c.1880s? Spanish-style Parlor Guitar

January 20, 2010

c.1880s? Spanish-style Parlor Guitar

This may be one of the better-sounding period "classical" style guitars that I've heard. It also plays nice to boot. Work included fret setting and dressing, finish cleanup (scuff and scratch removal/minimization), new bridge pins, and a new bone saddle, as well as a setup.

Unfortunately, there are absolutely no markings, so this very bizarre creature has to be explored to put it into context. I personally think that this guitar dates to the late 1800s, probably 1870s onward, maybe an 1880s or 1890s guitar. It's beautifully (but folksily) made with a glossy violin-style varnish (except on the very-worn soundboard) and features Brazilian rosewood back and sides with a mahogany neck and spruce top. Rosewood fretboard and bridge, too. Everything looks original, except that I'm not sure about the fretboard: it looks a little clunky and the brass frets and previous repairs make me feel like it was a later job.

This guitar is built very much in the vein of a (Northern) Spanish guitar of the time, save that it is only ladder braced and does not have the fan braces we associate with Spanish guitars since the turn of the century. It has no kerfing (the strips that reinforce the back/side/top joints inside) which makes it even "curioser." It's bigger than a typical gut-strung American "parlor" guitar of the time, and has a more figure-8 style upper bout with a lower bout of "concert" size (13-14").

Headstock is much wider at the top than on the base... a little more dramatic than most slotted headstocks.

MOP dots, rosewood board, brass frets.

What a looker!

The inlaid marquetry is all small straight pieces cut and then inlaid into channels... which gives it a very geometric look. Probably this was done by a small maker as the peculiarities of design are too great to have been a factory product.

Lovely colors.

Original (I think?) rosewood bridge with diamonds and pins. This pretty much confirms this guitar as American in origin, as it seems we Americans are the ones who really subscribed to gut strings and pins. There's no bridge plate underneath.