Harp Guitar c.1912 Wm C. Stahl, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Patented by August Larson Built by the Larson brothers, Chicago, Illinois W.C. Stahl of Milwaukee was a prominent music publisher and “maker” of plucked string instruments, and interestingly, one of the witnesses of the Flinn harp guitar in the late 1880s. His eventual instrument line included various Stahl harp guitars built by the Larson brothers, who were also building the popular high-quality harp guitars for W.J. Dyer & Bro. (see page 32). One of Stahl’s offerings was a highly unusual model patented by August Larson in 1912. His invention had a second body for the six-string neck inside the larger harp guitar body. It is a fully separate resonating box with its own back and sides, sharing the top and outer wall with the main body. While the resonant top is activated by all strings, each body compartment has its own soundhole and subtle tone particularities for the two banks of strings. Curiously, just three of the several known specimens with the patent’s double body shape include the internal body.
X-rays of a similar Larson patent harp guitar.
A M E R I C A N I N V E NT I O N S, 1885–1910
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