c.1920 Portuguese Guitar

Hi folks -- I just finished off this Portuguese guitar this afternoon right at closing time. It's a nice old short-scale one, 17 1/4" scale. Real pretty mahogany on the back and sides. Nice lush, full, vibrant sort of tone, too. One fun detail is that the first 3 frets are copper-y while the rest are brass, all bar stock.

The top is also amazingly crack-free. Usually there's at least one or two hairlines to be patched up on ones of this age.

Below are a few pics and more can be found with a writeup at my blog (click here).

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fkxZ1DH1g2.../s1600/pg1.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-81ry0xDHxd.../s1600/pg2.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-m1tuTJYFBU.../s1600/pg8.jpg

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-betDWvboSm...s1600/pg11.jpg

Nice one Jake - those are great instruments in the right hands - some of the stuff the Fado players play is just amazing!

Nice work as usual, Jake. Did you string the bass strings as octaves. It sort of looks that way in the 2nd pic.

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Originally Posted by Jim Garber

Nice work as usual, Jake. Did you string the bass strings as octaves. It sort of looks that way in the 2nd pic.

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Yup, I usually just string these with a light 12-string guitar set and tune them to G or A above guitar's E. I figure a traditional player will just restring it for Fado tuning but most players in the US will be interested in some variant of guitar tuning.

Nice! I had one with a very similar top and headstock except that it had maple sides and back.