oldest guitar

[ollaimh]

so what is the oldest guitar here on the forum?

i have a french made(or perhaps quebecois made--new france) guitarre allemand, the kind of instrument that ben franklin meant when he said he played guitar. the estimated date is 1760's. the top wood dates to 1730's by dendrochronology. anyone got anyhting older?

[00-28]

Originally Posted by ollaimh

so what is the oldest guitar here on the forum?

i have a french made(or perhaps quebecois made--new france) guitarre allemand, the kind of instrument that ben franklin meant when he said he played guitar. the estimated date is 1760's. the top wood dates to 1730's by dendrochronology. anyone got anyhting older?

So are you saying the tree that was used for the top was only 30 years old when it was cut to make this guitar?

........Mike

[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by ollaimh

so what is the oldest guitar here on the forum?

i have a french made(or perhaps quebecois made--new france) guitarre allemand, the kind of instrument that ben franklin meant when he said he played guitar. the estimated date is 1760's. the top wood dates to 1730's by dendrochronology. anyone got anyhting older?

I think many of us here in the forum are older than your guitar, at least some days we feel like it.

Tony

[redir]

Originally Posted by ollaimh

so what is the oldest guitar here on the forum?

i have a french made(or perhaps quebecois made--new france) guitarre allemand, the kind of instrument that ben franklin meant when he said he played guitar. the estimated date is 1760's. the top wood dates to 1730's by dendrochronology. anyone got anyhting older?

Pics or it didn't happen

[cmd612]

Originally Posted by 00-28

So are you saying the tree that was used for the top was only 30 years old when it was cut to make this guitar?

I assumed he was saying the tree was cut down in the 1730s, but you could be right.

Originally Posted by redir

Pics or it didn't happen

I'd love to see pictures, too.

[Parlorman]

How's it sound?

[printer2]

Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics! Pics...

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by ollaimh

...I have a french made(or perhaps quebecois made--new france) guitarre allemand, the kind of instrument that ben franklin meant when he said he played guitar. the estimated date is 1760's. the top wood dates to 1730's by dendrochronology...

Today's Luthierie Lesson
Guitar made from 25-30 year air-dried wood survives for 250+ years, the first 150 or so undoubtedly under climatic conditions to which most of us would not willingly subject ourselves, much less our treasured instruments...

Instruments built six months ago from kiln-dried wood - in the name of profit-driven market-saturation levels of production - regularly crack, twist, deform, shrink, etc. unless maintained under perfect conditions of temperature/humidity, such that some makers will void your warranty unless said conditions are met...

While repeatable precision-of-detail levels have risen exponentially within my own lifetime, as a consequence of technology, one could hardly call ours a (the) "Golden Age of the Guitar"...

[ollaimh]

Originally Posted by 00-28

So are you saying the tree that was used for the top was only 30 years old when it was cut to make this guitar?

........Mike

no the dendrochronology guy made and estimate from pictures that the tree ceased to be alive in or around 1730, but he'd have to see it in person to make a definitive assessment.

he used to be at a university near me but he moved all the way across the country--drat.

i will make pictures if someone sends me an e mail, address to send them to and then will up load them--i haven't figured out how to upload pictures.

but common someone other than me must have a really old guitar!!!

[ollaimh]

i had a 1747 preston english guitar but i traded it with a portuguese guitar for a celtic bouzouki. i am getting out of early instruments as i really have no where to perform with them, while i can dig up celtic gigs here and there even at 65