Who invented the harp guitar?
orville gibson, the guitar maker and namesake of gibson mandolin and guitar company made harp guitars right at the turn of the century and the gibson mandolin and guitar company patented their guitar harp design in 1910 according to “American Guitars, an illustrated history” by tom wheeler. but according to george gruhn and walter carter’s “acoustic guitars and other fretted instruments”, orville gibson’s harp guitar of 1900 “represents one of the last waves of the experimentation and innovation that began around 1800” and “forerunners of the harp guitar date back to the lute era”, but falls short of stating orville created the instrument. perhaps the link below will help. with further reading i found the section of the site labeled “definitions of harp guitar” should be of interest to you.
