A network for historic guitars and vihuelas

Old guitar found in rubbish skip

Hello, as a new member, and not quite got the hang of the site yet, I will try to ask a question with photos. ( at the moment in my photos/ albums)

I have a guitar of 1830 onwards I think and I maybe totally wrong have a look and give me some advice. The person who found it added the 6 pegs as the strings were originally tied to the bridge. I back and sides have almost certainly been stripped and varnished (shame).

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Permalink Reply by Michael. N. on July 14, 2013 at 15:39

Bit of household ammonia will see to that. Just don't get it on the rest of the Guitar!

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Permalink Reply by hans jones on July 14, 2013 at 17:31

Ah I may well obtain some will ask my wee wife.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Doriean on July 14, 2013 at 23:45

You might be interested to see the following pages http://myplace.frontier.com/~nostberg/chapter22/ also I have seen a Stauffer guitar almost identical in decoration to this in the Powerhouse museum in Sydney, they have a picture in their catalogue. It dates from 1805.

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Permalink Reply by hans jones on July 15, 2013 at 13:54

Interesting indeed. The one I have has those markings and shape, the head is similar to that sort of age. May be a lot newer though.

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Permalink Reply by hans jones on July 22, 2013 at 9:57

Update. I asked Eric Hofmann , after a suggestion by Tony, to view some photos and give me his opinion. He considers it to be German possibly from Markneukirchen. It is inspired by the Viennese style. He also asked me to look for a makers mark inside on the upper block but sadly nothing there or anywhere else. (mirror and torch job) I have sent him a few more photos just in case. Not sure about age but after studying all the info that I have it is possibly mid 19th century.

Anything more I will update.

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Permalink Reply by hans jones on July 22, 2013 at 11:31

Sorry should have read suggestion by Scot.

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Permalink Reply by hans jones on July 23, 2013 at 21:19

Thanks all who helped me investigate where this guitar was made, by whom and the age.

I had another reply from Erik Hofmann and he said 1835 Markneukirchen. Probably C F Bauer.

That is good enough for me I hope he forgives me for spelling his name wrong earlier post but a great result.

Best wishes all, hans

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Permalink Reply by hans jones on August 6, 2013 at 9:23

As you can see from the photos some of the work around the bridge and below has been lost. I am a reasonable craftsman.