$2.00 solid wood acoustic!

[Rocks]

We were out hitting garage sales this weekend and I stumbled upon an old acoustic guitar with no strings, tuners or bridge. I took a quick look and saw the neck was straight and there was a crack in the back right down the center and a small crack on the top near the sound hole. The top also was a bit deformed as was the back. I've been rehydrating it for about 3 days now and the crack on the top is almost invisible, as is the crack on the back. The top and back are also starting to come back into shape with a nice arch. I'm charging my camera batteries now and I'll get some pics up once they charge.

There is no name on the guitar that I can find, inside or out. It has a small body with a body length of about 17 3/4". I'm kind of new to acoustics so I'll do my best to describe the rest and maybe someone can tell me who made it. With the guitar in a stand the bottom wide point (is this what they call a bout?) is 13 1/4", the narrowest part of the body is 8" and the top wide point is 9 1/2" The body depth at the bottom is 3 3/4" and the depth at the top is 3 1/2" The wood appears to be flame maple on the top and the back. It has a very nice worn vintage cherry sunburst finish.

The neck is (I'm not sure how this is measured) 12" from the inside of the nut to the inside of the 12th fret (12 1/8" to the out side of the 12th fret) So I am guessing the scale length is either 24" or 24 1/4" depending on how its supposed to be measured. The fret board appears to be either rosewood or some other dark colored wood. The wood between the frets is solid white in each place there would normally be a position marker, it appears to be have been done that way from the factory but I could be mistaken.

So far I am quite pleased with how well this guitar has cleaned up and how well the body is "repairing itself" while taking on moisture. I have a small shallow plastic cup with a couple damp paper towels inside it sitting inside the body and I have the body wrapped in a large plastic bag. I have been checking it about every 12 hours to see the progress and its looking much better after just a few days. At this rate I think I should be able to find a bridge for it by this weekend and tune her up. I'll most likely tune it down a step or so at first and let the neck and body get used to tension again and then decide if I want to tune it any higher. The neck has no truss rod, but its pretty straight and looks like it was played a lot by a previous owner. The frets cleaned up real nice with some steel wool and I don't see any that look like they need replaced.

Anyhow, if anyone has a guess as to what this guitar is I'd be glad to know. I'm thinking its either an old harmony or a kay, there are no words or numbers anywhere on the guitar that I can see. Also, is this considered a parlor guitar or?

I'll get the pics up as soon as the batteries are charged in the camera.

[Stuco]

I'm looking forward to seeing photos. I will have to see them to try to figure out what it is. My first (wild) guess would be possibly a harmony but who knows.

[Rocks]

Ok, I got some pics, my camera sucks but here they are:

I don't really care for the white blocks on the neck, they are painted on and look to be original. I think I'd like to find a way to remove the white.



and...




and...

[Rocks]

And here are a few more...



I pulled these tuners off a real cheap guitar (first act acoustic, about 1/2 size) They fit so I threw them on for now so I can at least string it up and see how things are before spending much money on it. I'll have to either make a bridge or buy one. It has the chrome tail piece (I forgot to take a picture of it). The tail piece screws to the bottom of the guitar with three small screws, then wraps around the front to hold the string ends, its about 5" long and in nice shape. It is designed to strings with balls on the end and a floating bridge.

[Rocks]

So far I've given the guitar a quick cleaning with "Goo Gone" which is an orange based cleaner, it took off a good layer of gunk and grime. The clothes were coming back black with years of built up filth. I'll give it a better cleaning after its fully rehydrated. I also wiped down the fretboard with lemon oil. I'll also repair the cracks with small wood cleats. The neck feels good in my hand but I'll have to wait until it has strings to get a real feel for it. I'm hoping it will turn into a nice little front porch guitar.

What is good to clean this with? Also, whats good to polish/coat it with once its ready?

[studio1087]

From the description of the 13" lower bout I too would have guessed that it was a Harmony or a Stella. I think that both Harmonys and Stellas were plywood; made for Sears or a catalog company. They were small like a parlor guitar.

Check this out, did your bridge look like this?? This is a Stella. Good old blues box.

Stella Link

Harmony Link

Do these look like your guitar?

John

[Rocks]

The chrome tail piece on the stella link is identical to the one that came on this guitar. Two reasons I think it is solid wood

1) the top and back both had cracks that closed up in a few days just by adding moisture.

2) looking in the sound hole at the edge with a magnifying glass I don't see layers, I see wood grain that matches the direction of the wood grain on the top.

Did stella/harmony/silvertone make any solid tops? Also, did any of them paint the fret markers solid white like on this neck? Or was that something done by a previous owner? Any idea how to remove the white?

[unbridled]

It does look like at least the back is solid. In the first picture, you can see grain through the soundhole that looks like it matches the grain on the back of the guitar seen in the fourth picture. I'm guessing the painted blocks on the neck were added by a P. O. I would think that if they were from the factory, the paint would match the color of the painted "binding."

[Rocks]

Originally Posted by unbridled

It does look like at least the back is solid. In the first picture, you can see grain through the soundhole that looks like it matches the grain on the back of the guitar seen in the fourth picture. I'm guessing the painted blocks on the neck were added by a P. O. I would think that if they were from the factory, the paint would match the color of the painted "binding."

