Travel back in time with this vintage acoustic guitar. Made in Boston, Massachusetts sometime in the 1940s, it's a Vega Professional archtop acoustic guitar, model C-66. Serial number 41150. Though Vega is best known for its banjos, it did make some great guitars, like this one, particularly in the 1940s. 

     This guitar is huge! The lower bout is truly 17". 25" Scale length. 3-1/2" deep body. 1-9/16" nut width. Front, back, neck and peghead binding. Gorgeous wood. It's a big booming guitar. I got it from a fellow who had it for over 50 years. When he was drafted into Vietnam in 1969, he left it at home (along with his 1960 two-door Chevy Impala). When he came back home in 1970, his family had sold his Impala and broken this guitar into three pieces. The neck heel was cracked clean through, and the peghead was cracked in half between the two E-string tuner shafts and the B and D string tuner shafts. In hopes that he wouldn't notice, a family member also performed an amateur fix. The neck heel is glued back together and the peghead is both glued and nailed together. It looks like someone started to drill a hole through the back of the peghead but stopped. As shown in the photos, the repairs are rather amateur. Some of the wood exposed in the peghead crack is gone. But, amazingly, the repairs have held up since 1970! Mostly, however, the guitar has been closeted since then. I did put a new bridge on it. The inlay from the peghead Vega star logo is missing. Some of the binding around the peghead crack is missing.

        Other than that, as far as I can tell, everything is original: tailpiece, pickguard, tuners, etcetera. The body is in pretty decent condition. No cracks, some ordinary play wear. The neck does have a bit of an upbow, but the 12th fret action is reasonable, a shade under 3/32". No case. So, I'm not sure what to say about the guitar. It was a fabulous guitar at one point. If it was in great condition, it would be worth around $2,000. But it is not in great condition. The damage was substantial and the repairs amateur. The neck has held as I've been played it for a week, but who knows. The best thing would be for the next owner to have the peghead properly repaired and the existing neck heel repair scrutinized by a professional. But, hey, it is truly a 1940s Vega Professional, a rather rare guitar.

    If you do make an offer during business hours, please know that I typically respond to offers within the hour. Questions?

     It will be well packed with plenty of new 1/2" bubble wrap and shipped in a new 46"x19"x7" stout cardboard instrument box. Please check out my Ebay store, “The 1970 Time Travel Trailer,” for more cool vintage stuff, including a bunch of vintage guitars (and a few ukuleles, banjos, fiddles, mandolins and amps, as well as fiddles, brass, woodwind, and various oddball musical instruments and old instrument brochures & catalogs). And please check out our new YouTube TV show, “Musical Treasure Hunting,” to see more of our adventures searching for old musical instruments.