Can anybody help identify this 1950s-1960s (?) unbranded acoustic guitar named “Monster”?
I’m hoping someone recognizes the construction or decoration well enough to identify the maker of this wild guitar. At first glance, it looks like a mail-order catalog guitar from the 1950s or ’60s, but it’s not quite like the typical Chicago-made instruments I’m familiar with. This thing is a freak. I’ve named it “Monster.”
I’d love to know where it came from. There’s no label, stamp, serial number or logo anywhere. It’s a 25" scale, 19-fret parlor guitar with a burgundy finish and an unusual cream geometric/sunburst stencil around the edges and soundhole. The fingerboard has winged dot markers, and it has a floating moustache-style wooden bridge with a brass saddle and a metal tailpiece. The black wooden pickguard, attached with three chunky hex-head screws, looks very much like a later homemade addition. There are signs of other repair work, including a shimmed bridge and relocated tailpiece.
The really interesting part is the construction. It’s ladder-braced, but the top braces are unusually tall while the back braces are much flatter. There’s also a perpendicular brace between the two braces flanking the bridge area. This doesn’t resemble the typical Chicago-made guitars I know, and it doesn’t immediately strike me as Japanese or other Asian-made, either.
Does anybody recognize the stencil decoration or that bracing pattern? Any ideas on manufacturer, model, date, or country of origin?