c.1850 Fancy Parlor (Concert) Guitar

Here's a truly "antebellum" guitar! I sold this recently and was sad to see it part from the shop. This is a well-worn but excellent guitar (made for gut) built after the fashion of a Martin-style guitar body. My guess on date is 1850s, though it could be 1840s. This guitar could be American or European, but I'd like to hope American as the design feels much more "modern" than the typical European guitar of the time.

And here she is in the sunlight! Warm glow on that old spruce.


Closeup.

Though the soundhole rosette lacks one of its pearl inlay pieces and the binding is a little rough around the edges, this guitar still feels dreadfully elegant. I repaired a crack that ran along the fingerboard upper bout on "this" side of the guitar, and reglued the brace in this section. Around the bridge area I glued five hairline cracks and patched them lightly from behind to make sure they would not grow larger.

I've refretted the entire fingerboard with new "light/medium" frets. The originals were bar frets, of which only a few remained. A lot of cleaning and scuff removal and touchup went into getting the guitar to look this good...

Peghead, with ebony nut, and original brass tuners. One tuner was replaced, probably c.1860s, and has a bone knob.

Cute, huh? The tuner "shafts" are bone on the original tuners.


From the back...

Talk about wood! Excellent, all-solid flame maple both back and sides. This back has one repaired hairline and is practically invisible, and plenty stable.

Sides.

Heel join... nice and tight. I'd like to call the finish on the maple "red wine" for lack of a better term.

Ah! The binding and purfling is just gorgeous... and this goes all the way around.

And the bridge is very interesting! It's stained-black maple (new ebony pins) with a thick piece of brass shaped as a saddle across the front of it. Whatever the intent, it offers very nice tone. This guitar is super well-balanced across its range, with a precise, snappy attack, and loads of sustain. Here, listen for yourself: