A Guitar with a Lute Body and Swan Neck
This is a guitar - there are six fretted strings. Four bass strings run out to an extended neck, but are not fretted. Purchased on Ebay, the instrument was restored to playing condition. Guitars like these, with and without the extra strings and swan neck, were made in Germany in the 1920's and 30's. The scalloped fingerboard is unusual.
1932 National Steel Guitar
This eighty year old guitar needed plenty of TLC to get it working again. The steel body has seen some damage and it took quite a bit of shimming to get the neck to roughly point in the right direction.
Major projects included fitting the new larger truss rod and fretting the newly installed fingerboard. There were countless smaller jobs, including making a nut, fitting a new cone and biscuit.
The result is an outstanding slide guitar, with a sound full of character. It's probably the loudest guitar I have ever worked on and at eight pounds in weight, it is certainly the heaviest.
