Knutsen Symphony 18 String Harp Guitar 1902 Natural

Chris Knutsen is considered by many to be one of the best harp guitar makers of modern days.  His style of build is extremely popular with players due to the size and sound of the instruments.  This model is one of his most popular offerings. This example appears to be from about 1902 and is probably from his Tacoma era.  The label on this one is an example of the infamous "misspelled" C. Nutsen label.  It also says that this guitar has only 11 strings.  Two mistakes in one.  I'm sure that someone knows why these labels were used and not tossed out-there must have been a reason.  It has 6 guitar strings, 5 sub bass strings, and 7 treble strings.  This model has the fanned frets, banjo style tuners on the sub bass strings, and geared tuners on the guitar head.  I'm not sure what the back and sides are made of, but the top appears to be spruce.  The guitar neck is made of fir, and the fret board is rosewood.

Some highlights are:

1) There is a movable bridge still on the treble strings.
2) The edge binding is his beautiful arrow design and looks like it is all there.   The same is true of the more delicate rosettes.
3) The top and box construction of the arm looks solid.
4) There is very little fret wear.
5) All the tuners turn.

This is a good rebuild opportunity, as I have seen quality rebuilds advertised at over $5000.

Now for the problems:

1) The belly has come up and the top is badly bowed.
2) Below the bridge, the top has 3 cracks and one break over the internal end block.
3) A large piece of the back is missing.
4)The sides are split from the upper bout, treble side, around to the waist on the bass side.  Someone has tried to repair part of this, and failed miserably.
5) There are other various small imperfections.  I'm sure there are some internal issues to fix.

Well, there it is.  I have tried to describe it as best I can.  Of course, because this is a project, it is being sold AS IS with NO RETURNS.  Someone is going to have fun with this.  Thanks for looking.