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Here are a few pictures of an interesting guitar as requested by Ricardo.
She's likely early 1800's, judging by the shape, and has a lot of interesting features.
Maybe walnut, which suggests she's probably Spanish. The body shape still has the old Baroque influence, typical of guitars around the turn of the 19th century.
She has a scalloped fingerboard, together with what I presume are ivory frets. A large volute / V joint at the back of the neck etc. Rounded bridge is similar to a few Lacote style guitars I've seen, but no makers mark as yet. I'll light everything up when I get chance and have a proper look inside.
Inside, things are quite interesting too. Blackened walls, blocks, braces etc.
There's loads of work needed, all around the guitar. The finish is a bit of a mess, and lots of debris and oil present, but I can easily sort that out when the time comes.
She has a very low resonance. Loads of repair work has been done in the past. Not all of it to my liking, but I'll see if I can't improve things a bit.
I'll start with the headstock, and consolidate that area, then take it from there. I've a set of antique tuners which I might be able to make fit with a slight nudge of the existing holes. They're not period exact, or overly fancy such as Baker, Jeromes or Seidel etc (I don't have that budget) but they'll do.
There's no point at this stage being too fussy, such as drilling out the old bushings and plugging with cedar etc. I can make things work 'for now' and then if in the future a correct set of tuners are found, the opportunity to drill / plug / etc is still an option be it for me, or a future repairer.
The binding on the top is oversized. While I could scrape it flush, I might need to take the guitar apart in order to get a good seam, but for now my main interest is to get her playing well, and once I achieve that, I can decide whether she's worth invasive surgery etc.
* I'm not intending to post a full restoration. I'll play things by ear. I'll post some more pictures if anybody wants to discuss etc.
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RE: Scalloped neck guitar - Early 18... (in reply to Firefrets)
On first take with the photos you give I’d hazard a ball park guess at mid 19th century cheap production French or Austrian and the ivory frets are original. The top has been refinished. The back and sides look like walnut or something similar.
Condition 4 out of 10 Charm factor 7 out of 10 on the Ugly Betty scale
I don’t like to refer to guitars as ‘she’s’ not that I’m politically correct, but it’s ackward because I have several female colleagues in music and customers and I just don’t call guitars she. That said, it’s difficult not to ask on this guitar in particular, does she go? Is she a goer? Nudge nudge, wink wink, know what I mean? Know, what, I mean?
RE: Scalloped neck guitar - Early 18... (in reply to estebanana)
I've referred to my guitars as 'she' for nearly 60 years, so probably not going to change now ha ha.
It's more a sentimental thing, for things I respect or deem important to me, although I don't really refer to anything as 'he' funnily enough. Same with my car. It's my way of looking at the world. Certain things have a spirit, if that makes sense.
I find when I call something 'it' then it has less importance to me. It might be a Liverpool area thing from growing up, who knows.
Let's be honest, we're already having our free speech taken away from us as it is, so anybody who doesn't like me calling my guitars 'she' can happily kiss my ass, be they male, female, or somebody who identifies as a cat.
* What do you make of the black washed interior?
I've tidied the headstock up and managed to dry fit the tuners, so off to a good start. Filling holes, and then creating new ones for tuner welds is an unusual pass time, but a necessary evil. I'll improve the cosmetics further down the line.
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