Here is some information concerning my 23 strings harp guitar custom model designed and built in 1988 by English luthier, guitarist and composer, Dave Evans, in Brussels.

It has 23 strings: 6 strings + 17 open bass strings tuned chromatically from G (the one you have at the 3rd fret on the E-Bass) down to C (1 octave & 4 steps lower). The idea behind its conception was to be able to play the bass octave to support any chord played on the 6 strings section, at any time and anywhere in the harmony. It is a unique model inspired by the first harp guitars designed by Gibson in the 1920's, excepted that those instruments were very heavy and didn't really project their sound. Dave Evans's original creation has been thought out with great care for ergonomics and reduced weight. A mute system has been elaborated and can be activated with a little movement from the right hand's wrist in order to mute the sustain and resonnances of the bass strings.

As it stands, I never really found the time to put into going into this instrument for real, and at the exception of some impros, never recorded with it. I would need a desert highland and a new reincarnated life to put all the time into exploring this mavellous monster, and doing this by developping a completly different right hand approach. Just when I think to what could be played gives me vertigo.
I would like to thank Dave Evans for having taken the time to share with us his concept and the state of mind he was into when he built the instrument.
Pierre B.


Some specs:
* Maple back and sides
* a Spruce top
* a Cut-away
* Goto tuning head
* 1 compensated saddle + 1 bass saddle
* a custom fine tuning brass system for the bass strings, designed by Dave Evans
* Electro-acoustic model
* 3 Japanese Sanox piezo pick-ups mounted underneath the saddles
* Stereo output: the 6 strings section/the 17 bass strings section
* a wooden flycaisse

Dave Evans: "I lived, breathed, ate, slept, even dreamed this beast for what must have been 18 months of my life. It occupied me & preoccupied me almost full-time. Pierre had insisted on 17 supplementary "harp" strings, the lowest of which should be the D below the E on the double-bass - big engineering problems here - how to stop it tearing itself to pieces? To this day I have never seen another harp guitar except in photographs - had to invent it from square 1. So I decided to make the mold for the body (see Harp Guitar Mold.jpg), the "guitar" neck off-centre to anticipate the "harp" necks.
Chose an archtop, using wood matured for a cello... Epicea top carved to 4.5mm in the centre 2.5mm towards the sides. The maple back - 3.5mm in the centre & 2.3mm towards the sides. Remember being amazed at how accurately you can cut wood with a gouge & a finger-plane... Engineering-wise, an archtop can be tough & sensitive. Had to make many new tools, like the special forms to hold the top the back while I carved them.
I put an epicea pillar between the tail-block & the wide shoulder-block to help unload some of the tension on the table. Settled on harpsichord strings & found a maker in England - harpsichord strings demand less tension, but need length... It was going to be long!

Pierre needed to be able to tune the "harp strings" while he was playing - so I needed to design an adjustable tail-piece, & thanks to the Portuguese "guitarra de fado", I stole their idea. And discovered new skills - working metal - making models to make molds for delicate parts in bronze - the subtleties of the lathe &c &c.
At a certain moment I couldn't wait to get some strings on it & hear what it sounded like. Soon I got my reward - sounded like a cathedral with 23 strings! Almost as soon, Pierre & I realised that it had to have a system for damping the "harp" strings because their sustain was alarmingly long... Surprised myself. Built it out of the same wood that I'd used for most of the decoration - Bijo from the Comore Islands - a very dense-grained pinkish mahogany - very rigid & a real joy to work. It was a stroke of luck that the design could accommodate it in such a manor that the player's wrist would fall just above it.

It didn't even squeak - mind you, that was 20 years ago!"

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