Major Update: 8/7/08

Last Update: 8/24/08

This page features alphabetical listings of professional and amateur luthiers who have built at least one professional quality harp guitar.  Historical (pre-1970) luthiers are listed on the Makers page.   Modern builders are separated into these loose and broadly defined categories - they are not separated by type or style of instrument, as some build a variety of instruments, while others' designs are difficult to describe!

Dedicated Harp Guitar Luthiers   Includes professional and up-and-coming builders who have established a reputation for harp guitars (or beginning to) and/or are serious about offering harp guitar models or commissions.  Most have built several instruments.

Occasional, First-Time or Retired Harp Guitar Luthiers  Includes newcomers to hobbyists to the finest luthiers in the world.  This group has dabbled in the harp guitar world, making one or two instruments. Perhaps some of these will become established repeat builders like those above.  Some instruments may now be ancient history, others are brand new (some may still be available).  The list includes a few well known harp guitar  builders who have since disappeared or retired.

Personal Instrument Harp Guitar Luthiers  Includes innovative builders ranging from highly skilled professionals to part time amateurs.  They have created instruments for their own use and may or may not build for other clients.

LUTHIERS - please help me keep this page current!  Contact me with:

  • Your latest build
  • Your web site "Making Of" articles (now listed under each entry; should be fairly detailed, not just a few build process photos)
  • Your image (if I don't have one, or update it if you've had a makeover)
  • Updated or improved photos for the Galleries/Luthier page
  • Updates regarding your status and activities for this page

 

Featured Harp Guitar Lutherie Article

by Brad Hoyt, August 2008


Featured Harp Guitar Lutherie Article Archives
 

Additional Internet articles on harp guitar projects


Dedicated Harp Guitar Luthiers

This first alphabetical list includes professional and up-and-coming builders who have established a reputation for harp guitars and/or are serious about offering harp guitar models or commissions.  Most have built several instruments.


Allan Beardsell (Canada)

Original design

Mike Brittain (North Fort Myers, Florida)

Dyer copies

Fred Carlson (Santa Cruz, CA)

Harp-Sympitars and one-of-a-kind designs

Fred Carlson: Making Sound Look Good by Wade Vonasek
Fred Carlson: The New Dream: 39-string acoustic Harp-Sympitar with MIDI-capability (2006)
Fred Carlson: Big Red: A 38-string custom Harp-Sympitar (2005)
Fred Carlson: The Flying Dream: 39-string acoustic Harp-Sympitar with MIDI capability (2003)
Fred Carlson: The Harpouditar: A 26-String Guitar/Oud/Zither (2002)
Fred Carlson: Design and Construction of Oracle, 24-string Harp-Sympitar (2002)

F
red Carlson: Kali: 12-String Guitar with 2 Added Sub-basses (2000)

Davide Castellaro (Italy)

Acoustic and electric harp guitars for Paolo Giordano and others 

   
Kerry Char (Portland, OR)

Left-handed Dyer copy and vast experience in restoring harp guitars

       

 

Mike Doolin (Portland, OR) Original designs for Muriel Anderson and others

   

Mike Doolin: Muriel Anderson's Harp Requinto
Mike Doolin:
20-string Harp Guitar
Mike Doolin:
17-string Jazz Harp Guitar
Mike Doolin: 22-string Double Neck Harp Guitar

Michael Dunn (New Westminster, BC Canada)

Builds various Knutsen-inspired instruments

   

Harry Eibert (Syracuse, NY)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired harp guitar, ukes and mando

       
Jeffrey Elliott (Portland, OR)

Designed John Doan's original 20-string harp guitar, and nylon string harp guitar

       

Harry Fleischman (Sebastopol, CA)

Original designs

         

Fritz Harich (Austria)

Schrammel guitars: 2 models

       

Jim Hewett (Panorama Village, TX)

Dyer variants and originals

       

Charles Hoffman (Minneapolis, MN)

Dyer copies

Charles Hoffman: Harp Guitar

Steve Klein (Linden, CA)

Electric harp guitars for Michael Hedges and others

 
Bernhard Kresse (Cologne, Germany)

Restoration and reproductions of Early Romantic era harp guitars

         

Pierre Lamour (France)

Original harp guitar designs

     

Pierre Lamour: Eclose: 17 String Extended Guitar, Cyclopea: 12 String Harp Guitar

Lance McCollum (Colfax, CA)

Dyer inspired designs

        

 

Merrill & Co. (Williamsburg, VA)

Stephen Bennett model and other Dyer copies

         

Roland Metzer (Warngau, Germany)

Replica of wappen-shaped 1907 Hans Raab

         
Benoît Meulle-Stef  (Belgium)

