Louis Panormo Guitars

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Louis Panormo, 1784-1862, worked from Bloomsbury in London.
His guitars are much sought after and still played.

1832 Panormo This guitar was restored to playing condition for use in a consort based in Wiltshire. The back, already loose in several places, was removed and the many small repairs inside easily completed. New dots, with mother of pearl inlay, were made for either side of the bridge. The guitar as it arrived, the peghead and machines, and restored.

1835 Panormo This Panormo guitar had already been extensively played, damaged and repaired. Above left is the guitar after it's 21st century restoration, above right, the lable. The original frets cut from sheet brass were still on the guitar, suggesting that all the playing, damage and repairs dated from before fretwire was commonly used. As requested by the owner, I fitted modern frets. Above left shows the state of bars on the back. Note that the inside back is covered with a dark stain which even shows under the bar and dots, but the rear side of the bar is not painted as if it was coloured with a paintbrush through the soundhole. Above centre shows the large piece of wood used strengthen the top under the bridge, the crude cloth reinforcement and some of the dots. Only the transverse bar is stained a dark colour. On the right is the soundboard and body ready to receive the back. This was a fascinating guitar to work on. Not only was it a spledid guitar, but it was interesting to see the work of other repairers. Dots Inside the 1835 Panormo there was a suprising number of repairs to be seen and it soon became appareant that many different hands had already been here. Repairers use small carefully cut pieces of softwood, spruce or pine, to reinforce and align repairs of cracks. I call these pieces dots though they are often called studs or cleats. The grain of the dot runs at right angles to the crack and they are carefully trimmed to reduce weight. The repairs here are unusual as there are at least four different styles of dots used on this guitar. Four styles of dots probably means four different repairers worked on the guitar. Style 1 Elegant dots cut from a strip. The grain of the dot is not quite 90 degrees to the crack. Being close to the soundhole, the dots were easily positioned, even then the repairer left a bit of glue about. In the larger picture, the pinpricks in each dot give a clue about the tool used to position the dots. Style 2 The upper picture shows a crack near the stern of the guitar. A small piece of wood has been inset into the side of the guitar. The lower picture shows the same place on the inside of the guitar. The dots placed on the crack here are in an area inaccessable to the hand. This repairer drilled a small hole very near the crack and passed a thin gut string through the hole. The string was then pulled out of the soundhole and attached to a dot. Glue was applied to the dot and the string pulled the dot back through the soundhole to the inside of the cracked rib. This was done three times. It is extraordinary that the three dots are so different. Please notice that only two dots are successful in reinforcing the crack. Style 3 Another style of dot applied after the back had been stained black - one dot is missing. These dots reinforce the back of the guitar near the end block, or stern. Style 4 Rounded dots on the inside of the back of the guitar on the upper bout. Yet another style of dot.

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