Mission Statement   
of the Knutsen Archives permanent online repository:

To collect, document, research, organize and share information on all known stringed instruments of pioneering inventor Chris J. Knutsen.

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dan Most, the world’s foremost "Knutsenologist."

Acknowledgments

The Knutsen Archives was conceived and is maintained by Gregg Miner
All text, notes and comments are mine, except where noted.
All images are copyright Miner Music, except where noted (in most cases, images have been Photoshop-enhanced or cleaned up for presentation purposes).

The impetus to start this site was manifold:
The wealth of great instruments not originally included in the Noe/Most book; the proliferation of newly discovered instruments (and the sharing of those finds); and the recent research and enthusiasm of Knutsen family relative Jean Cammon Findlay.
Much of the material on this site is only possible due to the previous research of Dan Most and Tom Noe, presented in their groundbreaking work, From Harp Guitars to the New Hawaiian Family: Chris J. Knutsen. This book should be considered a prerequisite before exploring this site.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS FREE NON-COMMERCIAL SITE!
By sending in your photographs and information, by filling in the blanks of the Instrument Inventory spreadsheets, by purchasing the Knutsen book from Tom Noe, and by becoming a Harpguitars.net subscriber!
This is yet another time-consuming labor of love on my part.
I hope you'll do yours.

Special thanks to:

Jean Cammon Findlay; for constant support, feedback, and new articles and family trees specifically for The Knutsen Archives.
Tom Noe; for his many emails and phone calls, for permission to reprint many of his images, and for allowing me to "carry the torch."
Kerry Char; for constant input and help through the years, and for handling the "Knutsen Northwest" area for me.
Ben Elder; for sharing his huge, carefully tended files of Knutsen material.
Bob Hartman for allowing me access to his original photographs, both from his books and personal.
Ron Middlebrook of Centerstream publications for permission to reproduce images from Hartman’s books.
The Jefferson County Historical Society of Port Townsend for permission to reproduce images from their archives.
Don Adams for inspiration and ideas.
Jonathan Kellerman for access to his wonderful collection.
Chris Wilhelm of Ketchikan, Alaska, for many images, suggestions and proof-reading. 
Allan Alexander of Guitar & Lute for permission to use the "spruce-top" background used for much of the site.
John & Jeanette Detlor for generously sharing their Anderson family history and personal mementos with us.
Linda Cameron, for sharing her family photographs and stories.
Darrell Urbien, indispensable Knutsenologist-at-large.

And thanks to the following who have sent in either photos, information, leads, or other trivia; or granted permission to use their images:

Robin Amend
Robert Armstrong
Roma Baran
Richard "Rufie" Barnes
Lee Baucum
Stephen Bennett
Tom Benson
Drew Berlin at Hollywood Vintage Collection
John Bernunzio at Bernunzio Vintage Instruments
Peter Blecha
Flip Breskin
Bob Brozman
Forrest Buckman
Brent Bunker
John Bushouse
Joe Caliguri
Larry Carlson
Jeff Carr
Don Caviness
Francois Charle
Ellen Chase / Claremont Folk Music Center
Glenn Cornick
William Cox
Kathryn Crawford
David Crummey
Chris Darrow
Gary Davidson
D.J. Dawson
Randy DeGiovanni
Thomas Delago
Mike Dempsey
Brent Dickerson
John Doan
Mike Doolin at Doolin Guitars
Ed Douglas
Michael Dunn
Kirsti Scutt Edwards and staff at the Experience Music Project, Seattle
Peter Edwards
Kevin Fairfield at Boogie Man Music
Chuck Fayne
Michael Ferrucci
Kenneth Fleegle
Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center
Kirk Francis
Alan & Rachelle Frazier
Randy Freedman
Frets.co.uk
George Fullwood
Gregory Furse
Patrick Gaffney at Relics Fine Guitar Collection
Joe Giacoio
Harold Gilliam
Clint Gilmore
Sid Glickman
Roy Graves
Stefan Grossman
Guitarville
Mike Guthrie
Dale Hale
Dan Harris
Aurelia Hartenburger
Heritage Department of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel
Duane Hoffmann
Jeff Hollingsworth
Michael Holmes of Mugwumps Online
Paul Hostettor
Leonard Coulson & Kennard Machol at Intermountain Guitar & Banjo
Buster Jeremiah
Philip Jodouin
John Joyner
Steve Keim
Bob Kelly
John King
Randy Klimpert
Layton Knopf
Bob Krueger
Brian KLYM
Dennis Lake
Rich Lanham
Andrew Lardner
John Lathey
Ben Levin at Real Guitars
Lowell Levinger at Vintage Instruments
Hans Lorenz
Brett Lovin
Stephen Lucas
Luca Lund
Mike Marken
Ernest Marquez
Dave McCord
Colin McCubbin
Ian McLatchie
Thomas McLeod
Rob Meinhardt

Benoît Meulle-Stef
Craig Miller at Acoustic Disc
Bryan Minner
Donatella Moores
Tim Murphy
Jim Myers
Museum & Arts Center in the Sequim-Dungeness Valley
Museum of Making Music, Carlsbad, CA
Kelvin Nesvog
Greg Nunley at Mainstream Music Supply
Tim O'Donnell
Jon Peterson
Ron Petit
Phil Emerson at Phil's Guitars
D. Pihlman
Anthony Powell of Rex James
Stanley Pryor
John Reynolds of Golden Age Fretted Instruments
Al Rice of the Fiske Museum
Aaron Richards
Ray Riepe
John Roberts
Andy Roth
Marianne Roulet
Paul Ruppa
David Rusaw
Neil Russell
Peter Allan Sawchyn
Gary Schireson
Mark Schlipper
Les Scigliano
Larry Sears
Arian Sheets
Marc Silbur
Michael Simmons
Alex Sioris
Tatiana Sizonenko
Kurt Smith
Ed Stander
Don Stewart
Richard Strell
Bob Strum
Koji.Sugiura
Troy Summerhill
Danl Terry
Alex Timmerman
Jim Tranquada
Jeff Turner
Darrell Urbien
Dirk Vandenberg
Søren Venema
Joe Vinikow
Katherine Vollenweider
Ray Watson
Richard Weber
Josh Weisman
Tanna Welch
Brian Wetzstein.
Doug Whittier
Steve Wise
Dan Wolf
Dan Yablonka
Russ Young

Notes on questions of copyright:
Knutsen material is so rare and invaluable, that I might not always tread as carefully as I otherwise would regarding the ownership of some images. In some cases I have no way to locate the image owners. If anyone sees an image that they feel may be a copyrighted image, please contact me to discuss.

Thanks!

Gregg Miner, Knutsenologist in Residence

Gregg Miner has been fascinated by harp guitars in general since the early ‘70s, and Knutsens in particular since he found his first one in 1988. As a collector with a very limited budget, he was lucky enough to find his first six Knutsen instruments locally within just a couple years. In the early 90's he met fellow Knutsen fan, Dan Most, and the two enthusiastically searched for all the instruments and information they could find (Dan, of course, went on to publish with collector Tom Noe the unprecedented book devoted to Knutsen).
Miner’s other musical endeavors, including an entire museum of plucked stringed instruments and recordings made with a hundred of the instruments, can be seen on his personal web site, www.minermusic.com.
His many non-musical interests, you just wouldn't believe.
He spends his days incognito as a Northrop Grumman process engineer.

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