I really doubt it, and if they did they'd probably be rotted away by now. Real tortoise shell is terrible material for a guitar as it outgasses and can destroy metal over time. Oddly enough, because of this fact, keeping them safe in the case is actually bad. Or was that cellulose? Don't remember. Here's some pics:
Hans makes a "funny" to me at least.No, it's the other way around! It's celluloid that can do bad things to your instrument! The use of real tortoise shell was only bad for the turtle!
Sincerely,
Hans Moust
www.guitarsgalore.nl
No, it's the other way around! It's celluloid that can do bad things to your instrument! The use of real tortoise shell was only bad for the turtle!
Never having a "real" tortoise shell for testing but I have spent the last 18 years in a test lab. That amount of corrosion looks like more than a pick guard's worth of shell could generate from outgassing. It looks a lot like what is seen at times in test with a sulpher dioxide salt fog corrosion test. In any case, if that is just the result of the outgassed chemical in the tortoise shell I would not want it as it would also be corrosive to the skin. GAD do you have more history on those guitars? (PM me). They look like they were exposed to acid rain and sealed up in a high humidity, high temperature environment for a long time. If the remaining wood did not look so good I would think they were in a flood. ..... maybe coastal storm surge on a warm salt laden air environment?
I once made the mistake of using a dremel tool on a genuine tortoise guard upon which I was re-gluing a strip of binding. As I was grinding a rough edge I learned that genuine tortoise is highly flammable.
Total veer but this was on one of the subsequent pages to one of GAD's links posted on pg 1. Me think it worth it!
http://www.gtstulsa.com/workbench/2013/11/14/just-a-beautiful-restring
It will never cease to amaze me that people pay shops to restring their guitars for them.
Oh I know. A couple of years ago someone heard me talking guitars to Don probably at a bar and they said, "Oh, yeah, I gotta take mine into the shop." I asked what was wrong with it. "Needs new strings." :confusion:It will never cease to amaze me that people pay shops to restring their guitars for them.
Oh I know. A couple of years ago someone heard me talking guitars to Don probably at a bar and they said, "Oh, yeah, I gotta take mine into the shop." I asked what was wrong with it. "Needs new strings." :confusion:
I said, "Do it yourself." "Wouldn't have a clue how." "Bring it over to my house and I'll change them and show you how."
Of course it never happened.
It's shocking!!