Harp Guitars

Allan Beardsell's HG1 harp guitar adds seven sub-bass strings with Truitt sharpening levers that can extend the bass range by 13 semitones. A fully laminated rim and carbon graphite tubes keep the rim perfectly stable. The sideports give the player a "surround sound like" experience.

A harp guitar is, by nature, a highly customized instrument and many variations are possible. Doolin offers a 20-string harp guitar which has all the features normally found on their standard 6-string instruments - pinless bridges, adjustable neck angle system, spiral rosettes and the Doolin double cutaway. Each of the six sub-bass strings on a Doolin harp guitar has a Dragon Whisper sharping lever to quickly change keys, while each of the 8 super-treble strings has a fine tuner for accurate tuning.

The qualities of a Kathy Wingert harp guitar is consistent from the lowest sub-bass (tuned as low as an E one octave below the standard 6th string) all the way to the highest frets of the first string.

A Pearlman harp guitar is a handmade work of art, the result of twenty years of research, work, and attention to detail. They use European spruce soundboards with a hybrid bracing design, utilizing an X-brace with full fan bracing. This necessitates using a pinless bridge design. The guitar and harp are equipped with Highlander pickups. The new steel string arch harp guitar has been a successful instrument. Perlman can build highly customized harp models as well, as is evidenced by the 8 high harp string, 11 string configuration on a classical guitar body they once built for a client.

Hoffman Guitars currently has many harp guitar projects under way. They have studied vintage harp guitar instruments to gain important insight which will improve the quality of their custom builds. Some vintage instruments had an elaborately curved block to accommodate the side of the harp extension. This method is based on the method common in classic guitar building where the sides are glued into slots cut into the neck/neck block.

Worland Guitars manufactures the Lyra harp guitar. For a guitarist the harp guitar is a way of expanding the boundaries of guitar music as well as setting oneself apart by playing a unique instrument. While many people look at the harp guitar and wonder how anybody could ever play one, they are actually very similar to a guitar but with some extra strings to expand the range.

Mermer Guitars creates an alternative style of harp guitar which is comfortable for the player to actually hold and play. An additional bonus is that this harp guitar is easy to travel with, as the neck and sub bass extension can easily be removed. Loosen the sub bass and main strings, coil the strings from the ball end, and remove the eight allen screws. Now you can remove the neck and sub bass extension of the harp guitar, fold them along side the instrument's body, and travel with it packed in a case the size of a small suitcase.

William Eaton is a luthier who makes harp guitars. His instruments have been featured in books, magazines, video, luthier conventions and at international exhibits. Along with Roberts and Bob Venn, he co-founded the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery in Phoenix in 1975, where he continues as director of the school and creator of new instruments.

Whaley Musical Instruments builds unique steel string and harp guitar instruments of historic influence, and offer their 11 string Dyer harp guitar. Whaley is located in St. Louis, Missouri.

Stephen Sedgwick is a UK maker of fine steel string acoustic and classical guitars, and also specializes in harp guitar luthiery. He enjoys rising to the challenge of making instruments that are unusual and different, combining modern and traditional techniques in both construction and design.

Duane Noble creates a fine custom handbuilt harp guitar. Please click on the link to view harp guitars in stock available for purchase.

Fred Carlson, co-founder of Beyond the Trees, has been evolving an acoustic guitar with sympathetic resonating strings called the Sympitar. The "standard" set-up includes 6 main strings and 12 sympathetic strings. Through working with added strings like this, he began to get orders for custom instruments, including strings that were to be plucked but not fretted, so-called "harp" strings like the sub-bass or super-treble strings on a harp guitar. A client asked him to design and build an instrument that combined his Sympitar with the basic configuration of an old Dyer harp guitar, and the first "Harp-Sympitar" was born (named The Oracle by it's owner, it was a tribute to the great harp guitar virtuoso Michael Hedges).