Original Harmos Lap Steel has evolved in the Harmos MatraX electric guitar
The original design concept for this guitar came in the 1990s in response to an ongoing discussion of guitar design. Historically, musicians and traditional electric guitar designers required a heavy guitar for good sustain and tone. Sage Harmos, whose education included musicianship and technology decided to create a low weight guitar design that made beautiful music, that is, one that sounded good and had good sustain. Since Sage's primary musical instrument was a Steel Guitar and he has a passion for Buckminster Fuller discoverer of Bucky Balls. Sage decided to create a steel guitar using a Buckminster Fuller based design. The original creation was a steel guitar using Buckminster Fuller's patented Octet Truss Space Frame. The result was a very light weight instrument with a uniquely clean but rich, woody sound, great sustain and terrific tonal balance.
Sage contacted his friend James Baecker, an engineer, to help with patent and design work. James technical analysis of the guitar, confirmed the increase in the resonance frequency created by the very high strength and low weight of the space frame body as a focal part of the unique Harmos sound.
In 2001, Sage and James cashed out their personal savings and launched Harmos Music, Ltd. to design and build space frame based musical instruments. They shipped the first Harmos Lap Steel Guitars in July of 2002. Just as predicted, the Lap Steels guitars had a unique sound- a combination of really clean balanced tone with full organic woody overtones.
In 2004, Sage and James were awarded patent #6,787,688 for a musical instrument with space frame body and unique resonance structure.
Since most vintage electric guitar builders had learned their craft by starting out as lap steel builders (Rickenbacker, Gretsch, Fender and Gibson) it seemed feasible to take the Harmos design into the Electric Guitar.
Sage Harmos is now looking into other musical instruments for the space frame patent, but James continued to build the Lap Steel Guitars and has now created an Electric Guitar using the patented design and calls it the MatraX electric guitar with the Harmos sound.
Select a model for more information:
200 style | 250 style | 275 style | 325 style