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Restorations of Guitars by Louis Panormo
Louis Panormo, 1784-1862, had a workshop in Bloomsbury, London. Many guitars were made, it might even have been a small factory. Today, his guitars are much sought after and often restored with the intention being used. They have a wonderful tone and can be a delight to play.
James Westbrook, of the Brighton based Guitar Museum, is currently doing a PhD on the Panormo guitar.
1831 Panormo
A restoration done in 2010 for a Norwich guitar enthusiast who intends the guitar to be used by the classical guitarist, James Boyd. James's website, www.jamesboyd.co.uk, gives details of his music and of an interesting 2013 musical sailing tour based on his classic yacht, Concorde.
This is the earliest of the Panormos I have worked on so far. The guitar as it arrived was dirty and had some damage, but it did not show signs of having been played a great deal.
The bridge is attached to the soundboard by screws, there are many cracks in the soundboard, at least one bar on the back is broken and there is a good deal of mother of pearl missing. Over the years the back bars have become relatively larger than the back (perhaps the guitar shrunk but the bars less so), forcing the sides of the guitar out and revealing that the rosewood binding is made of two pieces. The back will be removed from the guitar to gain access to the underside of the soundboard.
Patience is needed removing the back. The outer binding was difficult to remove and broke off in small pieces. I decided to replace it with new wood later. The inner binding mostly remained attached to the back. Once inside many previous repairs became apparent as did the two rather tattered wooden blocks for the screws in the bridge.
The label was easy to photograph at this time. It is small, 35 by 60 mm.
This is an early Panormo, without fan strutting. I chose to leave the structure unchanged, but to clean up the inside, reinforce all the cracks with a minimum amount of wood and glue up anything that was loose. I replaced the two tattered wooden blocks with new wood.
It's easily seen that a toothed plane was used and that the tentellones were pricked, probably enabling them to be placed in position.
Repairs to the back included gluing up a cracked bar, attention to one short crack near the rear, re-attaching bars to the back, straightening the back which had become warped during removal, and a thorough clean.
Two pictures showing the underside of the soundboard and the back after all the internal work has been completed. The guitar now feels structurally sound but no heavier.
Next I will closely examine the sides for any repair needed and do as much work on the outside of the soundboard. At some point I will re-attach the back, but I want to be certain that no further work is needed inside. I will post more photos as the work progresses.
1833 Panormo
A Panormo that was unsympathetically modified by its owner in the late 1960's. A wooden set square was glued to the sound board. Attached to the set square, a bridge was used to space the strings. A crude tailpiece was added at the stern and steel strings were fitted to the guitar. Many screws and bolts, as well as glue, were used to attach these modifications. To finish the job, a coating of thick brown varnish was applied over everything on the top. One side of the guitar was badly cracked.
My client was a friend of the owner and they fell out over the modifications. They never spoke again but at the owner's funeral my client asked about the guitar and just in the nick of time, saved it from being taken to recycling. The owners family and my client decided to have the guitar restored.
The first job was to remove the hardware and the set square. There was a lot of glue beneath the set square and very ugly holes left by screws and bolts. Next the back was removed revealing plenty of loose bars, some serious damage to the bars below the bridge. One bar needed to be replaced.
The label was easy to photograph at this time. The body of the new bridge was attached before the back was replaced.
Decorative additions to the bridge came later. I had been unable to save the original varnish on the sound board and used half a dozen brushed on coats of shellac instead. The top was so worn and corrugated that any finish involving sanding was out of the question.
The finished guitar will always display traces of it's turbulent modifications, but I think it successful as a working guitar.
A quote from James Westbrook, The Guitar Museum:
I met [your client] this week and he showed me the guitar, for all of its faults, it does sound and play really well.
1837 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 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, although one could have been the original maker.
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.
Below, the same place on the inside of the guitar. The dots placed on the crack here are in an area inaccessable to the hand (remember the top would not have been removed). 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 to the back before it had been stained black - one dot is missing. These dots reinforce the back of the guitar near the end block, or stern. Perhaps this work was done by the maker.
Style 4
Rounded dots on the inside of the back of the guitar on the upper bout. Yet another style of dot.
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.