FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 11, 2002

New Revolutionary Harmos Guitars
Betting the Farm on the Future of Steel
Harmos Lap Steel Introduced at Summer NAMM, Booth 2142

-Incredible! — Jerry Douglas
-Awesome! — Robert Randolph
-Looks out of this world; sounds down to earth. — Bobby Ingano

(Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Two Minnesotans have bet the farm on the future of the steel guitar. And steel guitar artists such as Robert Randolph, Bobby Ingano and Jerry Douglas have high praise for the revolutionary new instruments.

The Harmos Lap Steel is being introduced at the summer National Association of Music Merchants show in Nashville, July 19-21, Booth 2142.

The Harmos Lap Steel Guitar is now available with the Harmos Pedal Steel presently under development. The instruments have a revolutionary patented carbon fiber space frame design that makes them resonant, lightweight, strong, less sensitive to weather changes that delivers a clear transparent sound enjoyed by both artists and audiences.

When he plays lap steel on tour, virtuoso Robert Randolph plays his Harmos and says, "Sounds awesome! It has that growl." Randolph, Ingano of Hawaii and fellow steeler Dan Tyack have praised the Harmos as having "Exactly the tone I need" and being "the future of Steel Guitars; a delight...a beautiful piece of work!" Jerry Douglas says, "It's perfect!"

Instrument builder and musician T. Sage Harmos teamed with production engineer James Baecker to design and produce the Harmos guitars, the world's first carbon fiber steel guitars that deliver a clear full transparent sound with an terrific sustain. Because of the guitar's revolutionary construction, the sound it produces has a timbre and there is an even responsiveness that has not been heard until now. It&Mac173;s a new sound that immediately belongs.

Harmos found that using a tetrahedral-octet structure, pioneered by visionary inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, provides superior instrument strength with a minimum of mass. This combination of high strength and light weight allows the resonance of the Harmos Steel Guitar body to provide strong fundamental pitch support while uniquely enhancing the harmonics for a tone and responsiveness never before available in a stringed instrument's playing range. This patented design also eliminates dead spots from the instrument and because carbon fiber contracts with increasing temperature, while wood and metal expand, the combination of wood endboards and carbon fiber body balance each other to reduce its sensitivity to temperature and humidity effects.

Bobby Ingano, well known in Hawaii for his infectious smile and effortless mastery of the Hawaiian lap steel guitar, says of the Harmos Lap Steel, "I can't believe such a natural wood tone comes from something that looks like this. Looks out of this world, sounds down to earth."

All Harmos guitars are made of pultruded carbon fiber tube, are keyless and come with two single coil pick-ups on a 4-way rotary switch, with on-board volume and tone control. Several selections of pick ups and wood endboard materials are available to complement different musical styles.

The Harmos Lap Steel comes in four models:

- Sacred Steel, with a dynamic and vocal tone; - Americana, with a strong straight-up steel sound; - Hawaiian, with a sweet melodious clear tone; and - Honky Tonk, with a more traditional swing tone.

Noted Sacred Steel player Robert Randolph has started playing the first prototype of the Harmos Lap Steel on radio shows and in venues with the Family Band. It was his desire to have a fixed string steel that he could strap on quickly and perform with while standing up and moving around (as only he can) that inspired our "dance model" lap steel. Robert has said of the guitar's tone, "Perfect! Exactly the sound I've been looking for."

Says Dick Sanft, a lifelong career steel player in the Hawaiian style, says, "For me, tone is everything. It has the tone."

And Jerry Douglas, five-time Grammy winner and favorite Nashville dobro and steel player with many credits, including work with James Taylor, on the "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou" soundtrack and with many others, plays the Harmos and says, "[The Harmos is] incredible! It's a sound that's been waiting to be heard!"

Instrument designer Sage Harmos says, "The debate in the steel guitar community over the role that mass plays in tone qualiy caught my attention. Most folks were saying that an instrument had to be massive in order to have good tone. I had the feeling that it had more to do with rigidity, and efficient transfer of string energy than raw mass alone. Some mass is required, obviously, but what is there just has to be in the right place."

The Harmos Lap Steel Guitar sells for $1,275 to $1,395 and is currently available directly from the manufacturer and after August 1st will be available through select retailers. (Watch our website for retail outlets.) Accessories include a dance strap system, tripod stand and hard cases. A gig bag comes with the guitar.

James Baecker and Sage Harmos are long-time friends who share a passion for music and believe in these guitars. Baecker left an engineering job to team with musician Harmos to design, develop and produce the Harmos steel guitars. They formed a company and committed themselves to the new guitars, including using the 80 acres of western Wisconsin Baecker family farmland as collateral on a loan.

Talk to either James or Sage and you hear the same thing, "We love music and we believe in these guitars. We're honored that artists such as Robert, Jerry, Bobby, Dan and Dick also appreciate what we're doing."

Says Baecker, "Yes, it would break my heart to give the farm to the banker. I'd much rather have a Harmos in the hands of a good player break my heart."

Says Harmos, "We're committed to getting these instruments into the hands of folks who want to make beautiful music.

[Visit our website for a more detailed discussion about the science behind these instruments at www.harmosmusic.com.]