My New Old Parlor

[Joe Sustaire]

I was given this old parlor a while back that someone had taken apart to fix and gave up on it.



All birch, 24" scale, 13 1/4" lower bout, no bindings or rosette. Your basic low-end late 30's guitar. I decided the top wasn't worth saving so it's got a new lutz top with bridged ladders over tone-bar bracing. And I'd been wanting to try flying buttresses so I gave that a shot also.


So here is what's under the hood.

Fabricated a tailpiece out of sheet brass because I needed it a little shorter than what I had so it wouldn't crowd the bridge. And had my first try at spraying nitro for a finish. Which was quite a learning experience, once I managed to get some retarder to prevent the blushing here in Oklahoma's hot humid summer, it went pretty well.

And here she is---









Just strung up this evening, but sounding good.

Joe

[Lillian]

Joe, it looks great. Love the way you handled the coloring the top. You did a great job bring it back.

[John Steele]

Joe;
That is just too cool. Looks like it was a pin bridge originally? You did a great job with the coloring of the birch. Looks like a lot of fun to play.
Its a keeper.

[liam_fnq]

joe that guitar is unreal. those little old parlor just float my boat. perfect for a bit of bottle neck slide action. any chance of a bit of a run down on how you got that subtle 'burst?

[Allen]

Great little score there Joe. I really like what you've done to it, and the spraying aint to shabby either. Good onya.

[Nick]

Good save there Joe! Like Lillian, I think how you've got the colouring is excellent. With a tailpiece does that mean the bridge is a floater or is it glued? I imagine the original person that gave it to you would be feeling rather sick about now seeing what a little gem you've turned it into.

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks Lilian, the staining really helps to bring out the silking in the top.

And John, yeah the top obviously had a pin bridge but there were also screw holes in the end where it had had a tailpiece at one time. So, I just wanted to further my exploration of tailpiece guitars.

Liam, I used trans tint dyes diluted with water to rub in the burst. Honey amber, golden brown, and reddish brown. It's a pretty forgiving process, as you can blend and scrub out the color with a wet rag and just play with it till it suits you.

Allen, I spent a lot of time studying your tutes on spraying nitro. Your tutes and Arnt's postings about nitro let me know I could do it without explosion proof fans and sophisticated spray booths, thanks!!!

Thanks Nick, the bridge is a floater. I like the flexibility that gives to shift it around and get the intonation right where you want it.

Thanks all,
Joe

[Joe Sustaire]

Just wanted to update this re-build in case anyone is foolish enough to follow any of my building schemes.

I've had to change this to a pinned bridge. The light bracing turned out to not be strong enough to counter the downward push of the strings on the floating bridge. The top was slowly sinking and the sound started getting muddier and muddier.

So I added a rosewood bridgplate over the existing spruce one and glued on a pinned bridge I made from poisonwood. And here is how she looks now.





So with the added bracing of a glued on bridge and the string tension pulling on the top instead of just pushing down, she's sounding good. That seems to have tightened up the top and restored the clarity, but still responds very nicely to bare fingers and pick.

So remember, if you're going to follow along after any of my ideas, just don't follow too closely! Give me time to fix or at least point out those ideas that don't quite work as planned.

Joe

[ozziebluesman]

Nice one Joe. Just goes to show if you think about a problem long enough, the solution is not far away. Seems like all of my builds so far there has been an issue of some sort arise and have to be taken care of. The new bridge looks great. Good on yah!

Cheers

Alan

[Dave Anderson]

Good job Joe. I like your bridge shape, it looks
real nice!

[Lillian]

Love the bridge shape and color. I didn't realize that poison wood grew large enough to get anything useful out of it. Nicely done Joe.

[Kim]

Well I like the look of it better than before Joe and I liked it well enough then. Clever save mate.

Cheers

Kim

[Nick]

The bridge is remarkably in keeping with the rest of the guitar and doesn't look out of place on there, nice job Joe :serg

[Gaby]

Hi,

had a customer come in yesterday in the shop and he had an original Eko, made in Italy. Looks very much like this. They are a sixties guitar. Could this be one of them?

[Hesh1956]

I just got to this thread and I am very impressed Joe - very nice work and kudos to you too for having the original vision of what this very cool little guitar could once again be.

[Joe Sustaire]

Thanks everyone!
It's still sounding great, can't believe what a big sound it has, and it sure is nice not being distracted by a sagging top.
Gaby there were no markings on this one whatever, but it looks much older inside than the 60's to me. More like early 40's to my eye, but who knows.

Joe