Sweet Pea 6 string on Goodwill's auction site

[mreidsma]

Just saw this pop up yesterday on Goodwill's auction site (NFI). 6 string Sweet Pea signed by Bruce Weber with penny shipping: https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/55726355

[VernBrekke]

This was a Sweet Peas prototype that we made to test if the Sweet Pea design could also work as a travel guitar. It didn’t work well and I’m not sure how this one got out into the world. It’s obviously a prototype and was not intended for sale.

Vern Brekke
Bridger Products

[EdHanrahan]

Note that it's not currently strung as a guitar, but in 3 paired courses as a ...? Plus, the headstock close-up shows that the strings aren't currently tuned up to any playable pitch.

[multidon]

Vern would certainly know about this. So I don’t doubt the story. But I am confused. If it’s a prototype, why wasn’t it marked as such? Why did it receive a normal looking serial number?

If it was designed as a travel guitar, with six equidistant strings, why does the bridge look like it is slotted for 3 double courses, with no extra slots visible? I suppose it’s possible a new saddle could have been fashioned at a later time.

It’s no surprise that prototype instruments not originally intended for sale get out into the marketplace. Recently, Bruce had a couple of prototype instruments for sale on his Montana Luthierie website. They were from a Flatiron line that never went into production, and I guess he just hung on to them until just now. We see prototypes pop up in the instrument market from time to time, but often they are clearly marked “proto” or similarly. Usually sold as used even if they never sold. So that there would be no warranty claims.

This one is kind of interesting. It might be good for a dulcimer player strung DAD and played as a chromatic strumstick.

[AndyV]

I bought my son a uke a few years ago. It's wonderful, I almost kept it for myself. After trying to identify from their online info what woods it's made of, I emailed. They replied saying they didn't have info on that material code because it was a prototype. It has a full label and no marking to indicate that it wasn't a production model.

I have a GT Paul Beard 4 string prototype. There was nothing to indicate it's a prototype except that the frets were spaced at 23" scale but it's 25". Oops!

[Bill Kammerzell]

Have a friend that got a really good buy on an A-50 at a Goodwill auction. That was enough to get me to keep looking at it.

[mreidsma]

Sold yesterday for $162. Hope the person who got it saw this thread, and knows the prototype history of it! (Or maybe they'll find it while doing the Google My New Instrument thing.)

[VernBrekke]

Just talked to Bruce about this instrument. A customer who bought it from Goodwill sent him more pictures. Apparently, someone did a major cut job on an actual Sweet Pea to make this one. They reworked the peghead to a six string but kept the nut an 8 string and modified the existing bridge to a 6 string ...? So, it was not our prototype after all.

Vern Brekke

[multidon]

That answers all of the questions I posed in my earlier post Vern!