1920s Homemade Septagon Tailpiece Guitar

My buddy David Richard picked this old US-made guitar up sometime back and put some good work into it before bringing it over here just recently for consignment. He's much more of an archtop aficionado and so this odd, extremely-loud, gypsy-jazz-sounding firebox is perhaps not exactly up his alley. Frankly, though, I think it's very cool.

It has a long, 26 1/4" scale length and that combined with the big, bizarre body shape makes me think a plectrum banjo player's mind was at work when this bruiser came together. It's very lightly-built and ladder-braced and so when you dig-in to it (as you should), notes leap right-out with a ton of snap, cut, and projection and a bit of a banjo-ish twang. Still, the sustain is there, too.

As I might've mentioned, I think this definitely suits old-fashioned lead/chord-melody playing -- I think it'd be a superb gypsy-jazz guitar or even a good, snappy, blues-box. It would also be at home pounding-out chords in a trad-jazz ensemble with horns. It's got... chop!

Dave's repairs included a board plane, reprofiling to a good (10"?) radius on the board, a refret, new bridge, new (StewMac aged repro) tuners, and some crack repairs. It was playing spot-on when it arrived but I did a little extra.

Repairs included: cleats for two top hairline cracks, a little extra compensation for the B and low E strings at the bridge, a restring to 52w-11 gauge strings, one minor seam repair, and setup.

Setup notes: the neck is straight and it plays perfectly with 3/32" EA and 1/16" DGBE action at the 12th fret. Dave's fret job feels (and looks) really, really good.

Scale length: 26 1/4"

Nut width: 1 7/8"

String spacing at nut: 1 11/16"

String spacing at bridge: 2 1/8"

Body length: 18 3/4"

Lower bout width: 16"

Side depth at endpin: 3 1/8"

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid mahogany

Bracing type: ladder

Fretboard: rosewood
Bridge: rosewood(?), ebony saddle

Neck feel: medium-big C/soft-V shape, ~10-12" board radius
Neck wood: multi-piece mahogany/etc

Condition notes: the instrument is original save for the nut, bridge, frets, and tuners. It has heavy alligatoring to the finish everywhere except the back and under the tailpiece cover. The glossy finish of the back is what would've originally been on it overall. There are two longer repaired hairline cracks on the top below the soundhole, one repaired on next to the fretboard extension, and a repaired hairline on the back. All are good to go. The top sinks a little under the bridge but is stable.

It comes with: a good gigbag.