Official Luthiers Forum!

A potential customer has brought this circa 1903 Sutz double necked guitar to me for evaluation and possible repair;
He either wants it repaired or he wants to use the Brazilian back and sides to make a smaller guitar. Are there folks out there who have salvaged and used Brazilian backs and sides and successfully made a smaller guitar?
I would appreciate any comments or suggestions.
Thanks,
jack

Just my two cents here Jack, but I personally think it would be criminal to destroy a unique vintage guitar like that to salvage the BRW. At least from this pic it looks in pretty good shape, and how many double necks from the early 1900's do you see?

So I would strongly urge restoration myself.

Joe

My first thought would be to see what value it has if repaired. In other words, how rare is it and what kind of demand is there for this guitar? I'd hate to see a guitar that 100+ years old wrecked and salvaged. Based upon the pic it looks to be in decent and repairable condition. If there is greater value in wrecking it then I'd say go for it but I'm willing to bank it's worth more just like it is. I have salvaged tops, backs, necks, and sides successfully. You just have to be slow, patient, and tedious with the process.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

Jack.
I thought I was having eye strain before! I can't look at that guitar without going dizzy.

It is a nightmare scenario, I think. If it were your guitar and you salvaged it for the rosewood, and were unsuccessful, no worry. But you had better have a full understanding on paper and signed, before going ahead with a customer's guitar.

I think finding a set of rosewood for a small guitar would be cheaper than the work to unbuild this one.

I know about harp-guitars a little, but what is this? A double-neck six string, six string? What is the variation?

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Jack,

David's right and his advice is excellent and critically important. I'm sorry I didn't think to mention that because I'm thinking as a woodworking pro and have no knowledge of your level of experience. Also I said "tedious" but meant "tenacious". If it were me, I personally would advise the (potential) client against destroying a historical relic.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

I'll chime in with the rest; unless the guitar's not salvageable it would be a shame to destroy it. Brazilian Rosewood sets aren't that expensive!

Joe

fix it

Wow, that is one strange geetar I guess it might have an interesting reverberating tone because of the large size and number of strings. Other point might be using the second neck in an alternate tuning?

Anyway, I would not dismantle it either.

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Build log

WOW!!!! What an amazing instrument! Please, repair it. Then, please let me play it! What a dream it would be to be able to have one neck tuned to standard and another to an open tuning.

+ a lot on the fix it advice, that thing is cool and quite unusual, they usually have just one soundhole between the necks, i had to look at it for a minute to figure out why my eyes were crossing. Another reason for fixing is that people are often surprised at how loud and cool harp type guitars can sound, often attributed to the extra tension on the top or who knows what, but i bet that thing could be coaxed into sounding awfully nice.

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Jordan Aceto
Ithaca, NY

Let me get this straight...you would consider wrecking a 1903 BRW double neck guitar for the wood? I'll call the wagon with the straight jacket before you go too far.

A guitar is a tool, yes, and I'm not the overly sentimental type, but I would let that hang on my wall even in unrepairable condition before I wrecked it for the wood.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com

Sometimes you just have to say what you are thinking, huh Wes?

Texans are straight shooters.

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thanks for all the comments.
jack

have any pictures of the back? i would like to see this 100 year old Brazilian weather its being taken apart or not. but i have to vote for repair as well.

the back

Hey, hope I wasn't offensive or anything. Just, seriously, that's a cool little guitar and deserves to be preserved.

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Wes McMillian
Santo, TX
http://www.wesmcmillian.com