Plectrum guitar
Date1920-1930 ca.
Place MadeMarkneukirchen, Upper Saxony, Germany, Europe
SignedNoneDescriptionThis is a rare European-made plectrum guitar, designed to allow plectrum banjo players to get a guitar timbre without changing their fingerings. It was likely made in the Saxon Vogtland, where most German mass-produced guitars originated.Stringing: four steel strings
Soundboard: two-piece spruce: narrow grain broadening toward edges
Back: one-piece quarter-cut maple: plain, very wide grain
Sides: two-piece slab-cut plain maple; lower ribs divided by rosewood graft, wider at top than bottom
Head: maple; figure-8 shaped with decorative upper outline; inlaid with white mother-of-pearl star
Neck: maple; heel comprised of two separate piece of maple
Heel cap: rosewood
Binding: brown-stained maple or fruitwood on top only, with trim comprised of 7 alternating strips of light and brown hardwood
Fingerboard: rosewood; 23 nickel-silver T-frets; white mother-of-pearl dots behind 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th, and 15th frets
Nut: bone
Bridge: rosewood with non-angled bone saddle; ebony pins
Tuners: four nickel-plated brass tension tuners with black plastic heads
Endpin: ivory plastic
Rosette: 10-ply alternating strips of light and brown hardwood, with two dark stripsat center, surrounded on outside with 2-ply brown hardwood strips, with space in between, and on inside with brown hardwood strip adjoining brown hardwood soundhole binding
Varnish: dark orange-brown on back, sides, neck, and head
Linings: light hardwood
Neck block: spruce with rounded corners
End block: spruce with rounded corners
Top braces: three spruce ladder braces with tapered ends set into linings, one each above and below soundhole and below bridge plate; spruce bridge plate
Back braces: three spruce ladder braces with tapered ends set into linings, one each in upper, center, and lower bouts
Other: burn marks on inside of ribs from bendingDimensionsTotal plectrum guitar length: 1042 mm (41-1/32″)
Back length: 469 mm (18-15/16″)
Upper bout width: 235 mm (9-1/4″)
Waist width: 193 mm (7-19/32″)
Lower bout width: 322 mm (12-11/16″)
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 72 mm (2-27/32″)
Rib height, at waist: 74 mm (2-29/32″)
Rib height, at end block: 76 mm (3″)
Head length: 164 mm (6-15/32″)
Head width, top: 79 mm (3-1/8″)
Head width, bottom: 72 mm (2-27/32″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 400 mm (15-3/4″)
Neck width, nut: 30 mm (1-3/16″)
Neck width, heel: 43 mm (1-11/16″)
Soundhole diameter: 80 mm (3-5/32″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 673 mm (26-1/2″)
Scale length: 672 mm (26-15/32″)ProvenancePurchased in London in 1965 by the donor.
Credit LineGift of Stuart M. Frank, 2015
Object number15003
On View
Not on view
