GREAT
ACOUSTICS
Alan
Perlman
Arch-Harp Guitar |
|
From Acoustic Guitar, July 2004, issue
139, © 2004 String Letter Publishing, David A. Lusterman,
Publisher. All rights reserved. For more information on
Acoustic Guitar, contact String Letter Publishing, Inc.,
255 West End Avenue., San Rafael, CA 94901; telephone
(415) 485-6946; fax (415) 485-0831; www.acousticguitar.com. |
 |
PHOTOS
BY RAY LARSEN |
Commissioned
by guitarist James Kline (www.elevenstrings.com), San Francisco
luthier Alan Perlman’s Arch-Harp Guitar is an unusual,
yet functional, custom instrument. Based on an archguitar,
a small-bodied guitar with nine to 13 strings that com-bines
the tonal qualities of a classical guitar and a lute (for
more information on archguitars, visit www.archguitar.com),
this instru-ment started out as a “standard” 11-string
in 2002, and a detachable second body with eight harp strings
was added a year later.
Perlman (www.perlmanguitars.com) used North American birds-eye
maple for each body’s back and sides and European spruce
for the tops. He says that Kline’s rugged touring style
(which some-times includes backpacking in remote areas) called
for a sturdier guitar than normal. Although Kline requested
that the guitar’s tone hew more toward the guitar than
the lute, Perlman used a ladder bracing pattern to retain
a lute-like quality. Kline tunes the guitar’s first
six strings to standard guitar tuning and the lower harp strings
continue with B, D, A, G, and F (high to low). Waverly banjo
tuners are installed in a symmetrical pattern on the headstock
with five tuners on each side and one in the center.
|
James
Kline
demonstrates his singular instrument |
The
harp addition follows the exact contours of the gui-tar’s
body, with several rubber spacers in between, and attaches
at both ends with backpack-style cinch cords adjusted with
two spring-loaded plastic toggles. Kline tunes the harp to
a variety of scales depending on the piece he’s playing,
but they usually range from a B (an octave above the open
second string of a standard guitar) to a B an octave higher
than that. Waverly banjo tuners are also used on the harp
section, which includes some harp-style levers that change
the string’s pitch by a half step. For amplification,
the guitar’s bridge is outfitted with a Highlander undersaddle
pickup, and an L.R. Baggs iBeam soundboard transducer is used
in the harp’s body. Alan Perlman
Arch-Harp Guitar
_____________________________
By
Teja Gerken
|