Yes, I took a closer look at the wood grain through the sound hole and it matches the back perfectly. Also I put a small mirror inside and looked at the inside of the top, it matches the outside of the top too. Another thing is when I first started the back and top were shaped similar to the dryed out Taylor that they used in the video on the Taylor web site to demonstrate rehydrating a dry guitar. You can see the video here: http://www.taylorguitars.com/see-hear/ Click on "Performance Tips/maintenance on the right side menu and you can see a short video where he shows the symptoms of a dry guitar and another how he brings it back to shape using moisture. This guitar has reacted the same way as the one in the video. The top and back arch were non-existant until the third day of rehydrating. Now they are both looking real good. The top crack is almost invisible now, if you didn't know where to look you'd never find it. And the crack on the back also has closed up completly, at first I could slide a buisness card through the back crack and drop it into the guitar body, now it just looks like a long hair laying on the back of the guitar.

From what I was reading it seems that this might be one made before Oscar Schmidt sold the Stella name to Harmony. Everything I've read says that they were much better made guitars when O.S. was making them. I've looked very close on the headstock and there is no sign of any letters at all. The neck is also nice and tight to the body. Also on the neck I've looked very close at the white spaces and there is no sign of any different position markers that were painted over. Even with a magnifying glass I can't detect anything that looks like a position marker painted over.

[aunchaki]

I don't know what it is, but I like it. It looks like a great project guitar that could turn into a great player. After years of dreadnought use, I'm starting to warm up to parlor guitars. The bulk of my dreads keeps me from playing them on the couch as much as I could. Nice score!! Keep us posted (with pics) on the restoration!

[sneakyjapan]

I have seen 50s and 60s Japanese nylons with fretboards like that, sometimes with green or white plastic kitchen counter top plastic that was popular at the time. Also have a pic of one that had the sides and back made of white plastic counter top. Don`t know anything about Kay or Stellas...but over here laminates didn`t become popular `til the mid 60s so most of the great old MIJ nylons I have are all solid...and just for giggles...I paid 21 yen for one thats all solid wood, so $2.oo was A LOT !
I love those old acoustics, almost all of mine came with 40/50 years of accumulated crud on em too, I just throw away the rags now, not worth trying to wash em anymore. Once they are clean I find the Gibson polish in the orange pump bottle to be the best, doesn`t seem to harm the lacquer finishes on mine at all and really brings the flame out on my Yamaha Dynamics maple. I know thsoe are all solid wood, and when I come across a maker I`m not sure of I use my watchmakers loupe to look at the edges of the tops.

[Rocks]

Thanks, I like it too! I'm still rehydrating it, probably another day or two before its ready to string up. I'm going to pick up a floating bridge for it friday with some strings and with a little luck I'll be playing it by friday evening. Everything I'm reading says they are great for blues which is exactly what I'm looking for. If it goes well and its a good player I'll then look at getting it better tuners and a bone nut.

I still want to figure out a way to remove the white block position markers without ruining the fretboard or unseating the frets....

[sneakyjapan]

the nice thing about my small bodies is...I can play em for hours and not tired plus the nylon strings aren`t as hard on my fingers, I don`t use picks so that goes for both hands.

[Stuco]

If you are very careful, you could probably remove that white stuff with some lacquer thinnner. Just know that if you get it on the back of the neck it will affect the lacquer there. "goof-off" is some pretty serious paint stripper that you could try. Be very careful with that stuff too if you use it.

[Rocks]

Sneakyjapan, the white on this fretboard is definitely painted on, you can see where it is wearing through on the 3rd fret. I'm going to string up the two E strings with fishing line to get an idea of what the action will be like. I'll make a temporary bridge from a small piece of wood to get a good look at the string path over the bridge. I know it won't give me a true representation since there will be very little tension, but it will at least give me an idea.

[Rocks]

Originally Posted by Stuco

If you are very careful, you could probably remove that white stuff with some lacquer thinnner. Just know that if you get it on the back of the neck it will affect the lacquer there. "goof-off" is some pretty serious paint stripper that you could try. Be very careful with that stuff too if you use it.

I don't have any lacquer thinner handy, will denatured alcohol work?

Sneakyjapan, is this guitar supposed to have nylon strings?

[Stuco]

Originally Posted by Rocks

I don't have any lacquer thinner handy, will denatured alcohol work?

You could try it. Who knows, the paint on the fretboard could be lacquer or it could be something else. I would try a little on the middle of one of the white blocks. Put a little on a rag and rub it on there. It will probably be a lot of work whatever you use to get all the white out of those little grain lines. Another method would be to use heat (like a strong hairdryer or one of those paint stripping heat guns), but not too much as you don't want the fretboard glue to come loose.

[Rocks]

denatured alcohol is working! The white is coming off with a bit of rubbing. I've manged to get the majority of it off the first 4 with just a little left near the frets. I think I can get it all off and cleaned up nice in about an hour. I've gone as far as I can for now since the body is wrapped in plastic for the rehydrating. So I'll continue to work on the spots left near the frets until I can get to the rest of them.

[Stuco]

Glad to hear!

[Rocks]

I looked and saw there was only one more white block under the plastic, so I took it out of the plastic and went to work on the last one. I have a little minor cleanup work left right at the fret edges. I'm having success using an old t-shirt with the denatured alcohol, I get my thumb nail in there and its getting right up against the frets with a bit of effort. I'm also cleaning the whole fretboard with the alcohol so everything is at the same level of clean. Once its all clean I have to decide if I'm going to recoat the fretboard with anything or just wipe it down with lemon oil, what do you suggest?