Old guitar, nice drawing.

[Stewie]

Hello everyone,
I bought this guitar this year from a man who claimed that this guitar used to belong to a soldier who played it during the second world war.
I have no idea wheather I should believe this story or not.

The guitar is from an unknown brand, unless the symbol on the bottom right is a brand indication. Then it should be a guitar from "Ridi"
I enlarged the logo on the 3rd picture.

Frontal view
http://www.rrtribute.com/files/gitaar_01.jpg

Closer frontal view
http://www.rrtribute.com/files/gitaar_02.jpg

Logo?
http://www.rrtribute.com/files/gitaar_03.jpg

Back
http://www.rrtribute.com/files/gitaar_07.jpg

All ideas are welcome, I really want to know more about this guitar!
I noticed my guitar has the same bridge as the guitar from the logo of http://vintageguitarpro.com/ . It also has the star form figure at the bottom of the front view.

Questions are also welcome.

[VintAxe]

Hey Stewie,

I should start by saying I don't know alot about acoustic guitars and even less about European acoustic guitars. I would guess your guitar has European origins.

The only thing about your guitar I recognize is the "guaranteed not to split" slogan on the front of the guitar. I associate this slogan with John Lennon's first guitar which is often referred to as the "guaranteed not to split" guitar since it also carried a sticker with this slogan.

Apparently, "guaranteed not to split" stickers were attached to a line of cheap, laminated guitars exported by Gallotone of South Africa in the 1950's. Here's is a link to a brief company history:



I don't know that your guitar is a Gallotone, but with that "guaranteed not to split" stamp, I think I'd check into it. sb

[Stewie]

[VintAxe]

[Stewie]

[VintAxe]

Hi Stewie,

I thought you might enjoy seeing examples of how stenciling was used to create American Cowboy Guitars. Of course, I'm not suggesting these guitars are in anyway related to your guitar. They just represent the use of stenciling to decorate the front of acoustic guitars.

Here's a little history:


Here is a Cowboy Guitar Collection:


Here is a video of the Cowboy Guitar Collection in Jacksonville:

[Stewie]

That was very interesting, thank you for those links.

I guess my search ends here as I do not know any other place or person who would be able to give me more information.

Thank you for all your help.