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Concertone Acoustic Guitars from Montgomery WardA place to learn about and discuss antique Concertone acoustic guitars. December 27 How I Got My Concertone GuitarSo about twenty-five years ago or so, I'm in Maine, on Lake Kezar, staying at some cabins that friends' of my parents rented. I'm there with my parents. I'm about 23 years old (give or take). I'm sitting on the front porch of the cabin when down the drive comes the local handyman (a tall old fellow wearing coverall jeans) holding up two acoustic guitars. He sees me and says, "Either guitar, five dollars." (Which sounded more like, "Eye-tha gi-tah, fav dollah" in his Maine accent.) I went over and looked at them both. One was clearly trashed. It had a block of plywood where the bridge used to be and just two strings. The other was not in much better shape. It looked like it was covered in laquer. Someone had actually brushed on a thick coat of laquer, OVER the neck and strings even, and it had dried to a lumpy mess. But, on the other hand, it had all six strings and also came with a canvas guitar bag that looked old enough to have been from the civil war. So I bought it.
Thus started my relationship with the guitar that bears the name of this Space. It's a Concertone guitar. I took it to work with me when I returned to Connecticut, removed the strings, and did the best I could to gently remove as much as the caked on laquer as I could. I used solvent, and was more concerned about getting the guck off the neck than anything else. With the neck clean, I applied a light coating of silicone spray over the top face, and rubbed a bit into the now very dry fretboard. I then removed the tailpiece, which was pure rust, and sandblasted it. I then coated it with a flat black epoxy finish. I put the original strings back on it and that's how it stayed for the last twenty five years. I played it off and on, at home, for a while, then put it and its original canvas case into another guitar case and taped it shut. There it lay for easily the last 15 years, moving with me from Connecticut to Washington State, to Massachusetts, and back to Washington State again. I finally took it out a few weeks ago, because I've got this idea of hanging it and some of my other guitars up on the walls of my home in Snohomish, WA, as art -- sorta.
Of course, now there is an Internet, and I decided to look up some information on the guitar. The Internet has everything, doesn't it? Well, there's surprisingly little out there on these guitars. There's plenty more on their electric cousins, Danelectro's, from the fifties and early sixties, but almost nothing on the acoustics. I'll link any pages I do find to this blog, but about all I've been able to find out is that Concertone guitars were sold through Montgomery Ward catalogs back in the late 1920's and 1930's. I found a blurry picture of a page from the 1928-1929 Winter Catalog showing the available models. Mine is shown there (it's the only one with a tailpiece) and it sold for around $5.45 new. But that's it. No happy collectors. No e-Bay listings. One page I found shows another Concertone that some guy restored, but that's the ONLY other picture I found.
So, it's not that this is some sort of long lost treasure or anything. It's a cheap catalog guitar from the Great Depression. But what I hope is that there are other owners out there, like me, who've looked but found nothing. Well, now there will be something. This Space. I'll post a picture or two of my own guitar and its case. If you've got pictures, send them to me and I'll post them too. If you've got a web page, send a link. If you've heard of them being sold, or have sold one, let us all know for how much.
Personally, I plan to set up some alerts and watch eBay for any that come up for sale. I might try to buy an old Montgomery Ward catalog to get a better description of the instruments. I think I may have just become a Concertone Guitar Collector. Wish me luck.
-Chuck |
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