“A Guitar A Day”
Installment #4 – the
American Guitar – Bay State
The Romantic Era -
approx. 1820-1900
Today’s instrument is a Bay State
parlor Z style guitar with rosewood sides and back. Yeah, yeah I know it’s
missing a string. I haven’t played this guitar in a long time. That string was
all jacked up when I opened the case but my iPad photo shoot was in full swing.
Anyway, on to more important business. I’ve been trying to figure out when this
guitar was constructed. The serial number is 14,809. Bay State constructed
guitars from 1865 to 1903. They show a Z series guitar on their website that
has a 1530 serial number. They think that it was probably built in the 1860’s. Bay
State’s building pace for guitars is thought to have been on average, about a
1,000 a year. So, if I’ve done my math correctly, then this guitar was probably
built in the 1870’s. Having said that, I’ve seen a handful of guitars on the
internet that look very similar to mine that were built much later, so I’m not so
sure. I’m going to try to solve this once and for all by using the Bay State
guitar registry. I’ll keep you posted on my findings!
I’ve performed recitals on all of
the guitars in this weeks’ blog series. I would have to say that this is one of
my favorites. It has an incredibly well balanced gentle nylon string sound –
really sweet and super easy to play. Take notice of the v shape on the back of
the neck and the bridge design. The sides of the bridge are in the shape of
little pyramids.
Parlor guitars were exactly what
you’d imagine. They were played in peoples’ parlors and in their music rooms.
Parlor guitars took up much less space then pianos, plus they were a whole lot
less expensive! Women were taught, in some of the private female academies, how
to play a variety of musical instruments in school including keyboards, the
harp and the guitar. It was not typical for them to be trained for professional
positions but it’s interesting to note that the first conservatory in the
United States was a seminary for women. I’ve included an awesome link below to
an article on women in music. Something to note, there’s been a recent
resurgence in the popularity of parlor guitars for their portability, tone
quality and vintage appeal.
We ended yesterday’s blog with two
things hanging, one being the standardization of guitar construction and the
other being performance practices and techniques. Enter, Antonio de Torres and
Francisco Tarrega. Torres revolutionized guitar construction providing a
standard for all other guitar builders. He introduced a specific structure,
string length, and a new way of bracing the inside of the guitar. Torres also
addressed the use of specific types of wood and the overall proportions of the
guitar – hence the foundations and standardizations of the classical guitar for
generations to come!
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog on
the Martin style parlor guitar and a brief look into the contributions of
Francisco Tarrega. Cheers!
A link to the Bay State registry.
This link is to an Oxford Music article on Women in Music.
Link to different styles of bracing for guitars including
the Torres design.
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