H. Weissenborn Parlor Acoustic Guitar

Muckelroy

Member
This guitar is in the family. I had no idea what kind of guitar it was, until I spotted a curious stamp. H. Weissenborn Los Angeles, CA.

I knew it was old. It was purchased in the 1940s by my great grandfather, and he told me that at the time, it was 40 years old when he bought it. This may be inaccurate, of course. What I've read about H. Weissenborn is that he did not emigrate to the U.S. until 1902, and that he did not start producing guitars in Los Angeles til 1910, but still, impressive.

Most of Weissenborn's work is lap steel. I have found only a few examples of parlor guitars. But this is clearly a parlor guitar, and I'm curious how many of these are around, and if anyone has any way to possibly date it?
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Never actually seen one exactly the same but a fairly educated guess would put that late 20's early 30's. I would guess no later but could well be earlier... Looks like an all Walnut construction? Hard to tell from the pics but that would be typical of the time. It has a very similar shape to the washburns of that time which were very popular
 
It looks like the back is coming away from the ribs there? If so I would get that seen to. Not an expensive job but left to it's own it will get worse and may not go back cleanly. Could just be the light in the picture but that would be common for those unbound backs as well.
 
That looks pretty nice. I've had a couple parlor guitars (not those cheesy 3/4 size Harmonys on C'list), also worked on a couple for customers. The best one I had was a Stella that I found at a flea market for $5.00...I spent about a week fixing it up, it sounded good for something that small.
 
I am not a guitar player, but my brother is a bass guitar builder, and an amazing bassist. Seriously, google my username and "basses" and you'll see his work. Anyhow, I'll definitely consult him on the work this needs. Yeah, the back is separating from the ribs in one spot, and it needs some fret work done. Probably other things, not sure. I'll try getting a more accurate date range on it over at the acoustic guitar forum. I only found a couple examples of Weissenborn parlors, and none exactly like this one yet.
 
I am not a guitar player, but my brother is a bass guitar builder, and an amazing bassist. Seriously, google my username and "basses" and you'll see his work. Anyhow, I'll definitely consult him on the work this needs. Yeah, the back is separating from the ribs in one spot, and it needs some fret work done. Probably other things, not sure. I'll try getting a more accurate date range on it over at the acoustic guitar forum. I only found a couple examples of Weissenborn parlors, and none exactly like this one yet.

You are unlikely to get a more accurate date than the one I have given you.

Get the structural work done as soon as you can.
 
Y'all will be happy to know that I finally (3 years later) have this in the hands of an accomplished luthier here in town. He built a saddle, installed it and re-strung it. It plays beautifully. He will now complete the body glue work, and some fret work. No truss rod in this thing, so it will be a very careful and conservative job to help level a few select stubborn frets.
 
Just in the nick of time. ;)

Would love to see some pictures or even hear some audio clips once complete.
Hope it all goes well and thanks for coming back, after all this time! :eek:
 
Y'all will be happy to know that I finally (3 years later) have this in the hands of an accomplished luthier here in town. He built a saddle, installed it and re-strung it. It plays beautifully. He will now complete the body glue work, and some fret work. No truss rod in this thing, so it will be a very careful and conservative job to help level a few select stubborn frets.

Cool. Who did you take it to? Mark Erlwine?

Checked out your brother's work. Nice stuff. Looks like you guys are just down the road a bit. I'm a little north of Austin and I'm building my 2nd bass now. I should drive down there to visit. I've got 6-pack full of questions.
 
I considered taking it to my brother for the work, but I ended up relying on a different luthier - Danny Shoemaker at Straight Frets. One reason being, I was working on Danny's Hammond M3, so we ended up trading work for each other. I may still take it to my brother to finish out some wood working detail. The wood roping on the upper portion of the neck is worn, and chunks have fallen out over time.

Before I say what Danny did, please note that I am NOT a guitar player. I want to learn, but much of the vocabulary is probably wrong here, so be nice.

I told Danny I wanted the guitar to be structurally sound, and playable. Looks did not matter that much. He did that, and more. He found some replacement pearls for the fretboard (which were hard to come by as they are smaller than most pearls, he happened to have some acquired from another luthier acquired 20 years ago) . Saddle was replaced with some steel rod stock smoothed out and polished of perfect size, and that made a 100% working and great looking saddle. If memory serves, he replaced the first 2 frets entirely. (closest to tuners,) and this was tricky as the frets were much thinner than normal frets. He also did a great deal of fine filing of the treble frets. This guitar has no truss rod, and the neck has a natural ski jump effect (so he called it.) He told me it would not be possible to reduce all string fret buzz but he tried to minimize and equalize it as best he could. I agree that he did that and it does play much more smoothly than before the fret work was done. He also cut a new bone neck, and brought the outermost strings in just a hair to reduce finger fret slippage.

I initially thought it needed new tuners, but the original tuners are fine. A bit stiff and grouchy but they hold their tuning pretty well, so we left them. He did say he knows a good source of replacement tuners that look identical, if the time ever comes for replacing them.



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Here are a couple brief audio recordings of a friend of mine playing it. He wishes to say that the AC was too dang cold in the room, and his fingers were freezing :)
Weissenborn 1 by Callie | Free Listening on SoundCloud
Weissenborn 2 by Callie | Free Listening on SoundCloud
 

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