ARTICLES
Updated December 2022

BY
Gregg Miner
ABOUT
Gregg Miner

part of www.minermusic.com)


ARTICLES BY Gregg Miner
Note to readers: This is a list of all articles written for both of my web sites and, occasionally, printed publication.
The articles represent 45 years of passion and research, and many thousands of hours of work.
I have yet to earn a penny from any of this; like most scholars, I do it for the love of the instruments, and to share with like-minded individuals.
Although I do not ask for any recompenses, I still hope for this information to be available - just like it is now, to you who are reading this - for future generations of researchers, musicians, or simply for entertainment. 
Therefore, if you enjoy one (or several) of these articles, find something useful for your research, or are otherwise moved, please consider supporting this work by purchasing a CD or subscribing to Harpguitars.net.
It isn't just a show of support or thanks.  Assume that for every time someone makes a purchase of one my CDs, or makes a $10 one-year donation/subscription to Harpguitars.net, it will allow these articles and priceless photos to remain online for one month longer than otherwise possible on my own. 
I'd like our great-great-etc-grandchildren to have access to all of it - how about you?

Thanks,
Gregg

Web: Miner Music, general instruments

The Weird and Wonderful World of Bowed Zithers

The C. F. Zimmermann Concert Grand Autoharp

The Dolceola Pages

Fretless Zithers by Gregg Miner and Kelly Williams

Washington Phillips CD study

The Instruments of Washington Phillips by Gregg Miner and Kelly Williams

The Leadbelly 1944 Hollywood Sessions: Featuring the first known historical recordings of the Dolceola

The Stössel-lute

Piccolo Mandolin

Mandolinettos

The Great  Elias Howe  Mystery

Besides my web articles below, my blog contains several hundred small to detailed articles, all indexed by category on Gregg's Blogg

Web: Harpguitars.net: harp guitar articles

What is a Harp Guitar? 
"Harp Guitar": What's in a Name?

Harp Guitar Patents
 
Harp Guitar Tunings

Harp Guitar Timeline of Significant Events (Harpguitars.net Members Only access)
Encyclopedia of Harp Guitar Players of the Past 
Fretted Harp Guitars

Harp-lutes
 
Harpolyres
 
Mixed Family Hybrids & Other Related Forms
 
Lyre Guitars & Related Instruments
 
Extended Range Guitars
 
Super-Trebles: To Infinity and Beyond (Harpguitars.net Members Only access)

Makers Articles

Altpeter Harp Guitar and Double-Harp Ukulele
The Harp Guitars of Joseph Bohmann
Dyer Harp Guitars: The Knutsen-Dyer Connection 
The Dyer Harp Mandolin Family and Knutsen’s Influence 
The Mysterious Five-Course Harp Mandola

The Harp Guitars of Settimio Gazzo and Other Genoese Luthiers
Harwood Harp Guitars 
The Lacôte Harp Guitars

The Harp Guitars of Mario Maccaferri
May Flower Harp Guitars 
Monzino

Marvelous Mozzani! The Incredible Harp Guitars of Luigi Mozzani  
The Birth of the American 12-string Guitar
 
Frank E. Coulter Harp Guitars and Other Stringed Instruments
 

Featured Harp Guitar of the Month Series

"Harpe-guitare," catalog # 1550 in the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum
A Portuguese Knutsen?!
 
The Bohmann Monster
 
Lyon & Healy's Monster Bass Harp Guitar
 
A Dyer Detective Story
 
Harp Ukuleles
 
Another 1-of-a-Kind Knutsen Convertible
The Oldest Extant Gibson Harp Guitar by Gregg Miner with Benoît Meulle-Stef
The Mystery Maccaferri
America’s First True Harp Guitar
"Chitarra monumentale"and its relation to the Gazzo harp guitars of Pasquale Taraffo
The Shutt Mando-Bass-Harp-Guitar
Stephen Bennett’s Great-Grandfather’s Dyer
 
The Grunewald Harp Guitar 
The Behee Lyric Harp Guitar
 
The Petzval-Scherzer Guitharfe
 
Weymann Harp Guitar with Double "Tree of Life" inlay 
The Harp Guitar of Boris Perott 
G. A. Carlson c.1900 Harp Guitar
 
Shutt’s Harp Guitar Prototype?
 
