I have on this blog previously queried what might have been the earliest production model acoustic bass guitar. Surely this Regal Bassoguitar circa 1937 must take the prize, even if it does look as if it was designed to be played upright like a traditional double bass. Note that it has a double bass style bridge and gut strings. Also in keeping with the double bass, the fingerboard is fretless, albeit with lined fret position markers.
It's quite a huge beast of an instrument and was apparently advertised in Regal's own catalogue as being "the biggest guitar in the world". However I suspect that the guy in the illustration opposite (possibly from the Regal catalogue?) is a boy or small adult, making the bass look all the bigger.
This example is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of US $3,999.
The eBay seller believes that this vintage (I dare not call it antique) Vaquero cowboy guitar decorated with stencilled polo player dates somewhere within the 1940s/1950s. Whilst I can't imagine that it would be one of the better sounding acoustic guitars on the planet, it's nice to see the patch where the finish has been worn away (adjacent to the second polo player), indicating the guitar has seen some quite heavy use in its time. It's also interesting to note the stencil-like f-holes which are positioned much further forward than I've seen on any guitar.
Currently being auctioned on eBay with a starting price of US $175.
I'm fixing this guitar for someone, but I can buy it at a fairly low price. Bit of a twist in the neck, but we'll see what happens. 'Germany', and it's said that it's pre-WWII. I can believe that! What do we say?
Does anyone have any more info on this guitar for Eric (and for the others of us who are also curious)?
Unfortunately the eBay seller does not give us even an approximate date for this Ricardo doubleneck acoustic guitar but it does look to be quite old; it's certainly seen better days and had lots of use judging by the wear and tear, plus the cracks in the back.
When I first saw these pictures I thought that because the necks are mounted quite closely together that this would effectively be a harp guitar with the upper neck fitted with sub-bass strings meant for open playing only (i.e. not to be fretted). However, the seller tells us that the upper neck is actually intended for "steel" (or slide) playing and that the nut and bridge are higher on that side of the guitar (see the first photo above), allowing for a slide-friendly high action.
What we do know is that these Ricardo guitars were made by Edward Richardson and that this doubleneck is thought to be one of perhaps 20 such examples built. Richardson apparently claimed these were the first doubleneck guitars to share a single headstock (which, having seen many museum instruments, I can attest is almost definitely untrue). It may however have been the first doubleneck to incorporate a neck exclusively for slide playing.
Currently listed on eBay with a Starting price of US $650 and a Buy It Now price of US $1,250.
Back to guitars again now after our double bass detour of the last few days...
Here's an old Gibson for you... it's a 1931 Gibson L-0 in gorgeous condition.
The neck joins the body at the 12th fret as was popular at the time, and I guess some might call this a "parlour guitar" although I always believed that parlour guitars had a much narrower body shape whereas this Gibson has some quite exaggerated curves.
Currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $3,995.
The "La Habernera" artwork on the front of the guitar could be considered kitsch by today's tastes, but to me it all adds to the guitar's whimsy making it all the more interesting. Personally, I'd much prefer this than anything with skulls all over it, as the modern cliché seems to be.
The fingerboard seems to be covered in some kind of pearloid material - I've seen the same on other parlour guitars of the same era - but you'll notice that wear and tear through heavy playing has worn away much of the pearloid down to the bare wood of the neck, possibly illustrating why it was used in the first place: so as to avoid using expensive rosewood or ebony for the fingerboard.
Currently listed on eBay this auction is finishing within the next 24 hours as I write this, with bidding at $50.99 at the time of writing.
I'm afraid I know nothing about this Oscar Schmidt Stella Sovereign violin-shaped acoustic guitar, but I think the design is rather gorgeous. It's interesting that, despite being styled after a violin, the guitar appears to be a flat-top rather than the archtop you'd expect. This guitar is thought to be from the 1920s which makes it very nearly antique. It's in original condition and includes the original rope strap, although unfortunately the seller reports that the top has sunk a little beneath the bridge.
Currently listed on eBay with a starting price of $1,599. (One for the collectors or else museum curators, perhaps?)
