c.1890 "Harp" Terz Guitar Part One

Here's Part One of an interesting case! I won this guitar on the 'bay a few weeks ago thinking it was a typical mistreated parlor guitar from the 1890s. Well, that part is true, it was definitely mistreated and poorly home repaired, as well -- but get this -- when I open the box, I immediately rush for my measuring tape. Why? Because it's even tinier than a typical parlor! Ladies and gentlemen, this is what's called a "terz" guitar -- tuned a minor third above a regular parlor with a substantially reduced (21" vs. 24-26") scale length. Too cool! I've been trying to lay my hands on a nice gut-strung example of one of these for a while "just to see" and here it falls into my lap unexpectedly! This particular guitar was built by the J.F. Stratton Co. about 1890 or so and features a mahogany neck, spruce top, and rosewood (all solid, of course) back and sides. Ladder bracing and very well-braced, too. I have no fears tuning this up after repairs are complete!

A couple of the various top cracks.

I'm going to have to reset the neck -- which I've already started -- rather than pull the neck and damage the super-thin fretboard, however, I'm drilling a hole into the neck pocket through the neck block via the soundhole and pouring in glue to then clamp.

Some ugly home-repair to split sides... sheesh.


And here's the label! Ivoroid. Cool, huh?