The Legacy of the Cera Brothers
 
Walton’s c.1900 Baritone Harp Guitar 
Harp Guitars in the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum, Part 1
Harp Guitars in the Brussels Musical Instrument Museum, Part 2 
Gibson Harp Guitars: To the World’s Fair and Beyond!
 
Bohmann's Contra Bass Harp Guitars: Gargantuan and Groundbreaking! 
Milanese Master Luthier Luigi Galimberti

Harp Guitar Player of the Month Series, Historical

Heinrich Albert and the World's First Harp Guitar Quartet
Italo Meschi, the Last Italian Troubadour
Chris Knutsen: Harp Guitar "Triple Threat"
Mario Maccaferri, Concert Harp Guitarist
Pasquale Taraffo: The World's Greatest Harp Guitar Virtuoso by Franco Ghisalberti & Gregg Miner
Albert Shutt and the Mando-Bass-Harp-Guitar 
Maccaferri, Revisited
 
George Dudley, America’s Most Famous Unknown Harp Guitarist
 
Black Harp Guitar Players 
James Reese Europe and the Clef Club Orchestra
Roy Butin, Revealed!  
The Harp Guitar of Boris Perott 
The Legacy of the Cera Brothers
 
Vardon, Perry and...Wilbers?

The Knutsen Archives 

Knutsen Stringed Instruments: Categories, Styles & Terminology
Chris Knutsen's Patents
Lester Payne’s Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra 
Otto Anderson
 
Otto Anderson Violin 
Exploring the Knutsen - Anderson Connection
 
Ingman Ivar Strum
 
Bert Amend & the One-Armed Musicians
 
Dyer Harp Guitars: The Knutsen-Dyer Connection
 
The Dyer Harp Mandolin Family and Knutsen’s Influence
 
The Mysterious Five-Course Harp Mandola
 
A Knutsen Bass Guitar?
 
1907 K. Luauii Hawaiian Guitar
  by Tom Noe and Gregg Miner
Harp Ukuleles 
Another 1-of-a-Kind Knutsen Convertible 
Chris Knutsen: Harp Guitar "Triple Threat"

The Knutsen-Weissenborn Connection by Gregg Miner, with Jonathan Kellerman

Harp Guitar Player of the Month Series, Contemporary

Phil deGruy: Limitless Guitar

Harp Guitar Player of the Month Series, Historical

Heinrich Albert and the World's First Harp Guitar Quartet
Italo Meschi, the Last Italian Troubadour
Chris Knutsen: Harp Guitar "Triple Threat"
Mario Maccaferri, Concert Harp Guitarist
Pasquale Taraffo: The World's Greatest Harp Guitar Virtuoso by Franco Ghisalberti & Gregg Miner
Albert Shutt and the Mando-Bass-Harp-Guitar 
George Dudley, America’s Most Famous Unknown Harp Guitarist

Black Harp Guitar Players
 
James Reese Europe and the Clef Club Orchestra
Roy Butin, Revealed!  
The Harp Guitar of Boris Perott 
The Legacy of the Cera Brothers 
Vardon, Perry and...Wilbers?

Miscellaneous

Harp Guitar Tablature: In Search of A Standard by Nate Blaustein and Gregg Miner
Harp Guitarists Visit Alex de Grassi's Weekend Guitar Workshop
Year of the Harp Guitar: June, 2006 - July, 2007
The Museum of Making Music presents Harp Guitars: Passion, Imagination, Artistry

Harp Guitar Luthier of the Month Series

Harp Guitars at the Guild of American Luthiers 2006 Convention  
Non-Standard Scale Harp Guitars
 
Meet the (Harp Guitar) Maker: Woodley White

Print

The Curious Career of Vardon, Perry and...Wilbers(?): A Vaudevillian Mystery

W. J. Dyer & Bro. Symphony Harp Mandolins and the Symphony Harp Plectral Ensemble

A Lost Scroll of the Ages (The Fretboard Journal Issue #41, Spring, 2018)

Floating Strings: The Remarkable Story of the Harp Guitar in America (The Museum of Making Music, Special Exhibit Catalog, October, 2017)

Authored or edited several entries The Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (Second Edition) (2014)

Knutsen Harp Ukulele (Ukulele, Summer, 2014)

The First True Harp Guitar (Guitarmaker No. 58, Winter 2006)

Basslaute Q & A (American Lutherie No. 88)

The Howe-Orme Mystery, co-authored by Robert F. DeVellis (The Fretboard Journal Issue # 3)

Harp Ukuleles: What On Earth Were They Thinking? (The Ukulele Occasional #2, 2003)

BOOKS & ARTICLES ABOUT or FEATURING Gregg Miner, his instruments or research

In 2022, I was honored to write the Introduction to Stefan Grossman's Mel Bay new publication of the late Dave Evan’s Sad Pig Dance tablature book.

The Mandolin in America: The Full Story from Orchestras to Bluegrass to the Modern Revival by Walter Carter, 2016 (several of my Cadenza magazine images are included)

The Mandolin: A History by Graham McDonald, 2016 (2 dozen of my instruments are included along with information and editing help)

Boutique Acoustics: 180 Years of Hand-Built American Guitars by Michael John Simmons, 2015 (acknowledgments for harp guitar and 12-string guitar research interview)

The String Instrument Owner's Handbook by Michael J. Pagliaro, 2015 (Fretless Zither Family Tree)

The Viennese Guitar and its Influence in North America: Form, Use, Stringing, and Social Associations (digitized thesis) by Nicholas Pyall (much harp guitar information and images from my Harpguitars.net web site - all referenced, but nary a thanks, and I largely disagree with his theories and conclusions)

Fretboard Journal #30 Summer, 2013: A Tale of Two Luthiers: John Henry Parker and Joel Eckhaus (my involvement with bandola research)

Acoustic Magazine, 3 issues in mid-late 2012 (NAMM interview, Thumbuster Harp Guitar)

The Complete Illustrated Book of the Acoustic Guitar by James Westbrook & Ted Fuller, 2012 (contains many photos of my instruments, though not all information is necessarily valid)

The Lute in Europe 2: Lutes, Guitars, Mandolins, and Citterns by Andreas Schlegel & Joachim Lüdtke, 2011 (photographs)

American Lutherie #102, Summer, 2010: Meet the Collector: Gregg Miner

Fretboard Journal, April-June, 2010: The Power of the Symphony (major article on the harp guitar movement, including my involvement)

The Toledo Blade, 2/1/2009: Dolceola: A musical mystery

Hand Made, Hand Played: The Art & Craft of Contemporary Guitars by Robert Shaw, 2008 (My Kerry Char resonator guitar is featured, with discussion of Char and myself)

The Larsons' Creations - Centennial Edition: Guitars & Mandolins by Robert Carl Hartman, 2007 (Knutsen and Dyer harp guitars)

NPR: (radio interview, plus video, transcription and images, August 26, 2007: The Harp Guitar's Floating Strings

Fingerstyle Guitar, #66, Alex de Grassi (shown playing my Knutsen in the museum room [caption in error]) and The Inevitable Harp Guitar by John Doan

Frets, Winter 2006, Harp Guitar Exhibition

US Airways Attache' magazine, Nov, 2005: Hear Here by Tim Brookes

Acoustic Guitar, Oct, 2005: Hoarding History by Michael Simmons

Guitar: An American Life (Chapter 2) by Tim Brookes (2004)

20th Century Guitar magazine, Mar, 2005:  Oddball Harp Guitars by Scott Freilich

Washington Phillips: The Key to the Kingdom (2004): CD liner notes

Acoustic Guitar, May, 2003: Harp Guitar Revival by Michael Simmons

 

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