Although the name "Dobro" is often applied generically to resonator guitars, the name should of course more accurately only be used when referring to specific resonator instruments bearing the Dobro brandname (the trademark currently being owned by Gibson Guitar Corporation). The name "Dobro" originated in 1928 when the the Dobro Manufacturing Company was formed by the Dopyera brothers, being a contraction of "Dopyera brothers" and, conveniently, also meaning "goodness" in the brothers' native Slovak tongue. The history of the resonator guitar, the Dobro, National and Regal brands is all quite complicated and convoluted, but if you'd like to know more there are plenty of sources elsewhere on the web and in print.
One fact that seems clear is that John Dopyera was the bright spark who came up with the idea of the resonator guitar in the first place. Pictured above we see perhaps one of his rarer instruments. It's a lap-style resonator (hence the non-traditional guitar shape) with a square neck and with fret position markers instead of actual frets on the fingerboard (numbered up to 26). The eBay seller of the guitar in question tells us that:
John Dopyera [..] claims to have built nine of these guitars with the "Penetro" label on the headstock before they were licensed to "Regal" to market under that name. So this appears to be one of the nine Penetros, and it may well be the last one on the planet. I pulled the resonator long ago and inside, scrawled in pencil it says "made by John Dopyera, March 1, 1940, The Guitar House, 3201 W. Florence Ave., Los Angeles, Ca.".
and goes on to say:
I took this guitar to the Antiques Roadshow in Pittsburgh last year. Although the appraiser appreciated my story, and in fact was pretty knowledgeable regarding the Dopyera resonator guitar legacy, he told me exactly what I thought he was going to. The guitar is so rare, nobody even knows what they are and thus has little value except to a resonator guitar afficianado whose collection has everything Dopyera except for this. So I am not going to give this guy away...
Indeed! The guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $5,000. That's a lot of money but you can't argue with his logic. This is a rare, possibly unique, guitar and an important part of the history of the guitar - and the resonator guitar in particular. It really is a museum piece.
The 7-string guitar has in recent years gained much popularity but I hope that most Guitarz readers will appreciate that the instrument was not a creation of the new metal movement, nor was it invented by Steve Vai or Alex Gregory. The first electric seven-stringer was probably a Gretsch hollowbody made for jazz guitarist George Van Eps in the late 1960s, although he had been playing acoustic 7-string jazz guitar since the late 1930s when he used a custom-made Epiphone.
But 7-string guitars were around long before this. Both Russian and Brazilian music had developed 7-string guitars as part of their culture. The Russian 7-string dates to beginning of the 19th century and utilised an open G tuning (DGBDGbd). It was said to have been invented by Russian guitarist and composer Andrei Sychra who wrote a method for the 7-sting guitar and a whole wealth of compositions for the instrument.
In Brazil the 7-string guitar was introduced in the early 20th century as an accompaniment instrument in choro and samba music. It is traditionally tuned as a standard 6-string with the addition of a low C string, although some guitarists took this down to a (more logical perhaps) low B.
In 18th century Europe, the baroque guitar evolved from an instrument with 5 courses to one with 6 courses - initially the courses were paired strings but later the consensus of popularity favoured single strings as is common today - so it was perfectly natural that someone would take this a stage further and add a 7th course (or string). Those advocating the 7-string guitar included French guitarist Napoleon Coste (1805–1883) who composed specifically for the instrument, and the Italian guitarist Mario Maccaferri (born 1900) who used additional unfretted bass strings (known as diapasons or bourdons) on his guitars.
The above pictured guitar is an Italian 7-string by Ermelinda Silvestri and dates to the mid 1890s. In keeping with most of Silvestri's instruments it bears the butterfly inlay which was a trademark of sorts. The seventh string seems to be very close to the edge of the fingerboard, which suggests that it wasn't intended to be fretted and would have been a diapason (or bourdon if you prefer).
This repaired but still playable antique 7-string guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $1,450.
Here's one of those odd little footnotes from the history of the guitar. This 1930s Paramount L-Style Tenor guitar, made by Martin, has borrowed several design elements from the banjo. Beside the obvious banjo-derived headstock with banjo tuners, the main body is set into larger rim and back with a series of 20 small soundholes arranged around the lip. The back and rim make for an exceptionally large body for a short-scaled instrument. Apparently only 35 of these were made so it's quite a rare piece, and this is reflected in the $3,500 Buy It Now price on eBay.
