These instruments, and their serial numbers, were integral to my (and Bob’s) re-thinking of the whole Dyer numbering system. This rare Dyer Style 3 (five known to date, with one of the best ones sitting unsold on consignment on Harp Guitar Music, which, frankly, mystifies me) unfortunately has no label. The Style 6 Dyer is an important one, as it has a fantastic early Knutsen-signed label, with one of the lowest known numbers (277, which I now circa date to either 1907 or 1905). Looks like a late ‘teens or early ‘twenties specimen in great condition. What first attracted my attention in the group shot was the lone little harp mandolin, only because it was one I had never seen before, and remains the only example of this vintage Regal hollow-arm mandolin that I am aware of.
I still have to update the images and provenance on the site, but will now give this little profile on them. John snapped the best photos he could under the circumstances and shared them with me at the end of 2009. These are mostly instruments that store founder Eldon Stutzman had collected over the years and now managed by son Dave, the current owner. In 2009, John Doan happened to visit Stutzman’s Guitar Center in Rochester, New York, where the harp guitars (and so much more) are still on display. These latter were obviously what I was most interested in tracking down and getting info on, though that would take some years. It included an impressive 8 American harp guitars of every style, from a garden variety Gibson Style U and Dyer to a couple of one-of-a-kind instruments. Amazingly, I missed it and still haven’t found one, though I have a decent image (courtesy of Bob Hartman, some years ago). Some of you may remember an obscure “harp guitar poster” from Vintage Guitar magazine some years ago.