Q Ben Elder's article on the history of the Weissenborn (January '96) was very interesting. Can you provide me with more detailed specs for normal Weissenborns (not Konas)?
Eric Nicholson
Bangor, Northern Ireland
A Most "normal" (later, standard) Weissenborns are at most three inches deep at the endblock and widest part of the lower bout, tapering to about one inch where the hollow neck joins the peghead block (which extends down into the hollow neck to about the first or second fret). The lower bout is 151/4 inches wide, the upper bout is 101/4 inches wide, the whole guitar is about 39 inches long (peghead design variations might change this measurement a bit), and the scale length is about 25 inches. Weissenborns are X-braced (with many subtle variations) and have a soundhole that's somewhat smaller than a Martin's (making it a bit of a challenge to install some soundhole pickups).
Several modern makers are building Weissenborn reproductions these days, including the following:
American Guitar Co., 1512 Corinth Ave. #6, Los Angeles, CA 90025; (310) 478-5083.
Bear Creek Guitars, 556 Spencer St., Monterey, CA 93940; (408) 657-9399.
Breezy Ridge Instruments, PO Box 295, Center Valley, PA 18034; (800) 235-3302; (610) 691-3302.
Tony Graziano, 1016 Seabright Ave., Santa Cruz, CA 95062; (408) 423-2517; (408) 479-3590.
Hawaiian King, 442 Dufferin St., Toronto, ON M6K 2A3, Canada.
Butch Hodgkins, PO Box 155, Allardt, TN 38504; (615) 879-8446.
K&S Guitars, 2923 Adeline St., Berkeley, CA 94703; (510) 843-2883.
Larry Pogreba, PO Box 861, Lyons, CO 80540; (303) 823-6691.
John Reuter, 1020 W. First St., Box 40, Tempe, AZ 85281; (602) 967-2893.
Tim Scheerhorn, 1454 52nd St. S.E., Kentwood, MI 49508; (616) 281-3927.
--Ben Elder
Q I have an Epiphone dreadnought-style ax, which I bought in London in the mid-'70s. Its label describes it as "The Bard" model and says "Made in Japan," but I believe that this vintage predates the Gibson takeover of Epiphone. I'm curious to find out just how rare or common this particular beast is and whether I should take better care of it.
Mike Emslie
Bristol, England
A Most '70s Epiphones were built in rather large quantities at the Japanese plant that also produced Lyle guitars. These instruments were Epiphone's answer to the growing competition in inexpensive imported guitars, and their production began shortly after Gibson (which has owned Epiphone since 1957) was bought by the Norlin Company in 1969. Although many of these early imported Epiphones bear labels with Gibson's Kalamazoo address and don't mention their Japanese origins, there is no correspondence between their model numbers and the model numbers of their famed Kalamazoo-built cousins. In 1983 Gibson moved Epiphone production to Korea, where the instruments are still made today. In recent years, there have been occasional limited-production runs of U.S.-made Epiphones. In 1993, for example, Gibson's Montana division built Excellentes, Frontiers, and Texans in batches of 250 instruments each.
As far as your Bard label is concerned, I have not come across one myself and could only find 12-string Bards listed in reference books. It may indeed be one of the less common models produced during this time, but I doubt that it will ever be highly valuable or collectible. However, if you are happy with the guitar's sound and feel, you should certainly take as good care of it as you would of any quality instrument.
--Teja Gerken
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