OT (guitar): Look what the Postman brought today...

[Steve in SLO]

I know we've got some players here...any guesses?
Hint: Brazilian and Adi, ivory, 12 3/4 lower bout, no serial number
Plays a dream.

[Fixed]

Looks great Steve ,:) I am looking for one too .
All mine are back in Florida
I just got a price from guitar center for parlor guitar (Taylor )
Cheers

[bloody sunday]

Martin Style 23/24

[Steve in SLO]

thanks, Butch. Have,fun with your Taylor.
BS: Actually Style 26, but darn close.

[wildboar]

Nice! More pics, please?

[bloody sunday]

thanks, Butch. Have,fun with your Taylor.
BS: Actually Style 26, but darn close.

darn! so close! You had the mail deliver that gem?? wow

[rounder]

Tell us more. How did you know that it was a style 26. It has a wide neck, does it have nylon stings. How come the headstock is not slotted. How did you find it...were you looking for one. Original condition? What are you gonna do with it. The guitar looks beautiful.. Just wondering. Like Martin guitars. Thanks.

[Steve in SLO]

OK, more:
I had been looking for an old Martin Parlor for a relatively short time (since August when I played a 1860s model), and happened on this one on eBay, but the seller cancelled the auction relatively quickly and I emailed him and then we spoke on the phone. He had owned it for some time and no longer wanted to play it since he considered it an 'antique' and felt bad about using it. I tossed out an offer to which he agreed and he sent me the guitar.
Condition: fair player.
It has some soundboard cracks (repaired) and some bellying and the bridge is cracked and has 3 small bolts thru it (nice). The soundboard has been resprayed at some time past, The neck is arrow straight and has some fretwear. The headstock isn't slotted but I have seen a number like this, so I think it's original. The original peg tuners have been swapped for newer machines.
Low E is just under 1/8" at 12th fret.
The body size puts this at a 1. The trim (rosette, ivory + half herringbone binding and rear zipper inlay, the ivory fretmarkers are consistent with a style 26.
Dating (by my best guess): CF Martin and Co New York on back brace and on neck block is right side up, putting it between mid 1893s and 1898 when serial #s were first used.
In the pic it is strung with Ernie Ball Silk and Steel softs. I out these on and it made the guitar sing. Very loud, lush vice for such a small guitar. I plan on taking it to a trusted luthier and asking him to work down the bellying with a steamer, replacing the bridge and replacing the first 4 frets. I will then string it with lower tension strings and play it.

[Bob Ross]

Fabulous!

[fuzzalow]

Great score.

The previous owner felt bad about playing it because it was an antique? Mon dieu! If that's how he felt, moving it along to someone who will play it was the only correct thing to do. She was built to sing.

[redir]

I love parlor guitars. I've been building guitars for 20 years now and just built my first parlor guitar. I built it as part of a contest, which I got second place for, :) and I absolutely love it. I built it with materials from a barn in my back yard, oak for back, sides and neck, and pine for the top. If you are interested you can see the thread on this forum.

http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10133&t=37566

Hey Steve I'd love to see more pics of that one, back sides neck etc...

Here's a pic of mine:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sjZk0AP0pSo/UKgN27U81UI/AAAAAAAAFrU/4SKVIXRP18I/s540/2012-11-17_17-09-06_273.jpg

[Steve in SLO]

Wow, redir, that's a beauty! I have a fair bit of woodworking experience and have been thinking about building a few....how difficult and time consuming was making your first few guitars, if you remember?
More pics this weekend when my 48h shift ends.

[redir]

Wow, redir, that's a beauty! I have a fair bit of woodworking experience and have been thinking about building a few....how difficult and time consuming was making your first few guitars, if you remember?
More pics this weekend when my 48h shift ends.

It was quite a long time ago and I don't really remember. Today it takes 60 - 80 hours depending on the guitar and finish. If you have woodworking skills then you should be in good shape. I didn't even know how to sharpen a chisel when I started and now there are all kinds of forums, videos, books etc... to make the learning curve a lot faster. I'd say the first 5 I built was woodworking 101, the next two were Woodworking 102, up till the tenth was Fine Woodworking and after that it was Luthiery.

I've built over 50 guitars now and am only now beginning to get responsive really good sounding instruments.

It's not an easy hobby to get into and takes a lot of patients but if you build one you will know whether or not you will end up building 50 or just saying the hell with it :) For me it's something I strive to perfect and almost feel like I have to do it!

So I say go for it! And really even the first few I built were good sounding and playing guitars and it's a lot of fun and is very rewarding.

[Steve in SLO]

Thanks, it may be a great winter time project.

[Bob Ross]

I built it with materials from a barn in my back yard, oak for back, sides and neck, and pine for the top.

Mr. Perkins notwithstanding, how is pine as a soundboard material? E.g., compared to spruce.

[rounder]

I think the best book I ever read about woods and guitar building was Clapton's Guitar about Wayne Henderson.

[559Rando]

Nice parlour guitar! Headstock looks rather 'Martin' in that shot. I'd love to hear! :banana:

[rounder]

I gave my wife a Martin 00 16 BM for an anniversary present. She likes it but never learned to play it, I played it some and it is a nice guitar. Signed by Chris Martin.

http://www.elderly.com/new_instruments/items/0016DBM.htm

[redir]

Mr. Perkins notwithstanding, how is pine as a soundboard material? E.g., compared to spruce.

That's a tough question in this case. I built that guitar as part of a contest where the rules were you have to build a guitar for under $150. I also wanted to keep the whole project within the back yard bard wood motif. So that piece of pine I found was pretty much not suitable for a guitar but I used it anyway. I was really quite surprised at how good this guitar sounds and definitely learned a great deal from it. The top is super thin and may very well not last more then a few year, remains to be seen.

So it's hard for me to compare because I never built a guitar quite like that one to compare different top woods too. Having said that I think that it would come closes to Sitka spruce as it tends to be a little brash and metallic sounding and very loud with a lot of sustain. Loudness can come from the thinness of the top however so it's a tough call.

I managed to find some more perfectly quarter sawn pine from the bard so I'm really stoked to try a few more of these. The barn was built in 1922 so that wood has been around for quite some time.