My Guitars

Fathers of Weissenborn type guitars

Hermann Weissenborn
Emigrated from Germany around 1902. He first settled in New York as a violin and piano maker until 1910. Then he moved to Los Angeles and started making guitars, including ukeleles and steel guitars.

At that time hawaiian music became very popular. Due to the needs of steel guitar players he developed the hollow neck guitar, improving tone and volume because of its large sound chamber. His instruments were very successful until the late 1920s, when resonator instruments like Nationals and Dobros came up.

Hermann Weissenborn died in 1936 with debts and business declining.

Chris Knutsen
Born in Norway in 1862. In 1865 he immigrated to the USA with his parents and died in Los Angeles in 1930.

Chris Knutsen is one of the most unappreciated luthiers of his times.  He had a large influence on the development of the Hawaiian steel guitar, and was the first mainland luthier to build instruments for guitarists playing Hawaiian  style.

Chris Knutsen built Hawaiian steel guitars of various shapes and sizes. Many of these were copied by other guitar builders. Unfortunately he did not get much credit for his poineering ideas. But many of his guitars still exist and show his great talent and creative genius.