10 String Harp Guitar These kinds of 10-string instruments were common in central Europe in the mid 19th Century and were played by many top musicians of that period such as Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806-1856) and Ferdinando Carulli (1770-1841). When they published their music at the time, it was only ever arranged for 6-string guitar. The ten string guitar was made more popular with thanks to Russian noble man Nicholas Makaroff (Makarov) (1810- 1890), who organized a competition for 10-string guitars to be made and music written for them. The competition took place in Brussels in 1856. At the time they had nylon strings with four of the ten strings as floating bass strings tuned ABCD. There was also usually a support arm for the extra strings. The instrument developed extra bass strings in the late 19th Century and became known as contra bass guitars or Kontragitarre

This instrument I started to make 150 years after Makaroff's event and is a more modern approach with steel strings. The bridge is in the middle of the lower bout for better bass response and thus the neck is off set, which allows the bass to resonate more. I used carbon fibre rods in the neck for strength and to prevent the neck from warping or twisting. This instrument should not be confused with the 20th century 10-string Spanish guitar, which was developed by José Ramirez III (1922-1995) and Narciso Yepes (1927-1997). The four extra strings were originally just sympathetic as Ramierz III says in his book " Things About The Guitar ". Modern players sometimes pluck and fret these extra strings like a normal guitar.