The mystery may never be solved, and I'm okay with that.Custom Orders Can I order an instrument directly from Collings? I'm thrilled with how it plays and sounds. I guess Noone will ever know who actually made it. The neck had made it mostly unplayable, so maybe he was trying to fix that. I would bet he removed the original bridge when trying to refinish the instrument. He had put scotch tape on the hairline cracks in the body. He had put some kind of varnish or something on the guitar that had pebbled badly. I wish I'd taken a photo of it when I first saw it. I believed him when he said his mother paid $50 for it some time around 1930. This old guy was a character alright but he sure didn't have the woodworking skills to build a guitar.and if he had i imagine he would also have fixed it. More likely could have been someone in the 1920s (or even earlier) who was trying to copy a Martin style parlour guitar. with no bridge, a stupid headstock inlay and building such a plain guitar. I can't imagine anyone going to that trouble back in the 70's (which is when I found it hanging on the wali of an 80 year old guy). I also have a 2000 Washburn D47S, a 2008 Larrivee D 05 and a 1980s El Degas MT5AS 12 string. I'll attach a couple photos and maybe someone will have an idea. I have also been told that worker built guitars would probably still be rosewood bodies because that would have been available. Before 1898, worker built guitars, other odd instances. I've been told that all Martins have a serial number but then see someone posting about exceptions. He dismissed it being a Martin because it had no serial number. He felt that because it had the square fret wire it probably was even older than I had thought. My luthier guessed this might have been a Regal catalogue guitar. Just trying to find out, if possible, who built it. All said and done this is just the sweetest sounding, smoothest playing little gem with perfect intonation, very low action and just rings out. I had a local music shop install a new bridge and found it had great tone and volume, although the relief in the neck meant it was only in tune for about 5 frets.įinally found a luthier who knew what he was doing who was able to heat and straighten the neck, build a proper bridge, carve new bone nut and saddle, repair the cracks, refinish and install new Stew Mac repro tuners. Plus he had done a piss poor attempt at applying varnish to the body that had pebbled badly. He had inlaid what almost looks like a bread tag into the headstock and had also screwed a little wire music holder into the head as well. When I first saw it hanging on this guy's wall it had no bridge, no strings, a few hairline cracks, a slightly warped neck and a few weird modifications. It came in a hard canvas case that opened at the end. However, this old guy was a character and he might well have put that in there himself. ![]() It did have a label on the inside of the back that says C.F. All mahogany with what looks like rosewood fingerboard on a mahogany neck. It has no serial number that I can find, no identifying marks, no binding, nothing on the headstock. When i got it from an old timer (about 42 years ago) he told me his mother had given it to him around 1930. It has square fret wire and x bracing, no truss rod and is definitely from 1930s or earlier. I have a very old parlour size guitar that I'm trying to identify.
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