Builds original harp guitar designs and restores  kontragitarres

   

Orville and Bob Milburn (Sweet Home, OR)

Variants of the Sullivan-Elliott harp guitar

         

Morgan Guitars (Everitt, OK)

Glen Morgan & daughter Alisa:

         
  David Newton (Beaumont, TX)

Harp mandolins

       

Duane Noble (Richland, WA)

Contemporary Knutsen/Dyer-inspired harp guitars

   

 

Alan Perlman (San Francisco, CA)

"Arch guitars" for James Kline, and similar harp guitars

       

Alan Perlman: Arch Harp Guitar

Anthony Powell (Idaho)

Knutsen-inspired instruments

   

Otto Schneider (Germany)

Schrammel guitars

         

Stephen Sedgwick (England)Numerous harp guitar designs, modern, reproductions, and in-between.  Stephen is also a scholar of the harp guitar's history

Stephen Sedgwick: Making Harp Guitars
Stephen Sedgwick:
Torres 11 String Copy

Seraph Harp Guitars (England)

Designer Tony Seeger and luthier Nathan Sheppard created this new design

         

Leo Sprenger (Germany)

Schrammel guitars: 2 models in different sizes

Ron Steiger (Ventura, CA)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired designs

Michael Thames (Taos, NM)

The "Dresden" - a 13-course theorboed classical guitar

Mitsuhiro Uchida (Japan)

Original designs inspired by John Doan's Sullivan-Elliott

4947-27 Fujisawa Takato-cho, Kamiina-gun, Nagano, JAPAN Post Code: 396-0301 Telephone: 0265-96-2145
Mr. Uchida does not have a PC. His client Morihiko Yasuda has kindly created the above web page for him

Edgar Vila (Naples, FL)

Dyer design for Andy Wahlberg

         

Kathy Wingert (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA)

Harp guitars for Frank Doucette, Stephen Bennett and others

Steve Wishnevsky (Winston Salem, NC)

Highly unusual, simply- constructed designs

 

 

Jim Worland (Rockford, IL)

William Eaton lyraharp guitar variations and original designs

Jim Worland: The Lyraharp Guitar, a 24 string harp guitar
Jim Worland: A 32 string harp guitar with sympathetic strings

Jeffrey Yong (Malaysia)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired design for Don Alder and others

           

Occasional, First-Time or Retired Harp Guitar Luthiers

From newcomers to hobbyists to the finest luthiers in the world, this group has dabbled in the harp guitar world, making one or two instruments.  Perhaps some of these will become established repeat builders like those above.  Some instruments may now be ancient history, others are brand new (some may still be available).  The list includes a few well known harp guitar  builders who have since disappeared or retired.


Arul (India)

Composite harp sympathetic guitar

Alberto Bonafini (Ceneselli, Italy)

Original design

Des Anthony (Australia)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired design

Peter Biffin (NSW, Australia)

Modern theorboed guitar

Julius Borges (Littleton, Mass)

"Mini-Harp" Guitar for Emmylou Harris

  Ralph Bown (England)

Dyer copy

R.E. Brune (Chicago, IL)

Scherzer restorations and copy for Brian Torosian

  Douglas Ching (Chester, VA)

Dyer inspired design

  Cloe Guitars (Italy)

Daniele Cardoni and Luca Cesaroni: electric harp guitar

J. Thomas Davis (Columbus, OH)

Dyer copy for Bill Dutcher

Mark Deering (St. Paul, MN)

Original design

Philippe Dubreuille (Bonnatrait, France)

Electric for Ben Harper with 4 short floating basses and sympathetics within the back. Sympathetic guitars for others
Email

Ellie Erickson

Electric harp guitars

 

Dave Evans (Brussels, Belgium)

Harp guitar for Pierre Bensusan

Email

Dave Evans: Pierre Bensusan's 23-String Harp Guitar

Luciano Faria (São Paulo, Brazil)

Reproductions of c.1760 theorboed guitar

Steven Ganz (Bellingham, WA)

11-string classical guitar

Erik Pierre Hofmann (France)

Modern theorboed guitar

  Mark Kaiser

Harp guitar for Eric Loy

Del Langejans (Holland, MI)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired design for Muriel Anderson

 
Linda Manzer

42-string Pikasso guitars for Pat Metheny and Scott Chinery

Michihiro (Michi) Matsuda (Oakland, CA)

Original design for Michael Simmons

  Joseph Mayes

7th floating D string, a la Lacôte

Peter McGilton

"exotic" electric guitars

Chris McKenna
McKenna Flutes, Inc.
8 Raymond Road
Deerfield, NH 03037
Phone 1-603-463-4185
Fax 1-603-463-7230
Email
Michael Menkevich (Elkins Park, PA)

