Larson Brothers "Mayflower" 1900 Vintage Parlor Acoustic Guitar

Here we have a very unique and likely one-of-a-kind vintage guitar for sale...a vintage 1900 "Mayflower" parlor acoustic guitar that has been professionally restored.  It has been brought to my attention since the initial posting of this ad that this is might be a Larson Brothers Guitar built for H.J. Flower between 1900-1910 rather than a Lyon and Healy but I'm not sure.

I would characterize this as a particularly beautiful and ornate "player" guitar with amazing bell like tone and playability for fingerstyle in particular (although it has quite a bit of headroom to strum pretty hard too).  It has had a tough life but has been lovingly restored to full playability and structural stability.  I bought it on consignment from Gryphon Stringed Instruments in Palo Alto, CA and had the restoration done by the luthier, John Mello, of Kensington, CA.  There is certainly nothing like it I have ever come across.  

It has a wonderfully ornate "Stauffer" style headstock that is usually seen in much earlier style guitars.  The headstock has an ornate etched silver capping as well.  The tuning machines are original and still hold tune well with the original bone buttons.  The nut was replaced with a new one in the restoration.  This guitar neck has a full 2" nut width with a 24.9" scale which is very unusual and makes for a great, fast wide neck and it is still straight and has comfortable action and relief.  The neck was fully refretted and rebound as well.  The fretboard is some type of hardwood and has very flat profile and was reprofiled slightly to add some arch to make barring chords up the neck a bit easier.  It also has a beautiful tree of life abalone inlay which is quite striking.  The bridge is in good shape with a new saddle and it has new matching bone/abalone bridge pins that look great.  The top is a nice piece of tight grained spruce with one repaired crack treble side and one hairline under the bridge that was glued.  It has abalone purfling and soundhole rosette.  The back and sides are Brazilian Rosewood with their classic tone.  It has a 13" lower bout which puts in 0 or parlor size. There was treble side crack in the side which was fixed and sealed.  The back had no cracks.  Internally, there was some touch up work on a piece of loose bracing and some separation on the top that was fixed.  It has ladder bracing, but I have not found the tone lacking in the least.  I also had a strap button installed on the neck and replacement bone abalone end pin installed.  It is strung with Silk and Bronze 49, 39, 29, 23, 16, 12.  This will come with a nicely fitted hardshell case, a levy's premium strap, G7 capo (wide neck), Boss TU-12 Chromatic Tuner, extra packs of strings, and shipped very well packed.  I really love this guitar but have found myself playing electric these days.  Hopefully, you will appreciate as much as I have!