This Stella doubleneck harp guitar was made in Jersey City, New Jersey, in the 1920s by the Oscar Schmidt Company. Stella was the brand name used on the budget-priced line of instruments, but having found favour with many a blues musician over the years, the Stella brand is now highly collectable and vintage examples now sell for prices that are far from the "budget-priced" label.
It's also interesting to note that an instrument such as a harp guitar, which nowadays would be regarded as a highly specialised form of guitar, was in the early years of the 20th Century considered popular enough to warrant the existence of a budget line model.
Harp guitars come in many shapes and forms as even the briefest of glances through the fascinating www.harpguitars.net website will show you. This Stella example appears to be a double-necked guitar, but the contra-bass strings on the upper neck - which you'll notice has been left fretless - are only intended to be played as open strings. In fact, the necks are mounted too closely together to allow conventional playing on the upper neck, and this is another visual clue that the left hand is not required on the upper neck.
This guitar is currently listed on eBay with a Buy It Now price of $3,499.
Here's another instrument that looks to be a handmade one-off, although a lot more craftsmanship has gone into creating this than on the boat oar guitar we saw in the previous blog post here on Guitarz.
I'm not sure what instrument the maker thought they were building here, but for our purposes I think it's safe to call it a cross between a tenor guitar, a tenor banjo and a baritone ukulele. The headstock style is very banjo-like, as is the general shape, but the all-wooden construction and soundhole are more guitar- and/or ukulele-like. The scale length is 21 1/2" which is more akin to a tenor guitar or banjo than it is to a baritone uke, but I guess it's up to the player to decide how to tune it and play it. I do like the hexangonal shape at the back of the body. If you've ever tried playing a banjo you'll know that a round body is not the best shape for playing when seated; I'm sure a hexagon-shaped instrument isn't going to slip as easily.
It does need some minor repair work doing to it, but with a starting price of $0.99 on eBay it could provide a nice little project for someone which is unlikely to break the bank.
This Coulter tenor guitar, which the ebay seller tells us is from the 1930s and "plays great", is currently being auctioned with a starting bid of $699.99. Coulter is a name I haven't previously been aware of. The name on the headstock does look as if it has been painted on freehand; maybe it's been "re-touched" by someone at some stage in the guitar's life. The seller tells us that:
This guitar was built in Portland, OR, in the early part of the 1900s. F.E. Coulter was active from 1910 into the 1930s. Coulter built guitars, banjos, violins and mandolins, all of which featured his unique design sense.There are mother of pearl inlays on the neck, body and heel of the neck as as seen in the pictures. This guitar is very lightweight and loud. Not sure what woods were used, but I believe the top is redwood. There have been extensive repairs done by a local (Portland) luthier. All cracks and gaps have been sealed and braced and all the interior bracing has been repaired. The neck shows a bit of bowing, as should be expected, but is well attached to the body and not pulled in. More cosmetic restoration could be done, but I leave that up to the digression of the buyer. For more on F. E. Coulter check this link for a WPA Writers Project interview with the builder: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~janeha/fcoulter-folklore.html
I have to say that those weird kidney-shaped soundholes are about the ugliest I have ever seen.
Exciting and interesting guitar design is nothing new. This incredible looking instrument is an Italian harp guitar from the early 1900s. An internal label gives the name Carmelo Pinocchiaro. It would originally have had six strings plus four sub-basses. Sadly, as you can see from the photos, it's not exactly in a very good state of repair. Let's hope someone buys this up and restores it. It does require some skilled luthier attention, even if it is remain as a museum piece.
G L Wilson
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 10th year!
Our instrument has a long history. Dating all the way back to 1400s when an instrument called the Vihuela flourished in Spain. Vihuela featured six courses of strings - a course being a pair of strings tuned to the same pitch in this case. Much like today's guitars, the tuning was fourths and one third. In today's terms, Vihuela tuning would be E A D F# B E.
Interestingly, vihuela was really a family of instruments: they came in all sizes. There are only three original Vihuelas in existence today, and each is slightly different in scale length and pitch. Some would even be considered bass-like. There was also a four course guitar that flourished in France during the Renaissance.
The Baroque guitar (around 1600-1800) flourished in many European countries. These guitars are as much works of art as they are instruments. They featured extensive ornamentation and inlays.
And elaborate rosettes that filled the sound hole.
Around 1800 guitar builders gradually added a sixth course, and went to single strings. Check out this instrument, a six course guitar built around 1800.
