Not everything is GammelGura. I was commissioned to prepare a very fine romantic guitar from around 1850. No cracks and good condition, but the neck had a slight bend and original tuning screws were unfortunately replaced with a gap from around the 1930s. The "new" tuning screws had posts that were a few mm narrower and they hung in the air in the large holes after the originals. The head also had some cracks at the tuning screw holes. The fretboard had carvings with letters for notes, not so nice. The bar fret straps were not in the best condition either.
A carbon fiber rod in the neck was ordered. It turned out that the thin grip board in the maple had been carelessly re-tied with bare frets, some of the grooves were too deeply sawn so the board came loose in three parts. It was decided that it would get a new board in ebony. The bands had to be old brass bands intended for mandolin, but which had the right dimensions for a romantic guitar, about 1 mm wide and high. The pliers were solid, so it is not far from a bare fret. Had a saw that was 0.4 mm thick which worked well to cut the grooves with. An extra 19 th band was seated at the bottom. The upper saddle was made in buffalo horns instead of ebony.
The new tuning screws did not quite reach all the way to the center post and I mounted some "grommets" for it to work.
Succeeded well with the geometries and got the heights at 12 I was looking for with a brass band on top of the stable. The stable was originally the same height on the base and treble side, planed down the treble side about 1-2 mm to get the right geometry. Unfortunately, the measurements were not quite right, the bass strings needed a few tenths more at 12 to not rattle. In addition, the customer wanted to be able to adjust the height himself. Made a radical modern solution with a milled groove with a stable leg in ebony topped by a brass band. Can only be seen if you look closely!
Got a mixed compote strings to test it with, the G string was a real late string. A little thicker than normal and with a special bit dimmer tone. Got a late for the thin e-string as well, but it went off before I got it up to the right pitch 😉
The entire guitar was given an extra layer of spirit varnish which was matted down with steel wool and a polish.
Received a response from the buyer:
“I got the guitar home yesterday. Just like a romantic guitar should be. You have done a very nice job! It will work fine as a concert instrument. It resonates well in all registers, even at band 19. Clear and fine tone and well-balanced register with clear tones and fine intonation. Strangely enough, the guitar is relatively strong in relation to its size. I would definitely recommend others who are into romantic music to let you renovate your guitars. “