Parlor guitar/pickup 1955 FAMOS

Specs

 ·Top and bottom: plywood

· Tailpiece metal

· Frets 19 excl 0 fret

· Lower bout: 34.0 cm

· Upper bout 26.0 cm

· Length 91.5

· Depth: 8.0 cm

· Floating bridge

. Original tuners

. Original shopprintstamp from Amsterdam on the back of the headstock

Original Dutch parlor guitar from the fifties equipped with a Recording King gold foil pickup which results in a vintage 50s sound. Has had a neck reset, and comes with a quality gigbag. All original, tuners work fine, floating bridge is OK, frets are fine, and a really beautiful design and colour with a unique heartdesign soundhole.

Famos guitars were made by Venlonia from the violin maker P.J.H. (Harry) Schreurs from Venlo, from the 1950s to the 1970s. Hay Schreurs (1921-2002) was an avid woodworker who, at the age of 15, built his first mandolin and two years later his first violin. Afterwards he mainly made mandolins, later also guitars. In 1939, the Venlonia company was founded, with which he mainly produced guitars after 1945 in the city of Venlo, the south of The Netherlands. In 1959 he moved into a kind of woodworking workshop a location of 1000-1500 m2 with lathes, wood presses, washing machines, milling equipment and a (cellulose) lacquer spraying shop, where he and a staff of 16 employees produce several thousands of guitars per year, mainly under the brand names Magic and Famos. Famos mainly tried to benefit from the success of the much better known German brand Framus and the name and logo are very similar. Many of the guitars are intended for export, but in the 1970s the competition, especially from Japan, becomes so great that Schreurs decides to sell his company. The Venlonia company mainly made acoustic and only modestly complete electric guitars. Not only Famos but also the names Top Tuner, Unicon, Magic and the proper name Venlonia were used. A 1965 catalog from Magic shows about 30 different types of guitars and mandolins, from simple and very cheap beginner models to massive electric Strat models and not bad semi-acoustic instruments.