The guitar in the waiting room that was selected as the last guitar in the ongoing batch was not as expected. Side and bottom turned out to be in plywood and neck in oak. Quite simply not good enough to waste time on and is now scrapped.

The customer wanted a guitar with a wide grip board, I happened to have a similar but better guitar with extra width between the strings at the stable. A European parlor from about 1910.

It was in decent condition, the biggest problem was that they had painted more spirit varnish on top of the original and not very well. The neck had cracked and was repaired with a classic wood screw through the fretboard. Sides and bottom finely veined, it had been sanded clean from the veining along the edge to a simulated "edge". The stable was unusually clumsy and tall and made of black painted maple. The stable had been reglued and the area around the stable was quite poorly managed, it was also about to come off again. The original board is thin and flat in rosewood and the tuning screws are functional but a little loose. Otherwise unusually crack-free and intact.

When it was pulled apart, the ribs were firm and the stalk plate was completely missing. The bottom ribs were loose or almost loose, however, the ribs in the lid sat well. The bottom bar of the lid had been planed down for better sound by the person who last repaired it.

The neck in V shape and in the maple was relatively strong and reasonably straight, it only needed to be ground slightly a little at the top and bottom. The grip board was recessed neck which means that the upper saddle is embedded with wood on either side, an old-fashioned design detail on slightly older parlor guitars. Often the strings touch the head on the way to the upper saddle which gives marks in the varnish. The bottom of a piece of maple was well thick and thinned down to about 2,8 mm with the drum. Can be a bit trixical as the bottom has a curvature in both directions, but by wetting the wood on the inside the wood swells so that the bottom becomes almost flat and can be thinned into the rolls. The lid was also thinned down from the inside to about 3 mm with a small grinding machine and planer.

• Total length: 92 cm
• Top (upper round, waist, lower round): 23 - 17,5 - 29,5 cm
• Side (neck block, waist, end block): 7,5 - 8 - 8,5 cm
• Neck: V-shape
• Fingerboard (nut, 12th, bridge): 46 - 60 - 61 mm
• String length: 63 cm
• Paint: Spirit varnish
• Weight: 1052 g

New ribs and a K&K mic were fitted. Virtually no body repairs were needed. The lid under the stable was missing some wood from the gluing of the stable, a piece of spruce was felled. In the lid I now glue a patch between the two ribs under the sound hole and the rib under the stable plate is a thin stick just to hold the fibers of the lid together. Of course, stable plate in spruce with plugs and hard buttons around the string pin holes, it should sound good!

Although the bottom was one piece it had not shrunk much, it was unusually easy to glue it back.

The thin and flat fretboard was replaced with a new one in rosewood with a 16 ″ radius. The stable was newly manufactured in rosewood with the old stable as a template. Also made two new decorations at the end of the stable's tips, used the same Stewmac tool that I use for the reinforcements around the string pin holes (BridgeSaver) and drilled in 4 mm pearl mortars.

The neck was given a carbon fiber rod, the grip board and neck were glued. New tuning screws were installed. Measured up for overseas pay. As usual, the board received brass bands and the stall a segmented stall leg. Has become really good at producing them!

The stable leg was later supplemented with a 1 mm thick shim in rosewood underneath to make the stable leg stronger and for a last chance to adjust the height.

The boring painting with alcohol varnish was not so fun. Decided to spray away most of it without removing too much of the original paint. Went very well even though some patina on the lid disappeared, in fact it is probably just cleaner than before. Then lacquered on new liquor varnish, better done than before. The neck got black liquor paint on top of the old one.

The last thing I do after the last adjustment is always to attach the label, side feet and guitar band knob to the neck foot. Skipped the knob on this one since the customer didn't want one.

After three days of vibration, I can see that this was unusually good. High volume and open sound, will fit very well into finger play! Will rarely be disappointed with these nice little European parlor guitars 🙂