FUQ (eff -yu - cue) - FAQ's with an EDGE

Tagged As: Antique Guitar

Question:
I have a very old guitar I’m trying to ID. Any comments would be most welcome. Thanks in advance. It's at: http://stevenmaloney.com/guitar/top.jpg and http://stevenmaloney.com/guitar/back1.jpg

Answer:
Bill, that guitar could have been built by any one of dozens of small shop and factory operations from about 1890 to 1930.  It could be a Washburn, Bacon & Day, Vega, Tonk Brothers, or any number of other forgotten or semi-obscure outfits. I'm not trying to be discouraging, but it appears to have been refinished, and that removes a few clues right off the bat.  (A label inside the instrument would have been nice!!) I seriously doubt it's a Martin, but it could be a New Jersey-built Oscar Schmidt or something similar. I'm sorry I can't be any more specific than that, but once you start delving into these old parlor guitars you'll discover how very murky these waters can get.... I will send the links to some folks more knowledgeable about these old parlor guitars than I am, in hopes they can spot something I missed, but the instrument looks fairly generic to me. Just a few thoughts: It looks like an early 20th-century American-made Guitar. It has a Torres-style body. The soundboard looks like it could be slab cut. The bridge is pyramid style. The neck is short scale with tall skinny banjo-style frets. The tuners would be a clue if they're original. They're hard to see in the photo, but they look like modern worm-gear tuners. Stick an inspection mirror through the soundhole and see if there's a maker's mark underneath the soundboard. Looks a little like a what was described as a catalog guitar of 20's or 30's. Here's one I have. It's 36.5 inches long. 24.5 inch scale.