Skip Navigation Website Accessibility

VIEW CART

CONNECT WITH US
FacebookInstagramYoutube
 

Vivi Tone Acoustic (c. Early 1930's)

   
Quantity:    

Add to Cart

Specifications

Top Wood: Sitka spruce
Back and Sides Wood: Sitka spruce and maple, respectively
Width at Nut: 1.875"
Bracing Pattern: Vivi Tone proprietary design
Scale Length: 24.3125"
Frets to Body: 12
Fingerboard and Bridge Wood: Ebony
Body Binding: Ivoroid
Headplate Material: Ivoroid
Headstock Inlay / Logo: Vivi Tone
Neck Binding: Ivoroid
Neck Shape: V contour
Fingerboard Side Dots: None  
Fingerboard Inlay: Mother of pearl dots at 3, 5, 7, 12, and 15.
Pickguard: None
Tuners: Nickel - five original, one replica
Case: Period chipboard
Need More Specs? Contact Us!

Description

The Vivi Tone Acoustic is one of the rarest as well as one of the most unusual instruments we've had in our store in recent memory. Unless you've sat down with one of these in the past, it can be confidently said that you've probably never played something like it before - a small-bodied flat-top guitar, but with huge sides, a bridge set partially inside a very unusually shaped soundhole, and an F and G hole on the back of the instrument. Particularly interesting is the fact that this instrument was designed by Lloyd Loar, the brilliant musician behind the Gibson F5 and the man who revolutionized the modern mandolin.

Beyond the inarguably strange dimensions and unusual soundhole array, the guitar sports a number of other special features worth mentioning. Both the top as well as the back are made from spruce, while the sides are thick cuts of maple. The headstock plate as well as the binding are an ivoroid veneer, and the neck is quite large with a pronounced V contour, as is typical on virtually all pre-war guitars. Also of note is the huge pewter tailpiece embossed with the Vivi Tone name. One of the tuners as well as the bridge are non-original replicas, and the guitar is missing its pickguard and bracket. There's one repaired crack on the back, and the typical wear and tear associated with a guitar now approaching 100 years of age. There are a handful of sizable scuffs on the back and some pick marks on the top, but surprisingly little checking in the finish. All in all, we consider this guitar to be in very good condition for a pre-war instrument. Our price includes a period chipboard case.