and others) had misidentified as an early 12-string guitar (thanks to Graham Dicker for clarifying).
June, 2018: Reformatted layout and added photo of my c.1901 Bruno.
February, 2021: Added the Behee 12-string and clarified a few thoughts.

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