And this one built just a few years later.
Like guitarists today, guitarists in the later 1800s explored guitars with more than six strings. Composer/Guitarist Johann Kaspar Mertz played on a ten-string instrument similar to the modern harp guitar.
Napoleon Coste also added more strings and wrote music for this seven string guitar.
The ten-string guitar is still alive today thanks to the work of Narciso Yepes.
Classical, nylon-strung guitars today, however, are mostly pretty tame. And they're all descendents of the grand-daddy of the modern guitar, Antonio Torres. Torres built guitars in Spain during the late 19th century, and his instruments are the first that we consider modern. The bodies on his instruments were slightly bigger, and the braces on the underside of the top were arranged in a fan.
While electric guitars may feature gorgeous wood on the top, the back and sides of a classical guitar are often the most beautiful. Below is my guitar, built in 2009 by Michael Thames.
Most professional level classical guitars - called "concert guitars" - are custom shop jobs. They are built specifically for one person, and you choose a guitar builder based on the features you want. Some builders specialize is construction methods that are a bit unorthodox or strange. Check out the inside of this "lattice braced" guitar.
The tops on these guitars are extremely thin (you could puncture it with your finger), and that black stuff inside is carbon fiber. Another popular construction method today is a "double top". These guitars have a thin top, then a layer of honey-comb style material called Nomex, then another thin top is glued on the other side. Here builder John H. Dick shows off the inside of his guitar tops (towards the end).
There's a lot out there in the world of classical and nylon-strung guitars, and it's well worth exploring.
Christopher Davis
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
guitarz.blogspot.com: We've looked at many vintage guitars on this blog, but this one is positively antique. It is a 100-year old 11-string classical guitar by Breyer Hermanos, who - according to HarpGuitars.net - were a publisher of tango sheet music and also a music store in Buenos Aires. I wonder if they had their own luthier or if they simply applied their brand name to guitars from other manufacturers? I have no idea how this is tuned or how it should be played. Two of the five additional strings are over the fingerboard and so could be fretted but the other three are off the edge of the neck itself, so technically you could say that this was a harp guitar.
The additional strings seem to have been strung up to the machine heads in a rather bizarre order, as the photo below shows. Whether there is a good reason for this, I do not know. Note also that there are in fact 12 machine heads even though it is an 11-string instrument. The maker must have been striving for symmetry, despite the fact that the headstock already looks lop-sided against the neck with the three harp strings hanging off the edge.
G L Wilson
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
The concept of a guitar made from a turtle shell has been a concept firmly fixed in my mind since I saw Kirk Douglas playing one in the movie "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" as a small child. Other than the instrument used in that film (a prop, no doubt) the guitar pictured here - currently being offered for sale on eBay - is the first time I've actually seen this idea executed.
However, I hope the poor turtle wasn't executed for its shell.
G L Wilson
Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!
This harp guitar by August Carlstedt is not the kind of instrument that turns up very often on eBay. The seller has listed it as a "double neck" and I suppose that is not an innaccurate description of it, but you'll notice from the closeness of the upper neck carrying the sub-bass strings to the main neck that the sub-bass strings are not meant to be fingered (I won't say "fretted" for obvious reasons). The sub-basses are intended to be plucked as open strings - the neck is there merely to support these strings. The designs of harp guitar vary wildly; many other brands employed winged extensions to the body where this guitar has the extra neck. I assume that the fretless fingerboard on this example is there for aesthetic purpose only.
I note that currently the guitar has only two of its four sub-bass strings present. Possibly, in its current condition with cracked body top it would not be wise to string it up with the full complement of strings. I am curious as to the presence of four additional bridge pins on the treble-side of the guitar's bridge, which would suggest that the guitar may have had even more extra strings. However, there are no tuners present on the treble side of the body, nor marks to indicate where they may once have been. Could the four extra bridge pins be merely an aesthetic touch so as give provide visual balance to the whole bridge design?
August Carlstedt, by the way, lived from 1861 to 1928 and was a Swedish immigrant who ran a shop in Chicago during the early 20th century, building instruments under the Ideal brand.
This beautiful antique guitar is, as already mentioned, in need of some restoration. No doubt it will appeal to a collector of harp guitars; hopefully someone who will lavish some attention on it.
