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Topic: Identify Weissenborn-style Guitar and Maker/Player? |
Dale Lee
From:
Down Yonder
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Posted 19 Jan 2017 3:38 pm |
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My friend has these old photos and is interested to find out about the man and the guitar. Here are the photos. One of the guitar, one of some writing on the guitar, and one of the man, possibly the maker or perhaps the player.
Does anyone recognize anything?
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Dale Lee
From:
Down Yonder
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Posted 19 Jan 2017 3:41 pm
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| He says the photos were found on Ebay a few years back. |
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Kirk Francis
From:
Laupahoehoe
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Posted 21 Jan 2017 7:53 am Identify Weissenborn-style Guitar and Maker/Player?
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| the curve of the saddle (looks as though some bass strings were attached at some point to a now missing outrigger off the peghead?), the peghead shape, and the body sections comprised of what seem to be differing types of wood look vaguely chris knutsen-esque to my eye. the old boy in the other photo does not. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 21 Jan 2017 9:47 am
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| Terrific pix! Thanks for sharing. |
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Dale Lee
From:
Down Yonder
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Posted 21 Jan 2017 10:01 am Thanks
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Thank you, Kirk. I had noticed the elongated bridge, especially on the bass side but I had no explanation in mind. What you say makes sense. Thanks again for your insights.
I had not heard of Cris Knutsen, so after reading your reply I Googled him. Here is a link to the Wikipedia page about him. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Knutsen
According to the Wikipedia article he was known for oddities in his guitars, so the oddly shaped bridge fits the possibility that it could be one of his.
Edited to say that (per Wikipedia) he was also a builder of harp-guitars. That also fits with your theory of bass strings to a headstock outrigger. |
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Dale Lee
From:
Down Yonder
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Posted 21 Jan 2017 10:15 am Knutsen Harp Guitar
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I found this picture of a Knutsen Guitar at this link.http://www.harpguitars.net/knutsen/hhw7.htm.
I can see similarities. It looks like it would take four hands to play it.
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 22 Jan 2017 7:24 am
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Not for a Norwegian. 
There is a Norwegian violin called the "Hardinger".
It has 8 strings and the four strings positioned below the fretboard are sympathetic strings.
That's maybe how this guitar works also. |
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Jack Hanson
From:
San Luis Valley, USA
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Posted 22 Jan 2017 9:38 am
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| If Tom Noe were to pipe in on this thread, a lot of the speculation likely could be laid to rest. |
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Norman Evans
From:
Tennessee
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Dale Lee
From:
Down Yonder
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Posted 22 Jan 2017 10:18 am The old boy?
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| What about the old boy in his workshop? Does anyone have any clues about who he might be? He looks happy at his work on a violin top or back. |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 22 Jan 2017 7:35 pm
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First guitar is absolutely a Knutsen. If anyone cares to go through Gregg Miner's Knutsen Pages online (I don't see it), it might show up there too. (Knutsen Guitars: "No One Alike".) If it doesn't, Gregg will be very happy to know about and add it to his list of known Knutsen instruments.
Maker doesn't look like Hermann Weissenborn (certainly not Chris Knutsen), nor do the pieces look like one of either one of theirs. (My reservations include the bridge shape, thick bone saddle, back bracing, no white centerstrip piece that a Weissenborn brand would be burned into and a general "Malcolm-Gladwell-'Blink'" instant sense that it doesn't look just like Weissenborn's stuff.)
If I had to throw out a wild guess, I might say Garrett Brink, a Michigan violin maker who dabbled in Weissenborn-like Hawaiian objects. First of all, I have no idea what Brink looked like. However, the Brinks I've seen are kind of a cross between a Weissenborn and Kona--in-between-depth body, short square neck, but this crowned headstock which also looks to be slotted kinda rings a bell without rummaging through so many many many physical or cyber photos. The forms behind him looks like he made these guitars with a certain regularity.
Hard to tell with the resolution presented.
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"Gopher, Everett?" |
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Dale Lee
From:
Down Yonder
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Posted 22 Jan 2017 8:16 pm Thank you
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| Thanks, Ben Elder. |
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