The Birth of the American 12-string Guitar by Gregg Miner
The<br>Birth of the American 12-string Guitar
by<br>Gregg Miner
Rewritten July, 2013
Last Update:<br>August 2025
INTRODUCTION
For<br>those wishing to skip to the heart of the matter, just jump to the end<br>of this article. However,<br>as it took me quite a while to get there, you may find the provenance,<br>and my eventual analysis worth reading first.<br>What started out as just an interesting little blog - from<br>something I unearthed in my harp guitar �To Do� folders - ended up as an<br>extensive and pretty exhaustive research project, so I<br>published it here on the more permanent site � even though it has less<br>to do with actual harp guitars than standard guitars.
As<br>this site is of course harp guitar-specific, I should note that I am going<br>decidedly �off topic� and referring to what nearly everyone today<br>considers the standard �12-String<br>Guitar.� In other words,<br>the regular steel string guitar with 6 double courses (the 4 lowest<br>strung in octaves, the top 2 in unison) � not a 12 string harp guitar<br>such as a Dyer with 6 on the neck and 6 subs.
So<br>what does the 12-string guitar, popularized by dozens of memorable<br>players from Leadbelly to Leo Kottke, have to do with harp<br>guitars�in<br>fact, two completely different families<br>of �harp guitars�?
propose that the ubiquitous 12-string guitar may have largely evolved<br>from and been inspired by<br>two previously overlooked instruments: An early<br>non-floating-strings instrument named the �harp-guitar,� and the true harp guitar with floating<br>strings.
All<br>the previous theories I could locate were that the 12-string was inspired by double-course guitars<br>from south of the border, like the baja<br>sexto, or developed in the workshop of some American factory like<br>Oscar Schmidt. Michael<br>Simmons has written a couple articles over the years on the 12-string<br>which are worth noting. Probably the latest in 12-string circles is the increasing<br>awareness by esoteric collectors and players of the little-known early (very<br>early) Holzapfel 12-strings.<br>Then<br>there are ongoing studies of obscure New York Italian<br>makers.
There<br>has<br>been some mention (Simmons,<br>again), though little follow-up discussion, of my main candidate �<br>specifically, an instrument by Rene Grunewald, which is the key to our<br>puzzle. Michael shows a<br>c.1904 ad for this 12-string instrument.<br>But we have to go back a little further.<br>Feb 8, 1896, to be precise.
That�s<br>when one Carl E. Brown, of Columbus, Ohio, filed his patent application<br>for his own �harp-guitar� (you�ll remember from my Organology<br>thesis that anyone is free to call their invention a �harp guitar�<br>� it needn�t be a version of the harp guitar with floating strings,<br>as classified today).
Brown�s<br>curious patent (#568,108) has been on this site from the beginning, on<br>the Patents page and in the �Harp<br>Guitars in Name Only� Gallery.<br>It consists of not 12, but 10<br>strings, which I believe is an important observation and distinction for<br>our purposes of �12-string guitar evolution� and provenance.<br>In other words, my stance is that this particular 12-string<br>variant would not have existed without there being a 10-string first ,<br>and this<br>instrument was invented for a very specific use and effect � and very<br>much �of its time.�
The<br>Grunewald instruments (at least the 10-string version) list Brown�s<br>patent number on the label, and thus these labels would seem to point to<br>a possible obscure beginning to the 12-string guitar story.<br>So I�m surprised more attention hasn�t been paid to this.<br>But the real evidence comes from reading the weekly Music Trade<br>Review of the period and understanding the context of the prose, and<br>also that of the related BMG world (�Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar�<br>community), as focused through The Cadenza, and later, Crescendo,<br>magazines.
PART<br>ONE
Before<br>I delve into these magazine appearances, let me present our Part 1 Cast<br>of Characters:
Brown:<br>Carl Brown, a<br>(definitely wacky) inventor, from Columbus, Ohio.<br>Some of his work seems to have had to do with the piano, but<br>besides his groundbreaking 10-string guitar (perhaps its only flaw being<br>its novelty �olden days� shape), he also invented the laughable �Harp-o-chord,�<br>that unusual harmonica and zither combo.<br>The appearance of the be-suited professional demonstrating the<br>instrument in the advertisements assures us that Brown was serious.<br>He also patented 3 other fairly useless zither designs, the �Harp-Zither�<br>- a simple, though attractively-shaped, fretless zither � and 2 other<br>�zither body shapes� which were actually produced and sold, though<br>they had only 3 or 4 strings each! (You<br>occasionally see them on eBay, where they are easily mistaken for toys).
Gordon:<br>Hamilton Gordon of New York, a successful musical<br>instrument entrepreneur by 1895.
Grunewald:<br>A large musical enterprise in New Orleans headed by<br>patriarch Louis and 3 sons, of which Rene<br>(pictured) is of interest to us, as head of their manufacturing division<br>(by 1895). Rene was born in<br>1869 and died in...