Thursday, March 10, 2011

Federated Teachers Service Corporation parlor guitar

On the bench this week is a Federated Teachers Service Corporation parlor guitar. It appears to be from the 1950's or earlier. Through a little Googling, it seems the instrument is in the same jumble as Regal, Harmony, Stella, Galiano, having derived from Oscar Schmidt's work. It has dyed maple bridge, and a dyed maple or birch fingerboard. It seems the neck is poplar, which was commonly used for these instruments. In my research another mention was made of a lap steel- interesting since this guitar came with two nuts- one for normal playing and a tall steel one, presumably for lap steel playing! The fingerboard also has fret numbers at each fret written in by hand, in yellow!
An interesting thing about this instrument- I tried removing the bridge to either reglue or replace it, and even with all of my forces (heating iron, heated spatula knife, various wedges and prying devices) I couldn't even begin to budge it. I think it may be epoxied in place, as that is the only other adhesive I have encountered with that much staying power!

3 comments:

  1. Hi,

    I was pricing items for our garage sale and was about to put a $5 tag on this guitar. Its case is considerably battered. but the guitar is intact.
    It has some wear on the back. Any idea of a price range?

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. a question . . who ended up with guitar? . . check out our videos at joy of the Lord show on YouTube, and also at mrbummblebeesting on YouTube

    ReplyDelete
  3. a question . . who ended up with guitar? . . check out our videos at joy of the Lord show on YouTube, and also at mrbummblebeesting on YouTube

    ReplyDelete