How can you find out how old a guitar is?

by george
(canada)

My wife was given a s.s.stewart guitar we was woundering how old it might be and what the value might be.

ANSWER

Hi, George--

In general, you need to know the model number or name and the serial number. I looked up SS Stewart guitars for you in the Blue Book. The general info is:

Instruments also produced as Stewart & Bauer. Instruments previously produced in Philadelphia, PA, during the late 1800s.
S.S. Stewart was a major banjo producer of the late 1800s, and was one of the first to apply mass production techniques to instrument building with good consequences. Stewart became partners with well-known guitar builder George Bauer, and issued guitars under the Stewart & Bauer trademark from Philadelphia.
After the company was dissolved, Stewart´s family put out guitars under the S.S. Stewart´s Sons trademark. The Stewart name also appears on a series of entry level to medium grade guitars built by Harmony (circa 1950s); and others for Weymann. These later models are not at the same level of quality as the Philadelphia-era models.

My uneducated guess would be that the guitar is one of the Harmony or Weymann guitars--they are quite common.

If you have other info. about the guitar, you can go to:

Vintage Guitar Values and make the required donation of $2.00 and I will be happy to do ore research for you.

Best Wishes,
Lynne