1917 Tonaharp Hawaiian Guitar (Multi-Neck Mod)

I worked-on and sold this quirky old bird to my friend Steve back in 2017. At the same time I had set it up as a "two-neck" 8-string-per-neck instrument. Since it's returned (Steve was clearing-out all sorts of extraneous studio toys) I've "reconverted" it into a "two-neck" 6-string-per-neck job, leaving 4 tuners in disuse. I think this is a little easier for my small guitar-playing brain to understand but there's no reason it couldn't go back to its original format (all one giant bank of strings in a horrendously-complicated tuning) or whatever format the next owner desires.

I will now relay the juicy bits from my first post on this as it covers the history:

The Tonaharp exists in two versions and both were intended for the Hawaiian, lap-slide player. This is the first version and in its original form -- with 17 strings spread-out in "chord banks" -- it was, to put it mildly, inconvenient for the average musician to use. 

Construction-wise, it's basically like a ladder-braced guitar but without a waist. It has a thin, mandola/octave mandolin depth and there's a giant support beam that runs from the neck block to the endblock inside (to counteract all that tension). It has a 22" scale and the neck is actually straight, so someone of a crazy mind could, theoretically, modify it to be used "Spanish" style, but the neck itself is pretty giant and wouldn't lend itself to regular, fretted play.

I'm pretty sure that this was made by Regal or Lyon & Healy for the sellers who hocked this instrument (Boswell and Wilber in Schenectady, NY), as the construction details, materials, purfling choices, and whatnot are close to instruments made/sold by those brands at the time. Failing that, I would expect it to have been made by Harmony.

Repairs included: new nut, minor cleaning, string-path adjustments. Per my original post, there was also this back in 2017: regluing the headstock seams at the top (where they'd come loose), a new rosewood nut (to replace an original which also had "wings" but was damaged and shorter), modification of the bridge, replacement of a big section of binding on the top, various crack and seam repairs to the sides and back, and whatever other minor stuff needed doing.

Weight: 3 lbs 10 oz

Scale length: 22"

Nut width: 3 7/8"

Body width: 13"

Body depth: 2 7/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid birch (faux rosewood paint)

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: ebonized maple

Fretboard: ebonized maple

Neck wood: Spanish cedar

String gauges: 54w, 42w, 32w, 20, 17, 13 low to high each "neck"

Condition notes: it has a mix of smaller cracks in the sides and a few on the back, too, all of which have been repaired in the past. There's some fill on the sides, too, that's a little gross but well-meaning. Someone reglued the neck joint at some point and while it's sturdy, the joint area was a little blemished. Clearly, the nut is non-original but the bridge is. It's missing one of its 17 tuners, too, and some of the binding is replacement and some of the purfling on top damaged.

It comes with: no case, sorry.

Consignor tag: OA9