Alkire EHarp, 10 strings

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 4 Apr 2008 4:19 pm

I just picked up this early 50's Alkire EHarp, 10 string lap steel. Built by Epiphone. It's all original, except it's missing the handrest. I'm very impressed with the quality of the materials... Brazilian rosewood fretboard, excellent Epiphone tuners, etc. I have seen later EHarps, built by Valco, and the quality was not as good as this earlier one. The "case candy" included an Alkire EHarp 10 string BAR, and several pieces of Alkire instruction material.

I notice that Alkire's tuning is 'chromatic' on strings 4 through 9. I imagine that would require very selective picking of certain strings, and not much strumming on those strings.

[tab]
Alkire 10-string Tuning

1. E
2. C#
3. B
4. A
5. G#
6. G
7. F#
8. F
9. E
10. C#
[/tab]

I will probably go with E13 for now, since I'm familiar with E6 on lap steel and E9 PSG. Does anyone here play one of these EHarps? Anyone playing Alkire's tuning?

Stephan Miller · Post by **Stephan Miller** » 4 Apr 2008 5:17 pm

Doug, congratulations. I always take a second look at these, and wonder what it would be like to play one. How's the tone of the pickup? And, have you measured her

? (Scale length, and distance between the outside strings at the nut?)

You might give Tom Morrell's E13 a shot. It's a very close tuning (though not as close as Alkire's)-- lo-hi E-D-E-F#-G#-B-C#-E-F#-G#. He got fantastic chords out of it...

--Steve

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 4 Apr 2008 6:01 pm

The scale length is 22 3/4". The distance between strings 1 and 10 at the nut is 2 13/16". The pickup sounds very clean. Bright, but not thin. I like it. Now I just have to get used to the string spacing. Thanks for posting Tom Morrell's E13. It looks good.

Mel Taylor · Post by **Mel Taylor** » 5 Apr 2008 12:02 pm

Hi Doug, thats really a nice guitar. I took lessons over 50 years ago on the Eharp steel guitar. My first Eharp was a lap steel just like this one but it was a different color. I took a 45 year layoff from the steel and about 2 years ago went back to playing the steel again and I went back to the Eharp tuning. I now have 2 console models that I play on mostly but wish I still had my original lap steel. You are right you can't strum on this tuning but I've been trying other tunings since I came back to playing again but I like the Eharp tuning the best so I'm just sticking with it.
I think maybe this tuning is catching on again and Duane Solley, Mae Lang and myself play this tuning. I know Roy Thompson plays this tuning as well as many other tunings. If you go to Duane Solley's website for eharp players you will find some others that play also and their biographies. I don't know how to create a link so you can copy this into your url and go to it: www.eharpplayers.com/index.htm.
Mel Taylor

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 5 Apr 2008 9:46 pm

Mel, Thanks so much for posting the link to the site---> http://www.eharpplayers.com
Very interesting indeed!

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 5 Apr 2008 10:35 pm

You might do well to try this 10-str. version of the Jerry Byrd C-Diatonic Tuning:
1–E - .015p
2–C - .018p
3–B - .020p
4–A - .022p
5–G - .026w
6–F - .030w
7–E - .032w
8–C - .038w
9–A - .044w
10–F - .056w
Strums here are limited also, but; not completely!

Duane Solley · Post by **Duane Solley** » 6 Apr 2008 7:23 am

Doug, Thanks for the complement on the website. I apologize for it not being up to date. Due to a lot of personal problems I have not been able to update it for over a year now. Hopefully, I will get to it soon. The person who has the greatest expertise on the Eharp is probably Michael Lee Allen. He had several posts and a lot of information on the SGF. Here is an example:
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopi ... ight=eharp

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 6 Apr 2008 7:30 pm

Thanks, Duane.

John, yes, the Alkire tuning reminds me somewhat of Jerry Byrds's diatonic tuning. I wonder why there is no "2" note (D) in Jerry's C diatonic tuning?

Warren Slavin · Post by **Warren Slavin** » 7 Apr 2008 11:39 am

To All Formites:

Warren Slavin · Post by **Warren Slavin** » 7 Apr 2008 12:33 pm

ooops

I forgot the subject line and my text was blocked out (I think) -- somebody say what I did wrong !!

But what I said was that I grew up in Easton, PA where Eddie Alkire had his studio after he moved from Cleveland, OH where he was employed by the OAHU Publishing Company. I knew Eddie personally and he was a great person and musician and was proficient on all the string instruments, but as he told me, he loved the Hawaiian Steel Guitar above the others. I took a few lessons from him in 1944 before I joined the Navy but did not continue any formal contact after WWII with Eddie although I would drop in to chat with him and his wife Margie. When I was playing back then I was playing a double-8 Epiphone and Eddie tuned it: hi-lo: E,C#,G#,E,C#,A,G,B Strings 1,2,3,6,7,8 were treble and 4,5 were bass strings. I guess this would be C# minor and A maj with added ninth. I played this tuning little as over the years I played 6 and 7 string guitars.

My sister sent me the obituary of Eddie when we were living in NJ and I never knew he was developing the 20 string "Super Axe" -- He never made it in time for announcement and market.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 7 Apr 2008 8:12 pm

Thanks for posting that, Warren. I also enjoyed seeing the old pictures posted by Michael Lee Allen. I wonder if my EHarp is one of the ones shown in those band pictures!

Eddie Alkire was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1983. His plaque reads:

EDDIE ALKIRE

MASTER TEACHER, MUSIC PUBLISHER, COMPOSER, PERFORMER, CREATOR OF THE ALKIRE EHARP AND PIONEER OF THE 10-STRING STEEL AND GUITAR OF AMPLIFICATION. HE DEVOTED A LIFETIME TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE HAWAIIAN GUITAR AND TO THE ENRICHMENT OF ITS PLAYERS.

BORN: DECEMBER 6, 1907 HACKER VALLEY, W. VIRGINIA
DIED: JANUARY 25, 1981

That 20 STRING SuperAxe looks pretty intimidating!

John Bechtel · Post by **John Bechtel** » 7 Apr 2008 8:45 pm

Doug; One reason for not including a D`note in the C-Dia. Tuning is that it would effect the ability for familiar-slants and also it makes the tuning next to impossible to tune accurately!

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 4 Jan 2009 12:23 am

UPDATE:

I just picked up another Epiphone Eharp and this one's a beauty! I couldn't resist posting pictures!

Tom Pettingill · Post by **Tom Pettingill** » 4 Jan 2009 6:21 am

Nice catch Doug, that looks great and all there

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 4 Jan 2009 8:51 am

Yes, it's a stunning instrument, that's for sure. This one's complete. Many of them are missing the handrest.

Below is my favorite Eharp picture. This one is hanging on the wall of my studio. I try to imagine students back in the day learning Alkire's 10-string tuning, which is basically a chromatic tuning, with six of the strings tuned 1/2 step apart. It must have been very difficult for students to grasp (no pun intended). I tune mine to E13, but I'm thinking of trying a diatonic tuning. I like "A diatonic" on 8 string, so maybe I'll expand that to 10 strings and see how it goes.

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