January 8, 2014
How cool is this? We don’t see many of this particular model, given that the building of most wooden Dobro’s of this period were being being “farmed out” to the Regal guitar Co.
This one however is all Dobro Resonator guitar and all original right down to the cone and tuners….
History in the offing for:
Category Acoustic Guitars, Slide Guitars | Tags: acoustic,american,dobro,dobro resonator guitar. guitar,old,regal,resonator,slide,vintage | Comments Off on Dobro Resonator Guitar No.27 Circa 1933-36
October 18, 2013
This guitar is suffering from a condition known as “man-sat-on-guitaritis” and as a result the soundboard caved in. Distraught, distressed and ready to try any new fangled, yet to be proven medically, luthiery magic in order to restore his Maton EBG808L to its former glory. Luckily for Dave, Maton repairs are somewhat of a specialty for us.
Category Restorations | Tags: american,australia,bridge,brisbane,ebg808l,guitar,guitar repairers,heritage,maton,maton australia,maton guitars,old,pre-war,reglue,repair,restoration,sale,vintage | Comments Off on Major Maton Repair on an EBG808L
October 2, 2013
The First Hawaiian Conservatory of Music was a marketing tool of the Oscar Schmidt Company of New York, started around 1919 and continued until the late 1930’s. They would sell a guitar and 12 months of correspondence guitar lessons for a nominal down payment and monthly repayments. They would advertise these courses in Popular Mechanics and other magazines of the period.
The guitars they supplied with this course are now widely regarded, along with the Oscar Schmidt Stellas, as the cream of old blues guitars. These rarely come up for sale in the US, and never in Australia. Artists keep these guitars when they get a hold of them. This guitar was used extensively in studio work in Alabama until we managed to get our hands on it!
Category Acoustic Guitars | Tags: acoustic,antique,brisbane,cheap,guitar,guitar repairers,parlor,parlour,relic,restoration,restored,sale,second hand,used,vintage | Comments Off on Oscar Schmidt Parlour Guitar Circa 1920’s
September 19, 2013
This little girl is a cannon!!!!!..it’s LOUD! And woody and everything besides, the perfect thing to out do those pesky banjo players. As you can see, she still has her original case and the original scratch plate albeit slightly shrunk. We are presently making a replica to compliment the overall vibe.
Category Mandolins | Tags: 1916,a1,brisbane,cedar,genuine,Gibson,mandolin,old,repairers,restored,retro,spruce,vintage | Comments Off on Gibson A1 Mandolin C. 1916
March 26, 2012
no images were found
This arrived to us in a sorry state. At some point someone decided that they didn’t like the binding, so what do you do when you don’t like the binding on your 64 tele? Of course you sand it all off!To fix this we routed a rebate into the top and bottom edge of the tele, filled out the rebate with pieces of old ash. Then re-routed a channel on top and bottom edge for the binding.
The customer wanted to see the original three tone magnifico sunburst. We sealed it and then thanks to Luke Kallquist and his fine skills with a spray gun, we had it.
Luckily the only atrocity was the the sanding. The components all worked fine and the guitar only needed a little work to bring her back to her former glory.
no images were found
Category Restorations | Tags: 1964,australia,brisbane,fender,guitar repairers,maple neck,respray,restoration,sunburst,telecaster,tobacco,vintage | Comments Off on 64 Fender Telecaster
February 10, 2010
There are sooo many old Japanese acoustic guitars out there. Some are lying under beds, some have been bequeathed to younger members of the family and sadly, way too many will eventually end up at the dump. We love nothing more than to get our hands on these under appreciated beauties. Why? I hear you say. Well, it’s like this.
1. Build Quality. The Japanese were for many years the masters of replicating everything from cars to guitars. Their attention to detail was nad still is meticulous, especially when it came to copying and replicating American guitar design.
2. Materials. The timbers used to make these guitars were sourced from every corner of South East Asia. These timbers were “old growth”; in plainer words, the timber was taken from established forests. The advantages of this type of wood are long term stability and strength. Further to this, many of these timbers were species that are now on the endangered list and are therefore illegal to log and/or export. Now, while we consider the cutting down of established “old growth” forest timber a crime, it would be an even bigger crime not to make the most of what is already there. Whilst the build quality of the modern Asian made guitar (i.e. China, Indonesia, Vietnam etc) is exceptional, most of the timbers used are “plantation” timbers or more overly “new growth” timbers. Though this forestation is certainly light years ahead ecologically, it tends to yield timber which is brittle and can be unstable, making many repairs, such as a broken headstock untenable.
The moral of this story is simple, if you have an old Terada, Yamaha, Ibanez, Suzuki, Yairi, Tokai, Takamine, Emperador, Morris, Pearl or Tama (yes! they made guitars to) just to name a few, you probably have a guitar that given the right bit of TLC will wipe the floor with most of its modern competitors, including those beautiful guitars that cost $2000.00 plus. Ok Then, enough of my yacking, enjoy the pictures.
Category Acoustic Guitars, Restorations | Tags: acoustic,japanese guitars,morris,pearl,restoration,suzuki,takamine,terada,tokai,vintage,yairi,yamaha | Comments Off on The Wonders of Vintage Japanese Guitars