Double Neck Supertone found in the trash.

[omaha_dad]

Hello everyone and greetings from a newcomer.

So the other night I'm walking the dog, and go by a place where people are moving out. There by the curb, amongst all sorts of stuff, is an acoustic double neck guitar. I picked it up and and brought it home.

It's a Supertone. Never heard of it before that night, and now I know it was sold by Sears in the 1930s. It's not exactly in the best shape, but hey, the price was good!

Anyone know much about these? In my searching, I didn't see any double neck Supertones. Without getting into a 'what's it worth' discussion, I'm strongly considering fixing it up so it's playable, but not necessarily restored. Seems too cool to be demoted to 'wall art'. Thoughts?

Thanks for your time.

Attaching a picture...

[VintAxe]

Hey omaha_dad.

What you have is known as a "Harp Guitar". They were produced from the 1800's til the late 1930's.

A competent luthier could make a new tailpiece/bridge assembly for your guitar for probably around $300. From your picture I don't see anything else wrong with it unless the tuners are deteriorated (can't see them in the photo).

Definitely worth a restore given your sizable investment

I wish people would throw out vintage guitars in my neighborhood

Buy your dog some treats for his/her contribution to this endeavor.

[Spud1950]

That's a great find! There are different styles of harp guitars.These are the more typical of the style that you usually see.





This one is similar in construction to yours. As VintAxe said,the bridge piece can be easily replicated. Definately worth putting a few hundred bucks into it to get it playable.





I found this site dedicated to harp guitars. Lots of info including a forum. You might want to post on it to get better info on your specific model, including exactly what guage strings and tuning the harp neck needs.




Edit - I did some searching around on the Harp Guitars site and found an example of your exact Supertone model. Click on "Form 2b" on this page and scroll down. Click on the pic for a nice enlargement.

[omaha_dad]

VintAxe and Spud,

Wow - thanks for the great information and the links. Man, I can't thank you enough. I started off thinking "How am I going to do an acoustic 'Stairway' without frets" to a whole new adventure.

I'm going to talk to a couple luthiers in town, and see what it takes to make this thing sing again. I'll post back with my updates.

The dog is getting a big chunk of hamburger as a reward. I guess the endless desire for walks doesn't seem so bad now...

Thanks again! Updated photos to follow as they become available.

[omaha_dad]

Hi again to all - wanted to give an update.

The Supertone was repaired by a fantastic luthier here in Omaha, the picture of the end result is attached below.

The catalog number of my harp guitar is 650. I looked up the old archives of the Sears catalog and discovered this:

The 650 number was featured in the catalogs from Spring of 1915 to the Spring of 1918. It sold for $22.45 and included an extra set of strings, a Capo, a book of chords, a fingerboard chart and a "partial scholarship certificate". What a bargain!

From the Fall of 1918 until Spring of 1919, the model number is 250 and sold for 29.95, and the listing did not mention any of the extra goodies. After Spring of 1919, the harp guitar was no longer part of the catalog.

So...I'm going to say my 650 was made somewhere between 1915 and 1918. Fair enough?

The strings stay in tune much better than I anticipated. The sound is fairly deep, and the overtones are fantastic! I worked with the guys at Harp Guitar, and went with the Bennett tuning. Best of all, it is fun seeing people's reaction to it, and all are amazed it is over 90 years old. It's not worth a fortune, but if it was, I probably wouldn't be playing it on a regular basis. It is simply too fun to leave in a case or in a museum.

Hats off to everyone finding these ancient instruments!!!

[Spud1950]

That's great! Nice to see that nice instrument put into playing condition. I found an online calculator that converts prices of any given year into todays dollars. In 1915, $22.45 was quite a bit of money!

"$22.45 in 1915 had the same buying power as $487.19 in 2011."

[opotable]

excellent!

i missed this when you first posted.

some day i'll maybe get round to rebuilding this thing here: