1917 Gibson Style U Harp Guitar - Used

$7,500.00

Details

This is by far the nicest and best-preserved Gibson Style U harp guitar Gryphon has offered, and one we've known for a long while as it belonged to Gryphon co-founder, the late Frank Ford. As a fan of Gibson's Mandolin Orchestra line of instruments, this harp guitar was one of Frank's prize possessions, and it was often displayed here at the store (back in the days when we had wall space for such frivolity as giant 100 year-old instruments most people hadn't even heard of). It's in excellent and original condition, (with an exception mentioned at the end of this listing), and is fully functional and comes with its original hardshell case .

Gibson's Style U harp guitar was the most expensive instrument in their catalog, and for good reason. For starters it's huge (almost 19" wide) with a complex shape and a carved top and carved back. The two necks are topped with an elaborate headstock and the 10 additional harp neck strings exert tremendous tension on the body. In summary, Gibson's harp guitar was a stylistic and engineering challenge. Harp guitars were widely used in mandolin groups, and the voluminous bass they produced was needed to balance all those high-pitched mandolin strings. Given Gibson's heavy reliance on mandolin sales in the 'teens and early 1920s, it's no surprise they would give their harp guitar a curl on the upper bout to match the curls on F model mandolins and their flagship Style O guitar. When viewed together in period photos of the day all those curls made quite a fashion statement and there was no mistaking a Gibson! In catalogs of the day, the Style U harp guitar was given a two-page spread and this model occupied that honored position for over a dozen years.

This example has had excellent care and has lived here in Palo Alto for over 45 years. All the shellac varnish finish is original, as are the tuners, bridge, pickguard, and tailpiece. The large celluloid cross bar of the tailpiece has a full set of ebony bridge pins. The guitar neck still has its original frets, and there is minor wear to the finish on the neck barrel in the lower position, so we know this did get played. One of the support arms for the pickguard has gone missing, along with its clamp that gripped the sides of the body. These is a tight 3 1/2" hairline compression crack in the top on the bass side of the lower bout, with smaller compression lines at the outer edge in the same area. Since there is no sign of damage to the side, these hairlines are almost certainly from a hard bump to that area when the instrument was in its case. These models are often quite battered in appearance, simply because they are so large and awkward to carry. When playing one, it's tempting to strum or pluck the bass strings but you don't really need to. When properly tuned those 10 additional bass strings hum and rumble when the instrument is played, lending a mysterious room-filling resonance to even simple guitar parts. The varnish has an attractive web of small crazing lines over the rich coloring, whether played or displayed it's an impressive musical instrument from a bygone era. The original hardshell case is in equally clean condition.