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a big hello as I am new to this board, I have come here for some insight.   I am interested in trying to make-shift a harp guitar.  I want to see if I like playing one before I shell out thousands of dollars to own one.  So  I am thinking about adding a chamber to a used guitar.  It seems do-able but I had some questions.  Maybe someone knows the answers or where to point me...

-I am wondering how you determine the length of the added bass strings.  I have seen many designs and they seem to be different always, sometimes very much so. 

-then I was hoping for some suggestions on the bridge.  I am thinking about adding a second bridge, (as opposed to making one new one) but am wondering the best way to secure it to the body. 

    aside from that, I have found many good designs online, but no real specific info.  on how to do this.  I have never built a guitar, though am quite good at building.  My result will probably be no where near quality, but I just want to make something that is good enough to allow me to make a sound decision as to wether or not I would want to purchase one. 

any suggestions would be appreciated a ton. 

thanks in advance.

 

 

Hi Ryan,

Welcome here. If you haven't found it already then Harpguitars.net is a place to check out and the forum there is a good place to ask questions like this.

Harp guitars by their nature are unique instruments and designs so in terms of sub-bass scale length, it all depends what you are after. On a Dyer style harp guitar with the 5-6 sub-basses then the scale length is usually around 30"+ on the lowest ones in order to get down to the low E some tunings require and getting the string to work acoustically.

You could build a bolt on to an ordinary guitar. Bill Cumpiano has done so as you can see here. It looks like he put an extra bridge on the main guitar for the sub-basses. This will be glued and requires an extra bridge-plate inside the guitar as well. These are not "easy" building skills at all for a first timer or even an experienced builder. You can also do treble string add ons as Alan Perlman did for James Kline as you can see in this video.

Assuming you could build an add on, the sound will be very different from a harp-guitar with a full hollow arm as an integral part of the body. I suspect you would get a better ideas by hunting out harp-guitars in shops or finding builders/owners and seeing if you can play theirs. An ideal opportunity is the The Fifth Annual International Harp Guitar Gathering in Williamsburg, Virginia, October 27-28 this year. You can find more details here.

_________________
Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010