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Topic: Gibson Electraharp |
Cartwright Thompson
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 6:44 am |
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Rare...and "Electrasharp."
_________________
"Gopher, Everett?" |
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Don Drummer
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 7 Jul 2012 9:42 am
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| I believe that is a pre-war Gibson. I played one in Gruhns Vintage Guitar in the late 80's and was impressed by the mechanics and feel. This is nothing like the post war version which is half the quality. At the time Gruhn wanted $1,800 for it. I thought that price was low. How many of these models did Gibson make? |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 5:42 am
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It says in the ad that is 1 of 13.
What it doesn't say is the reason Gibson discontinued building their Electraharp is there was a controversy over patent infringement with the Harlin Bros. Multi-Kord.
Gibson quite making them to avoid a lawsuit. |
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Patrick Thornhill
From:
Austin Texas, USA
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 8 Jul 2012 12:15 pm
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Is there any U-Tubes of someone playing the Electroharp besides Alvino Rey ? I would like to hear the sound and how the pedals are used !
_________________
Sacramento Western Swing Society Hall of Fame, 1992 |
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Jerry Hayes
From:
Virginia Beach, Va.
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Posted 10 Jul 2012 2:34 am
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Hey Billy, do you remember the Gibson that Tommy Brooks used to play when he was still in SoCal. It was a triple necker if I remember right and had pedals on the center neck only. He used to get a lot out of that guitar..........JH in Va.
_________________
Don't matter who's in Austin (or anywhere else) Ralph Mooney is still the king!!! |
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Dale Hampton
From:
Missouri, USA
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chris ivey
From:
california (deceased)
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Posted 12 Jul 2012 5:32 pm
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| i don't get many museum gigs. |
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Eugene Cole
From:
near Washington Grove, MD, USA
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Posted 21 Jul 2012 6:25 pm $5000 premium for George Hines provenance
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The Electraharp pictured below sold on eBay 3 or 4 years ago for between $800 and $1100 as I recall. I was tempted because for me it was like an EH-185 with the bonus of a changer.
The $5000 premium for the George Hines provenance seems way out of line to me.
_________________
Regards
-- Eugene <sup>at</sup> FJ45.com
PixEnBar.com
Cole-Luthierie.com
FJ45.com
Sierra U14 8+5 my copedent, 1972 MSA D10 8+4, and nothing in the Bank. 8^) |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 22 Jul 2012 3:09 pm
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| Danny James wrote: |
It says in the ad that is 1 of 13.
What it doesn't say is the reason Gibson discontinued building their Electraharp is there was a controversy over patent infringement with the Harlin Bros. Multi-Kord.
Gibson quit making them to avoid a lawsuit. |
...and the Multi-Kord is a much better instrument. It's a shame they stopped making them. They (Harlins) should have progressed onwards to one with a regular pedal rack, because they're the easiest instrument to change the copedant on that you will ever find.  |
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Eric Stumpf
From:
Newbury, NH 03255
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Posted 24 Jul 2012 11:12 am
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| I don't know if you're saying that the Multi was a better guitar than the postwar Electraharps or better than all of them which would include the prewar ones. Who really knows if the prewar Electraharps were worse than a Harlin Bros. guitar? Really, do you know anyone who owns one who could tell us that? I can say from having had the unfortunate experience of owning a Multiharp (triple neck late 50's Electraharp) that it was a low quality, poorly-designed instrument and probably would be considered inferior when compared to a Multi. Regarding that Electraharp auction a few years back: that was a screwy deal where eBay did a live auction thing (do they even do that anymore?) and you had to have pre-approved funding to bid and (!) there was no shipping option other than having to pick up the guitar at the sale location. It went for quite a bit less than what would have been a fair market price at the time and I think this was due to the nature of that particular auction. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 24 Jul 2012 3:59 pm
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| Eric Stumpf wrote: |
| ...do you know anyone who owns one who could tell us that? ... |
Yes, I own four MultiKords. My friend Basil Henriques recently sold an Electraharp, and I have the body of an Electraharp amongst my spares. My friend Danny James is the expert on this. He knew the Harlin Brothers and worked for them on MultiKords for a while. He knows more than any living person about the MultiKord mechanism, and his opinion of Electraharps is no secret. |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Posted 24 Jul 2012 5:54 pm
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Alan, thanks as always for the nice compliments. Actually I worked for Harlins in their store in Indianapolis Ind. while still in high school.
