Official Luthiers Forum!

I am on a holiday in Japan at the moment. This afternoon I was looking through a very funky “antique” (junk) store in the eclectic Yanaka area of Tokyo and came across this interesting guitar.

That's probably the real thing. I've seen pictures of these before. Doubt that's the original bridge.

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

Neat!

Pretty cool.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

It certainly looks like a real shell. A bit of Googling tells me that there was a bit of a fashion for these in the late 1940s, generally from the South Pacific. I couldn’t identify any branding. Don’t know what the soundboard timber is. It doesn’t look like spruce. Ladder braced. I think Chris might be right about the bridge being non-original because it was poorly fitted and not an exact match in style to the tailpiece. The bridge height was too low (but is adjustable) - the strings were fretting out up the neck when I tried to play it. No truss rod, and the neck was THICK. It seemed to have very harsh and twangy tone. Price was only 18000 Yen (about $US120). I didn’t buy it. Thought I might have a bit of trouble with Customs on the way home! And I don’t want to own a dead turtle. But, very interesting.