1891 C. Bruno & Son (New York) Style 1884

Wow, it's been four years since my last post? I really suck at blogging. However, I have been digging up a lot of old guitars and making them playable again. 
This guitar is a circa 1891 C. Bruno & Son (New York) Style 1884 Parlour Guitar with original hard shell case that sold for $24 new ($27.75 w/case). 
When it arrived it looked like the guitar had exploded from the inside.




















































































The Adirondack Cedar top was uncracked, but the one piece Brazilian Rosewood back and sides needed a lot of work to piece back together. The Honduran Mahogany neck with no truss rod was straight and the brass tuners with bone buttons were in working order. As well, the original ebony bridge and nut needed to be re installed. The only parts I needed were a set of end pins, a new bone saddle, a bottle of glue, and a ton of clamps.

And here it is all glued back together. I only touched up the repaired areas and tried to keep as much of the original patina as possible.

                                                                                          

Expensive and exotic wood/parts by today's standards but readily available in the C. Bruno & Son Musical Instrument Catalogue in 1889. 

This little guitar originally belonged to Mrs. J.W. Hummell of West Ashland, Wisconsin. Below is the tag on the case which was written on the back of her husband's Stag Party Invitation from September 1891.

The C. Bruno & Son Co. of New York was a musical instrument distributor and not a manufacturer, so I got to wondering who made such a quality instrument as there is no indication in the catalogue. Charles Bruno does however have a connection to the C.F. Martin Guitar Co. and was at one time their accountant. Check out the similarities between the C. Bruno Style 1884 and the Martin 2 1/2 Model 17 below. 

Martin

Bruno

Martin Logo

Bruno Logo

Martin Harp

Bruno Harp

The maker may be a mystery but one thing is for sure, this little C. Bruno Parlour Guitar probably hadn't been played in decades, and now it's back together again making music and sounding incredible.

1966 Fender Duo Sonic

Here's a 22.5 inch short scale 1966 Fender Duo Sonic I picked up a while back that looked like it had once belonged to Double Rainbow guy. It was crudely painted in a sort of psychedelic tie dye rainbow design with brushed on acrylic enamel, and had two Jazzmaster pickups stuffed into it's hacked up body and pickguard.

The first things it needed were pickups and a pickguard to give the guitar back it's correct looking proportions. I was able to get a set of MIJ Mustang pickups and vintage '66 Mother of Pearl pickguard quite reasonably and I was ready to begin. Believe it or not, the consensus was still out on whether to keep the finish as is or strip the whole thing.

Well it did look a hell of a lot better but that paint job still had to go. The guitar had also been painted black at some point and I could see that the original Olympic White was still underneath it all. So I thought I would try to get back down to the original finish with some wet sanding. However, when I got down to the black I decided to stop because I really liked the unintentional reliced look.

I also picked up a tan '56 Fender Musicmaster case that fits the guitar perfectly because of the short scale. I'm quite happy with the current over all look, but one day I may still get down to the original Olympic White. 

(UPDATE - August 2016) My daughter has now taken this one on permanent loan. She refuses to play barre chords and loves the 22.5 inch scale so it's a perfect fit. Her only request was that I switch the pickguard to tort.

Disclaimer

Let me start off with a disclaimer. I have never played or worked on a lute so I am in no way a luthier, but I have been playing and working on guitars for over 30 years and during that time have become quite a competent Guitarchaeologist. This blog is about some of the guitars I have found over the years, in various states of repair, and how I brought them back to life to make music once again.