I still own a couple of Multi-Kords and have had the changers on several different ones apart over the years.
The main difference in the functionality of the changers between an Electra Harp and a Multi-Kord was the Multi-Kord had a locking nut on each tuning screw. There was a special screwdriver / socket wrench combination tool supplied by Harlins with each M-K they sold for adjusting then locking the adjusting screw so that the guitar stayed in tune. The Electra Harps did not have that feature and it is my understanding that those who owned them claimed that they didn't stay in tune very well.
The features of the Multi-Kords in my opinion were much better for this reason. I agree with Alan that they could have improved the design if they had put the pedal bar across the front instead of on the end. Also a much sturdier, and less flimsy design would have been an improvement.
In order to keep the cost down so parents could afford to buy them for their kids and interest them in learning to play the Hawaiian pedal steel guitar, Jay Harlin wouldn't incorporate these advances in design in his product. Harlins loved young people and they loved to promote their affordable Multi-Kords, while getting them started into a lifetime of music. Through teaching the Oahu method. It was a good way.  |
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Eric Stumpf
From:
Newbury, NH 03255
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Posted 25 Jul 2012 2:34 am
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| Alan, what I was asking was if you knew anyone with an original first-series Electraharp (prewar circa 1941). It isn't fair to say that a Multi-Kord is a better guitar than one of those unless you can put the two together for a comparison. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 25 Jul 2012 2:04 pm
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| Eric Stumpf wrote: |
| Alan, what I was asking was if you knew anyone with an original first-series Electraharp (prewar circa 1941). It isn't fair to say that a Multi-Kord is a better guitar than one of those unless you can put the two together for a comparison. |
I was hoping Basil would jump in on this subject, but he's very busy nowadays and might have missed it. Unfortunately, most of the people who played the Electraharp are no longer with us.  |
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Danny James
From:
Summerfield Florida USA
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Billy Tonnesen
From:
R.I.P., Buena Park, California
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Posted 26 Jul 2012 8:43 pm
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Back in the forties there was a Steel Player here on the West Coast who played either the Electraharp or the Multichord. He played with Spade Cooley before Joaquin Murphy and then with Happy Perryman after that. I remember that he did record with Happy Perryman playing "Jealous Heart" and "we're Getting Ffarther and Farther Apart". If there are stil copies of these records around we could hear his playing. His name was DICK ROBERTS
_________________
Sacramento Western Swing Society Hall of Fame, 1992 |
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Andy DePaule
From:
Saigon, Viet Nam & Springfield, Oregon
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Posted 13 Nov 2018 4:31 pm Kool looking but.....
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Kool looking but I doubt it's worth 1/10th the asking price in that poor condition.
I'm more than happy just to have all those good close up photos of it.   
Was a nice chunk of furniture in it's day!
_________________
Inlaid Star Guitar 2006 by Mark Giles. SD-10 4+5 in E9th; http://luthiersupply.com/instrument-gallery.html
2017 Mullen SD-10, G2 5&5 Polished Aluminum covering. Custom Build for me. Great Steel.
Clinesmith Joaquin Murphy style Aluminum 8 String Lap Steel Short A6th.
Magnatone Jeweltone Series Lap Steel, Circa 1950? 6 String with F#minor7th Tuning.
1956 Dewey Kendrick D-8 4&3, Restoration Project.
1973 Sho~Bud Green SD-10 4&5 PSG, Restoration Project. |
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Erv Niehaus
From:
Litchfield, MN, USA
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Posted 14 Nov 2018 9:17 am
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Andy,
I hear what you're saying.
I tried an Electraharp back in my day, and I agree with you, it was a nice piece of furniture, and that's all I will say for it. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 17 Nov 2018 10:32 am Re: Kool looking but.....
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| Andy DePaule wrote: |
Kool looking but I doubt it's worth 1/10th the asking price in that poor condition...
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That was the asking price six years ago. I would be interested to know who bought it and how much he paid for it. |
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