For Sale: An old guitar probably made in the 1920s or 1930s in the USA. It may or may not be restorable using just the original parts- think it will be but am not a luthier.
This archtop is currently a "reverse archtop". When found someone had replaced the high E string with a extra thick low E string and it appears as if over the years along with probable temperature and humidity changes this caused the concave arch on the top of the guitar to become convex.
In order to raise the stings up high enough to try to play I made some shims out of thin wooden pieces and put under the bridge. After tuning it up with the old strings that were on it (75 years old?) plus a .09 E replacement string it plays. It has a nice sweet clunky bluesy tone. Without adjusting the bridge height was able to play up to around the 11th fret without any buzz. Action is not that high, really not that bad. Neck is not loose. With the shims under the bridge in place it seems very playable to me but assume the neck could need work as well. Intonation seems off but didn't try adjust bridge position or anything.
Headstock logo and gold lettering is quite nice. Bridge is very very nice floating type looks to be Bakelite or similar. Easy to adjust. No damage. Tuners all work fine, no binding, easy to tune, seems to stay in tune OK, no damage. Tailpiece looks original, works fine, some surface wear, not bad. Pickguard am sure is original and is in great shape. All the screws (tailpiece, tuners, pickguard) are present and look original. Missing the strap holder endpin.
When I removed the pickguard to clean it up both the round doughnut gasket type things underneath cracked evenly in half. These are there to hold the pickguard about 1/8" above the wood. I think they are Bakelite. I glued them back together and they will probably work fine but am also including two metal ones used to test that work fine as well.
Body features a pretty unique segmented F hole design on the top with three separate cutouts for each side, probably increases stability a bit.
THE DAMAGE: Besides the inverted top the worst is on the back where it's raising up the along the seam/edge. In one place along that upper section of the back the glue is still holding- and that's where the wood has become damaged, see detail photos of this. If I press the back together it gets a nice tight fit and in theory at least if you place a bead of the appropriate type of glue along that section and clamped it together for a few days it would be OK. But am assuming whoever buys this will take it apart and reshape the top using steam and template? or whatever/however it's done, and with the top off the small section of damage to the back could be correctly addressed. There is one other place on the top where it's coming up at the seam, see photo. There is a small hole drilled in the back of the headstock. Paint is very poor in places and peeling away, see photos.
Additional and/or higher resolution photos are available by request.
Email for a shipping cost quote - should be between $13.99 and $31.99 if you in the continental United States. (Dec. 2024).