33-string harp guitar for Fred Vandenberg

Rich Mermer (Sebastian, FL)

Original design

Ralph Novak (San Leandro, CA)

Built Phil DeGruy's electric "Guitarp"

Oakwood Instruments (Leeds, England)

Martyn Banks & Gordon Hewson built this copy of a William Eaton design [with 2 banks of strings on the body] for Indian guitarist Rajan Spolia

Patrick Podpadec (Madison, OH)

"Dreamcaster" for Brian Henke

Email

Steve Rolig (Santa Fe, NM)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired design

Antonello Saccu (Italy)

Built two Gazzo reproduction Italian instruments for Beppe Gambetta

Michael Sandén (Sweden) 

Jack Sanders (Los Angeles, CA)

Lacote decacorde reproduction

Sandpiper Instruments/John Westling (Coquille, OR)
Federico Sheppard (Green Bay, WI)

12-course Spanish guitar [3 floating basses] for Peter Lang

Email

Charles Shifflett (Alberta, Canada)

Email

Takahiro Shimo (Tokyo, Japan)

Original dual-arm design

 

Jeff Sigurdson (British Columbia)

Dyer copy

Ervin Somogyi (Oakland, CA)

Original design

Gary Southwell (Nottingham, U.K.)

Scherzer restoration and copy and James Kline's first "archguitar"

  Ron Spillers (Richmond, VA)

Dyer harp guitar variants, played by Andy McKee, Dan LaVoie and others

8342 Greenock drive
Richmond VA 23235
Phone: (804) 327-3864

Walter Stanul (Boston, MA)Creator of the arch-guitar for Peter Blancette and others, two of these instruments were in harp guitar form

 

John Sullivan (Portland, OR)

John Doan's original 20-string harp guitar

John passed away on April 21, 2007.  We all will deeply miss him.

Dan'l Terry (Austin, TX)

Dyer/Knutsen inspired design

Todd Whaley (St. Louis, MO)

Dyer variant (unfinished)

David White: De Faoite Stringed Instruments (Bucks, England)

Original ladder-braced design

 

David White (De Faoite Stringed Instruments): Making a Harp Guitar

Glenn Wilson (Australia)

Has an instrument based on a design concept by Fred Carlson - with Doolin-like double-cutaways

Steve Wise (Texas)

Dyer-inspired harp guitar and harp-uke

512-282-6418
Email


Personal Instrument Harp Guitar Luthiers

These makers include innovative builders ranging from highly skilled professionals to part time amateurs.  They have created instruments for their own use and may or may not build for other clients.


Bart Applewhite (Phoenix, AZ)

Financial manager of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery: electric harp bass

   
Tim Donahue (Japan)

Built his own electric fretless and fretted harp guitars

 

William Eaton (Phoenix, AZ)

Director of the Roberto-Venn School of Luthiery, numerous unique harp guitar and related designs

Mickey Fischer (somewhere in California)

Creates his own hybrid harp guitar instruments

 
Bart Lawrence (Wenham, MA)

Architect and furniture maker who also built a harp guitar

     

Doug Whittier      

Additional Internet articles or photo essays on harp guitar projects

Fred Carlson: Making Sound Look Good by Wade Vonasek

Fred Carlson: The New Dream: 39-string acoustic Harp-Sympitar with MIDI-capability (2006)

Fred Carlson: Big Red: A 38-string custom Harp-Sympitar (2005)

Fred Carlson: The Flying Dream: 39-string acoustic Harp-Sympitar with MIDI capability (2003)

Fred Carlson: The Harpouditar: A 26-String Guitar/Oud/Zither (2002)

Fred Carlson: Design and Construction of Oracle, 24-string Harp-Sympitar (2002)

Fred Carlson: Kali: 12-String Guitar with 2 Added Sub-basses (2000)

Mike Doolin: 17-string Jazz Harp Guitar (2006)

Mike Doolin: Muriel Anderson's Harp Requinto

Dave Evans: Pierre Bensusan's 23-String Harp Guitar

Charles Hoffman: Harp Guitar

Pierre Lamour: Eclose: 17 String Extended Guitar, Cyclopea: 12 String Harp Guitar

Alan Perlman: Arch Harp Guitar

Stephen Sedgwick: Making Harp Guitars

Stephen Sedgwick: Torres 11 String Copy

David White (De Faoite Stringed Instruments): Making a Harp Guitar

Jim Worland: The Lyraharp Guitar, a 24 string harp guitar


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