Pre-War Hensel Minerva Parlour Guitar

UPDATE MAY 10, 2020

….. see below for final results …..

This will be my most involved amateur restoration yet, but this thing is so cool that I’m excited to see it playable again. I picked it up from somebody who had planned on restoring it, but who realized that the work required was too intense.

I’m nowhere near done yet, but there’s so much going on here that I’m going to start documenting it now. When I got it, the finish was already stripped, but not very carefully. It still needs work before ever refinishing it.

Here’s what was wrong with it when I got it….

– bridge off and broken in two

– neck loose

– loose and missing back braces

– slight twist to the neck

– broken tuning machine heads

– poorly removed finish

– loose binding at the waist

The good news is that the body itself looked good and solid. I’m not sure what kind of wood it is made of, but it’s solid and definitely not spruce.

My plan was first to carefully remove the neck and try to straighten the twist. I also wanted to try and repair the bridge rather than replace it with something modern. Every modern bridge I looked at was way oversized. I ordered some “Golden Age” restoration tuners from StewMac and some new oversized Ivroid bridge pins and end pin. StewMac also sells “pre-war” replica bridges that seemed to be similar dimensions on paper, so will see what it looks like when it gets here.

This is how it came to me

Here are the before pics…

Binding loose at the waist.
One missing brace, one loose

Here begins the restoration…

The bridge before.
The bridge after … glued, clamped, sanded and oiled. It might work.
Steamed the neck and it came free from the top very easy
Homemade neck removal caul. Steamed free the old hide glue and it and slid right out. I got the distinct impression that this neck had been removed at sometime in the past.
Neck straightening caul. Two pieces of dead-flat 5/8” Maple hard wood laminated together. Then the neck clamped flat against it and steamed for an hour. After steaming, the neck was left clamped for 24 hours of cooling. When done it was straight.
Neck sanded up to 600 grit and French polished with natural shellac. (The body will match when I’m done).
It appears as though a previous neck reset had slightly skewed the dovetailed joint and the neck sat a hair crooked…. shim the upper part of one side and the lower part of the other and its back to square (or as close as I’m going to be able to get it anyway)
Made a new brace out of some spruce for the missing one. Not sure I’m happy with the geometry of it though, so I’ll probably keep working on this.
Made a couple of cauls for the loose binding at the waist. Heated, glued, clamped, fixed.
Sanded top down to 1000 grit paper
Sanded body down to 1000 grit
Begin the arduous task of French Polishing the whole body with a natural shellac. Just like they did a hundred years ago. No sprayed on finish at all.
French Polish complete.
French Polish complete.
French Polish complete.
Dry fit everything back together. The neck adjustment and reset seems to have worked and everything lines up nicely.
Dry fit everything back together, and it’s looking great.

So … here’s what’s next …

I have to get some liquid hide glue to glue everything back together. I’m choosing hide glue because it’s the preferred adhesive for quality instruments and can be removed in the future if necessary.

Then I install some vintage looking “golden age” tuners I ordered from StewMac and then try to find proper looking screws for the pick guard.

Add some stylish looking bridge pins and end pin, then string it up with some extra light strings.

Then …. the moment of truth … will the expense and 30+ hours of labour be worth it???????

3 thoughts on “Pre-War Hensel Minerva Parlour Guitar”

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  1. Hi Grant! I’m a friend of AJ. I’m enjoying your blog! Looking forward to seeing this pre war baby with the tuners and strings on. Cheers!
    Drew

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