... the 1880s, that is?
https://postimg.cc/gallery/gl4oesf0/So... many years ago I was in one of the acoustic shops in Denmark Street and tried out a pre-war Washburn parlour guitar. I thought it was fantastic, but they wanted £4k for it and I didn't have £4k.
Then last week I spotted this on eBay -- listed as a Lyon and Healy parlour model from before 1887 (something to do with the shape of the neck joint apparently). Happily it wasn't £4k and now it's mine. Tis a dinky little thing with the most V-shaped neck ever!
It sounds great although the existing strings are a bit knackered and I don't have a spare set here. Seller says that he uses conventional but light steel strings, is that OK or should I go for low tension ones? There's a crack running along the bridge, but I'm told this is stable and has been that way for years. Most of the strings intonate a bit sharp at the 12th but I'm hoping that is partly the ancient strings. Action is high-ish but playable -- about 4.5mm at the 12th on the low E -- and of course there is no truss rod. Wondering whether it might be worth thinking about a neck reset at some point.
Comments
“Theory is something that is written down after the music has been made so we can explain it to others”– Levi Clay
As for strings, I think if my memory serves me correctly some of the guys from the Martin forum like Thomastik for their pre 1920's acoustic guitars. Closer to home the Newtone Heritage strings in 10-47 should work as well.
Let's hope one is not required.
The intonation is fine on the strings with the thinnest cores (high E and wound G) and progressively worse on the others, which is hardly surprising given that it's a short scale guitar and the saddle appears to be a single piece of fretwire. Would it be sacrilege to simply replace the original bridge with a modern compensated one? The intonation bothers me more than the high-ish action.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Nice find!
Is the neck bowing, that might account for some of the high action.
Looks like that bridge has already been off at some point. Remove/replace will be relatively easy, with the finish being slightly gone around it.
I'm slowly working through an old acoustic, no truss rod, I've removed the board, trued the neck and put in a square carbon fibre tube with titanium rod epoxied inside that. Making a bridge next, it had a similar but much worse split, was all butchered to hell.
I'll just leave that thought with you.
The question that hasn't yet been answered is whether the split in the bridge runs down into the top and the brace behind it. If that's the case I think I might have to have words with the eBay seller, as it wasn't mentioned at all in the listing and wasn't visible on the photos.
When buying old acoustics I always assume they’ll need a reset and some work and factor that into the price as it’s nearly always required. It’s worth doing though, it’ll be a lovely guitar to own once it’s been fettled!