..."Light construction is the blessing and the curse of Weissenborn guitars. It gives them their tone and volume but makes them susceptible to ravages of time, environment, and overstringing. That's why many surviving Weissenborns need braces and bridges reglued, cracks fixed, or seams rejoined."...

my online contact info is accessible through the "send email" tab here. (Do you know what a professional copywriter would charge to write something like that that wasn't stolen?) But what the hell, GoldTone didn't ask ACOUSTIC GUITAR Magazine for permission to use the entire article on their website and a lot of Weissen-hawking eBayers have in turn enhanced their sales with what I now can only suppose are my timeless words. (Wonder what it'll sell for and what my cut'll be....HA!)

As to the real business at hand: I'll bet this was made in the early '30s (look at the notched tuner plates; I have a '33 Martin 0-17 with this type of tuner, as opposed to the completely rectangular Waverlys that are most often seen). The rest of this Kona seems to fit in time with a later instrument.

Looks like the neck came up at one time and was doweled below the heel. That little circle was not a standard construction feature.

(Three words: copyright, intellectual property...and we probably aren't /even/ talking a cup of coffee here.)

[This message was edited by Ben Elder on 22 March 2006 at 12:02 AM.]

But before this gets completely off topic, why were the round neck Kona's made, Ben? The hollow neck design already existed at this point so what was the advantage?

[This message was edited by Andy Volk on 22 March 2006 at 05:56 AM.]

I think $3700 seems a bit steep with the doweled neck issue.
Todd

The Kona design was pretty much exclusive with teacher and publisher C S DeLano. In other words, you don't see any Weissenborn-branded Hawaiians with the round 7-fret neck. (Exceptions and close calls: some early solid square neck Weissenborns; two-that-I-know-of 4" deep hollowneck Weissenborns (late era) and one Spanish Style C (to all appearances) Weissenborn, except that it has a Kona label. A Michigan violinmaker named Brink made some hybrid Hawaiians with features of both around the early '30s.

I have yet to see any Konas (specifically branded) that could be attributed to Chris Knutsen, but I found (and Gregg Miner posted on his Knutsen Pages) a 1916 ad for the appearance of DeLano's ensemble at a Chautauqua organization event of some sort. They have many Knutsen Hawaiians which seem to be predecessors of the Kona design to come. Knutsen (Norwegian for "no two alike") had many different neck-joint locations. I say only somewhat in jest that it might have had something to do with the length of the top, back or side pieces he was working with.

I have seen three Konas about which I have doubts as to Weissenborn's hand in their manufacture. (Also--clearly not Knutsen-made, either.) The one I own has lots of discrepancies (size of binding pieces, tuner location, brace size, perpendicular neck heel, etc.) Alas, it's been overbrushed with an orange stain, given (and had removed--from the /back[!]/) a pickup and new cheap plastic nut and extra fretboard inlays. Enough nonsense and then some to corrupt the forensic evidence. it is of the period and has the later Kona label. Very comparable sound to the Weissenborn-made ones, however.

Noe & Most's book on Chris Knutsen, which has a chapter on Kona guitars, estimates that less than 1,000 Konas were built, with those made by Weissenborn being the most common. (The authors believe that "Kona" brand guitars were built by Weissenborn and Knutsen, as well as the Schireson Brothers, who also made Lyric and Mai Kai Hawaiian guitars.)

(Ben, I initially overlooked your line about "Knutsen" and "no two alike." That deserves a rimshøt! )

[This message was edited by Russ Young on 01 April 2006 at 11:30 AM.]