Blonde Roger Junior

This is a 1955-1965 Blonde Roger Junior. It is hard to tell more than that age wise from the sources that I have. If anyone knows more let me know.

It has a great straight neck and wonderful playability and sustain. It is not super loud but it plays like a dream and the whole thing comes alive when you play it. As you can see I have mounted a DeArmond FHC on it and attached a strap. It came with a fancy pickup system on it but I took it off.  The pickup system and the original eBay pictures can be found by clicking here.  

I like the simpler DeArmond pickup. It matches my mind. It is a great guitar to play out on gigs. It really comes alive with the pickup on it. With the FHC and the sustain you are in jazzville.

Someone put new inlays in the neck which is fine. They look great. The celluloid binding has oxidized in several places and has stained the instrument. It must have spent quite a stretch in the case because the case contained the celluloid oxidation and the only place it could go was into the finish. It is no big deal to me anyway. I leave it out of the case so it will not further stain the instrument. It has a great patina to it and lots of character.

If you leave your guitar out of the case in a well light room it will turn darker because the sunlight oxidizes the nitrocellulose lacquer. It works for me and the gentleman who told me it would.

As with several other archtops I own I like them because they are broken in and it makes you feel comfortable to play them. You aren’t going to hurt them if you bump them. You can just relax and enjoy them and play the daylights out of them.