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Topic: weissenborn |
Charlie Russell
From:
El Paso, Texas, USA
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Posted 3 Aug 2004 7:10 pm |
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| ...found my departed father-in- laws'...weissenborn Hawaiian guitar circa 1920 in origional case...needs some work...gotta a few cracks...but restorable..any one interested?..whats it worth? |
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John Bushouse
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Posted 3 Aug 2004 7:29 pm
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Charlie,
You have mail!
John |
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Tim Tweedale
From:
Vancouver, B.C., Canada
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Posted 5 Aug 2004 1:58 pm
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Please keep this thread alive. I'd love to keep up to date on the details of the restoration. Please please do not re-finish this guitar (or any other guitar) no matter how worn it appears.
-Tim |
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Ben Elder
From:
La Crescenta, California, USA
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Posted 9 Aug 2004 2:28 am
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I've been busy paying for all of Sweetie's ebay wins this weekend, so haven't been spending my usual time here at SGF. John Bushouse did bring this to my attention and here is not an edited but expanded version of my email back to him:
Rare? Not to me--I have two of them! I've seen a
handful of others. HW probably spoke spruce and maple
as a first language, being a converted violinmaker. And
as far as I'm concerned, Style 2 is the most common
style, at least early on, as in this era. (Style 3 --
now that's what you see the least of...)
Intermountain (Salt Lake City) had/has one similar they're asking $3600
for, if memory serves. Probably minty, though. Great instruments. I know a
coupla folks who think the early shallower (under
3"--I've seen them as thin as 1-1/4") models may sound
the best. I think something like this should come out
about the $ame as an equivalent "normal" Style 2. You
might have to knock a few dollars off because people
are trained to prefer koa, but add a few dollars for
rarity and that label. In my hypothetical just world,
these should cost more than a normal Style 2. (And in my hypothetical just world, there'd be no such thing as a four-figure Hilo, but obviously I'm outvoted on that score. )
There aren't many, relatively speaking, although
Styles 1 and 2 were always offered with spruce tops
optional, but my loudest W. is an early koa/spruce
Style 2 that's a tinch under 3" deep.
I think these maple ones were fairly standard for HW
as he forsook tuning pianos and carving viols and and turned toward
Hawaiian music as it took hold on the mainland and set its
standards--including instrument construction and
design. That seems to have dictated koa bodies, so this style yielded to popular norms.
Does this one have a mud dauber's nest inside it? One
of mine did.
And as stated earlier--do not refinish it! My other one was stripped and (only) the sides brushed (!) with lacquer. Rick Turner showed me Behlen's Quala-Renu, which gently breaks down a shellac finish (is this one pebbly and cloudy? Must be after 80 years) and reflows it over the instrument's surface. Finish up with a light French polish and you've renewed >>>but not replaced<<< the deteriorated finish.
You might have to look at www.frets.com to see if Frank Ford has any advice as to how to add the optional mud dauber's nest.[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 09 August 2004 at 03:29 AM.] |
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Charlie Russell
From:
El Paso, Texas, USA
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Posted 17 Aug 2004 7:33 am
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| Thanks for all the feedback, I now have pictures but can't figure out how to put them on the post.But I'll e-mail them to you...if your interested. charlierussell@clearchannel.com |
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