AN ANTI-BELLUM BIRTHDAY PRESENT

My birthday is coming up on Sunday, and as an early birthday present, my wife bought me a pre-war (WWII) Slingerland arch top tenor guitar. I did some research and it looks like the manufacturing date is 1935 or possibly even earlier. I can't believe I own an instrument that is almost 80 years old. Of course, 80 years is a long time time to exist as a guitar without sustaining some sort of damage, and this guitar is no exception. The bridge was missing, and the set neck was separating from the body. This neck separation also came with a slightly loose dovetail joint which caused the neck to slop about 1/16" from side to side when the strings were taken off. The tuning pegs were falling off as well, and the whole guitar was filthy. I decided to take matters into my own hands instead of paying the hundreds of dollars it would take to have the work professionally done. Here's some pictures and some brief descriptions of the work I did:
Here's the whole guitar after I finished getting it all set up, homestyle. The body and neck are maple with a rosewood fingerboard, according to the 1930's Slingerland catalog I downloaded. It has a huge sound for a tenor- super loud and mellow at the same time.

Since the guitar was missing its bridge, I decided to just make my own rather than pay $25.00 for one on line and then wait a week for it to get shipped to me. I hand-shaped a block of "poor man's ebony" (poplar colored with black Sharpie) to match the profile of the arch top. I cut a kerf in the block, glued in a plastic saddle, and slid it under a new set of strings. The intonation is pretty good... way better than I expected, and I think the bridge fits the overall look pretty well. The action is great, actually- better than many of my other guitars despite the well worn frets, and the slight bow in the neck doesn't seem to matter at all.

I cleaned up the headstock and tightened the tuner plate screws (which, miraculously, were not stripped.) A little guitar polish really brought out the MOP work, and I'm particularly impressed with the green diamond in the middle. The inlay reads "Slingerland Songster." At some point I'm going to try to remove the red paint some idiot put on the tuning pegs.

The tailpiece is original, which is rarer than you might think; it reads "Slingerland Chicago, USA." I thought about taking a bit of steel wool to the rusty spots, but I kind of like the tarnished look.

Finally, I fixed the neck (sort of) by installing a trim head screw to pull the neck back into its original position. This took care of some of the side to side wobble as well, and the string tension did the rest- the neck is solid now, and I see no reason it won't stay that way. Thanks to my wife for a fantastic birthday present/awesome afternoon project!  I can't wait to play it with the boys tomorrow night.