SOLD Karol Belair Harp Guitar Natural, 2021

Here’s an unusual, beautiful and spectacular piece – a Tony Karol Belair Harp Guitar, combining salvaged Bearclaw Spruce and Cocobolo with a fan fret fingerboard!
Harp guitars date to the early years of the 18th century and the first true harp guitar appeared in Paris in 1773, built by Naderman. He called this instrument a ‘Bisex’, meaning double six – six harp strings and six regular strings. Over time that term has taken on a rather different meaning.

Tony Karol builds high quality custom guitars in a small shop in Mississauga, Ontario, just west of Toronto. For a time, his good friend and student Blair Johnson worked with him, and started one of the Karol Belair models. Unfortunately, Blair passed and this year, Tony completed the instrument.

This Karol Belair features a Bearclaw Sitka Spruce top, salvaged from Haida Gwaii, home of the Haida Nation for the last many thousands of years. The sides and back are 40-year old Cocobolo. The body blocks and neck are South American Mahogany, while the fingerboard is Indian Ebony. The bridge is Indian Rosewood. The head plates, Laskin-style arm rest and binding are African Blackwood. The inlays are Abalone. Tuners are Gotoh 510 models, very smooth with a high ratio. The saddles and nut are bone. The fretted fingerboard uses a multi-scale, fan-fret layout ranging from 25 inches to 25.5 inches (635mm to 647.7mm).

To aid the player’s perception of the sound of the instrument, there is a sound port on the bass side just down from the harp section sound hole.
The harp strings are tuned, low to high, GABCDG. String gauges for this section are, again low to high, .070, .066, .062, .060,.054, .042.

This Karol Belair is a spectacular piece with an enormous range. It’s very well built with a high degree of attention to detail, and the materials are all top notch.
This instrument comes with two cases, a gig bag for easier transport and an Anvil flight case.