Looking for a low budget guitar that can pass for 1800's
One of the many hats I wear is playing a character in our local Victorian- Christmas street festival - two theaters of "A Christmas Carol" running all day, about 200 vendors, and dozens of street actors/singers/players. For me it's 3 street shows of corralling children on a wobbly stage and posing for about 1000 picture (I wish I were exaggerating). Anyway.... I'd love to take a harmony instrument out on the street with me - but weather varies, so no buying of restored baroque guitars for me! :hmm:
I'm looking for something that might pass as older (dark wood), play like a guitar (pref. 6 strings), and not cost an arm or leg (public school teacher, here!). Any lute shapes with guitar tunings out there? Narrow bodied parlor guitars? I'll give up and stain my son's 3/4 classical a darker color if I have to - but its standard shape doesn't give it much interest. I've seen a few cuatro guitars that look interesting. With a 2" nut and short fretboard they might do the trick. Does anyone have experience playing one? |
The headstock markings could be darkened.
https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...CABEgKTcfD_BwE Cuatro intonation, with the straight across saddle (non-angled), isn't very good for some strings by the 12th fret. |
These are about as period-accurate as you're likely to get in a 21st-century guitar - I've seen some Civil War re-enactors using them as a field-friendly alternative to an irreplaceable, genuine 19th-century parlor; maybe a little more expensive than you'd prefer ($499 and $699 street respectively) but they do come with a period-style "coffin" hard-shell case, if you're in it for the long haul IME they're far better-made than either the Ibanez or (especially) the mass-market Latin-American instruments - and if you're handy and you want to up the authenticity factor, one re-enactor reversed/re-installed the tuners on his R314 with the worm gear below the tuner shaft, as they did 150 years ago:
https://www.washburn.com/product/r314/ https://www.washburn.com/wp-content/.../05/R314KK.jpg https://www.washburn.com/product/r320sw/ https://www.washburn.com/wp-content/...5/R320SWRK.jpg |
Look at some stuff from Doff, a Russian company. They are very inexpensive and have some super old style instruments that would fit your gig pretty well.
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His is a darker stain than the guitar in the pics. I just checked around and these are sadly discontinued, but there are a few used ones out there. |
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The first one was the 125h anniversary model which was fine, and the last one was the one with the tree of life fretboard which had the hard V profile which was, indeed, very uncomfortable - I shaved it down myself and it worked, but i decided I didn't need it and sold it on. Get one if you can - they are really quite fun. |
Not six strings, but the Seagull Merlin has that old-timey vibe and is cheap and easy to play.
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Call Martin and ask for their vintage parts department:
Bob |
That movie looks pretty bad, but I can't imagine why they needed the original guitar when they had 8 copies.
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While not 1800s, this might be able to pass. $199
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Recordi...stic-Guitar.gc or this one you could remove the pickup https://www.guitarcenter.com/Recordi...tric-Guitar.gc |
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https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...ral-high-gloss |
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http://www.halkans.com/wp-content/up...2/IMG_3542.jpg http://www.halkans.com/products/inst...coustic_steel/ |
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