1838 LOUIS PANORMO
NUMBER 2251
Despite the extraordinary image of the bridge slowly coming unstuck, this guitar is in rather good condition. The raising of the bridge shows that 179 years ago, this bridge was made in one piece, with the exception of the ebony discs (which here, have lost their round mother-of-pearl insets). The bridge was easily removed by cutting the glue strands with a sharp knife. The glue proved very difficult to remove and I have no idea what type of glue this was.
The soundboard needs a clean and there is one damaged area at the bottom right of the photo. Fortunately almost all of the original wood has been preserved.
The 1838 label and the incised P on the bar near the sound hole
The varnish on the back is in very poor condition and I am not certain it can be made much better. Cracks in the rosewood sides need to be closed and reinforced.
The neck, fingerboard, head and Baker tuning machines are all in need of cleaning but are in excellent condition.
Removing the back, fingerboard freed of the terrible glue and the wonderful cleaned Baker machine heads.
Re-glueing the bridge, showing loose bars on the soundboard, glueing up the cracked front block and beginning to replace decoration near the replaced piece of soundboard.
The restored guitar. Strung with Savarez low tension White Card strings, it plays very well. As of August 2017, this guitar is for sale at:
Instruments For Sale
Dimensions:
String length: 633 mm
Overall Length: 939mm
Width of upper bout: 231 mm
Width at waist: 178 mm
Width at lower bout: 289 mm
Height at upper bout: 95 mm
Height at lower bout: 100 mm
Nut width: 46.5 mm
Distance between 12 fret and 1st string: 2.1 mm
Distance between 12 fret and 6th string: 2.2 mm
Weight: 1.25 k