Civil War era Parlor Guitar

[John Cohen]

A little off topic... I rescued this guitar today, complete with its coffin case.  Does anybody know who the maker or manufacturer was?  It has characteristics that point to it being from the 1840s-1860s, including the ice cream cone neck heel and the lack of fretboard inlays.  The tuners are pretty distinctive compared to most of the other geared tuners I've seen from the 19th century- the only other place I've seen these plain, brass tuners is on Ashborn guitars from the 1850s and 1860s.  The bridge is almost certainly a replacement, and the back may or may not be original.  The sides and back are Brazilian rosewood.  Despite its flaws, it's a good playing little guitar and it sounds wonderful.

[Nicholas A Bechtel]

O my gosh, you lucky, lucky man. That is sooo cool.

[John Cohen]

I found it in a bluegrass/old time music store in Easthampton MA.  I've been looking for one for a long time, but it's hard to find any from before the 1880s.  I actually walked into the store to trade some acoustic guitars for a different acoustic, but I left with this sweetie.  I was kind of shocked when I flipped it around and saw the back along with the ice cream cone heel!

[John Cohen]

Here's the the case it came with:

[Rob Morrison]

What a wonderful discovery.  I've had lucky finds throughout the years, and the only trick is to keep your eyes open.  Would love to hear it.

[John Cohen]

Do you have more pictures of the second Martin?  By the way, I don't think the case I have is original to the guitar.

[John Cohen]

Today I strung the guitar with gut strings, and I have to say it sounds truly lovely.  I spent the last hour or so playing over and over again an arrangement of the Battle Cry of Freedom that I wrote.  It's all too easy to get lost in the sound of this guitar and the feel of the gut strings.  If you play guitar and ever have the chance to pick up a Brazilian rosewood parlor guitar from this time period, I highly recommend it.  I also recommend stringing it with gut- at least in my case, the strings stay in tune nearly as well as nylgut.  I did break the high e the first time around trying to tune it in E at A=440.  Once I tuned to a more historically accurate A=432, I didn't have any problems.

[Leonidas (Lee) Jones]

I would love to hear it

[John Cohen]

Yes, I am aware of this.  In fact, I only refer to guitars as "parlor size" if they are smaller than a Martin O.  Some people nowadays call OO's parlor size!  When I tell people about the guitar I make sure they understand that these were the standard guitars of the day.  

I brought the guitar to luthier Steven Kovacik today.  He's going to be doing some repairs for me as well as crowning the frets.  After seeing it in person and spending some time to closely examine it, he says the guitar is from 1840-1865 and is American made.  I can get into the specifics of that if anyone here is interested.

[Strumelia]

Do you feel that's the original case?  If so, how amazing as well!

Great find.  that guitar is lucky to have found you, too.   :)

[John Cohen]

The case is home made, and I have no way to determine whether it is original or not, so I'll assume that it is not to be on the safe side.  I'm very happy to have found this guitar!  I've been looking for a playable period guitar (that is not a Martin, Tilton, or Ashborn) for a long time now.  I'm glad I went to the music store the day I did!  

Steve Kovacik is going to repair the top and side cracks, and add some supports next to the neck block to help strengthen the previously repaired cracks there.  He is also going to crown the frets- they need it pretty badly.  The guitar was refretted at some point with very primitive T frets.  The nut has cracked at the 6th string, so I am replacing it with an West African ivory nut.  Steve is also going to make a new bridge to replace the current one, which is not original.  The new bridge will made in the period-correct pyramid style, and will have a West African ivory saddle and bridge pins.  

All of this will cost about as much as the guitar is worth, but my philosophy regarding old instruments like this is to keep them playing regardless of their actual value.  There are so few student and mid-range instruments from this period in existence that are playable since most of the preserved instruments are higher end.  I do not have extremely invasive work done to my instruments- for example, the neck on this guitar is twisted pretty badly, and to make it "optimally" playable, the fretboard would have to be planed pretty severely, and it would need a refret.  I do not want to subject the guitar to repairs like these, especially when it is playable as is (as playable as a $1000 or under classical in my opinion, and more playable when strung with gut instead of nylon).  

I'm really looking forward to learning some of Stephen Foster's guitar arrangements, and then recording some banjo playing over them.  Should be great! 

[Strumelia]

Yes!   :)