1910s Unmarked Rubberized-Bridge Electrified Parlor Guitar

Jeff Tweedy of Wilco has been making Mr. Reuben Cox's rubber-bridged guitars popular for folks in-the-know. Jeff plays a couple of old '30s/'40s Harmony parlors outfitted this way and friend of mine asked me to figure one out for him, too. This teens-era parlor guitar was one he had on hand and the final plan was to rubberize a bridge for it, electrify it with a couple of pickups, and give it a snazzy paintjob so it wasn't so ho-hum in the looks department.

I'm pretty sure this is a Harmony or Regal build, but I can't be quite sure which. It's definitely Chicago-made, though. It probably dates from around 1905-1915 and has the odd choice of poplar for its back and sides, though it has a normal spruce top. While the tailpiece is one from my bins, it's very close to what the original would've been like. Left to their own devices, these instruments are alarmingly-loud, very bright and punchy, and basically sound like what most gypsy-jazz guitars wish they were. They don't handle like one, though.

The rubber-coated bridge saddle gives this a more mellow, less-sustained, chunky sound. The idea is that it becomes almost a percussive instrument with basically no sustain and only fundamental "whoofy-whoof" sounds coming from it. I still have a little bit of fussing-around to do, though, to get that sound dialed-in. The top is so responsive and lively on this that it's taking more damping than I thought to get it closer to that sound. I have a few more different materials I'd like to try to make bridges out of before I send this home so that the owner has some options to play with (that reads as: I'm not quite happy with it, yet).

Repairs included: a neck reset, refret with pyramid jumbo wire from frets 1-12 and medium-sized stock for the extension, install/fitting of two electric pickups, a 3-way switch on the upper bout, '50s bakelite knob on the lower bout, new bridge, new retro-style tuners, wiring harness install (all shielded wiring), and setup. I also painted the goofy foxes.

Setup notes: action is bang-on at 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE at the 12th fret. The strings are 50w-11 electrics with a wound G. The neck is straight.

Scale length: 24 1/4"

Nut width: 1 7/8"

String spacing at nut: 1 3/4"

String spacing at bridge: 2"

Body length: 18"

Lower bout width: 12 5/8"

Waist width: 7 1/4"

Upper bout width: 9"

Side depth at endpin: 3 7/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back/sides wood: solid poplar

Neck wood: poplar

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: Brazilian rosewood, bone nut

Bridge: rosewood, rubber-coated rosewood saddle

Neck feel: medium soft-V shape, ~10" board radius

Condition notes: obviously it's been modified a ton, though the finish is original and it has no cracks. How about that?

The 10th fret dot was an issue so I engraved a little kitty-face on it and added more dots and a side dot at the 9th.

The bridge is a rosewood base with a compensated rosewood saddle sitting on top of it. I've wrapped the saddle in a few layers of shrink tubing to deaden the tone. It's working alright so far and I think the end product will be similar but with more layers.

The pickups are a Korean-made Alnico-magnet "goldfoil" mini-humbucker and Duncan Little '59.