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[Rgblutone]

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[cmajor9]

Could you post more photos of the Lang? What are the dimensions of the body? Is the original tailpiece still available?

[Rgblutone]

Could you post more photos of the Lang? What are the dimensions of the body? Is the original tailpiece still available?

I'll try to get more pictures up later, found it troublesome to do from my phone.

The dimensions are:
Lower bout:16.5 inches
Length of guitar top to bottom:43 Inches
Depth:3.7 inches approx
Nut width: 45mm.
Think the tailpiece might be the original, for the Pramus models Lang didn't use his usual style silver Lang tailpieces.
From speaking to collectors and looking at photos of Pramus models, this could be the original, but I'm not sure.

[Hammertone]

Lang archtops are usually fabulous-sounding instruments.
This is one of the six Langs sold in last year's Bachman auction, at which bidders got some outrageously excellent deals on German archtops.

This one:
-tailpiece is Chinese;
-pickup is not original;
-knobs (and unfortunate holes drilled for pots) are not original;
-bridge is not original.

Also, the bridge saddle is mounted backwards - it should be reversed.

[Ol' Fret]

A nice 1950's Prämus!
Chances are good that the spruce top for this particular guitar - and some other Langs - originated from the 15th century, the so-called Munich cathedral wood (Artur Lang Archtop - Page 2 ). Please, don't ask how I could know ...

The tailpiece used for the Prämus models was the lyre-style tail, one of the earliest tailpieces made by ABM after WWII. It can still be found on the second hand market. Lang "inherited" the typical ABM "V-tailpiece" from Alosa some years later.

Prämus was the first and main importer for DeArmond pickups in Germany. As far as I know most, if not all, Prämus-Langs came with a DeArmond, or were played acoustically.


A long soundboard crack close beside the (here: bass side) tonebar can be among the most tricky ones to repair. Here a comparison from the Randy Bachman auction in May 2024 (on the left), where you can already see some faint traces of a former repair attempt. Photos rarely tell the whole story, so it's up to each individual to judge whether a repair was professional.

Of course, the crack, if stable, might not affect the guitar's stability and tone at all. Well, unlike that old saying in the vintage D'Angelico world, the best sounding Lang guitars don't have to have a top crack to sound great. So many fine German-made archtop guitars were abused or poorely repaired; the good news is that with the right amount of effort—as in violin making—almost anything can be restored well.
Concerning the building of carved acoustic archtop guitars, it's important in any case that no unnecessary tension is put on the top. Later in the instrument's life, that doesn't necessarily mean that any relaxation must be the result of cracks in the wood or lacquer ... what many vintage guitar fans expect from a good sounding guitar.



It's fun to learn about "some outrageously excellent deals on German archtops" and the qualities some vendors attribute to Langs in this context. Well, to stay on the factual and unemotional German level, the vast majority of Langs exhibit undeniable qualities that stand out pleasantly from the often far-inflated prices of comparable competitors.
Here's the description of this guitar, as it was reoffered on Reverb in July 2024, shortly after the Bachman auction.



GLWTS!

[Rgblutone]

Hi guys thanks for the info on the Lang.
Was just going off the info I had at the time
Cheers

[Rgblutone]

Lang archtops are usually fabulous-sounding instruments.
This is one of the six Langs sold in last year's Bachman auction, at which bidders got some outrageously excellent deals on German archtops.

This one:
-tailpiece is Chinese;
-pickup is not original;
-knobs (and unfortunate holes drilled for pots) are not original;
-bridge is not original.

Also, the bridge saddle is mounted backwards - it should be reversed.

Hi Hammertone, what do you mean by the bridge saddle should be reversed?
I took this guitar to a very good luthier (Leicestershire luthiers) to ho over the guitar and reseal the crack. He didn't mention anything about that being an issue.

[Rgblutone]

Ol fret.
Have had the crack repaired myself as well, the luthier said it was very lucky that the crack ran along a brace as it's easier to keep stable and has nominal affect on the guitar.
I do think for the price Lang's are incredible guitars (in fact at any price their great). I just now play exclusively resonators, so selling all my other guitars over time.

[Hammertone]

Hi Hammertone, what do you mean by the bridge saddle should be reversed?
I took this guitar to a very good luthier (Leicestershire luthiers) to ho over the guitar and reseal the crack. He didn't mention anything about that being an issue.

1. tape the bridge base to the face of the guitar. Use low-tack painter's tape.
2. loosen the strings.
3. remove the top part of the bridge, rotate it 180 degrees, replace it.
4. tighten up the strings to tune.
5. remove the tape.

The wooden saddle (in this case made by Teller in Germany) is shaped specifically to compensate for a string set with an unwound B string (E, A, D, G being wound strings, B and high E being unwound strings). It's a very well known shape, easy to spot, and yours has been reversed.

This doesn't mean that it doesn't play sort of vaguely in tune, just that it can be made to play more in tune if installed correctly. Dead easy to fix. Easy to overlook if you are not looking. In this case, various people were definitely not looking, since it appeared that way at auction @ a year back.

[Rgblutone]

Ok, cheers Hammertone, you've got a keen eye,
To be fair it sounds great as it is! And it seems to stay in tune perfectly, have found a buyer on here for it, so he might want to change it, but it seems great as is.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

To be fair it sounds great as it is! And it seems to stay in tune perfectly

The saddle wouldn’t affect tone or tuning stability. The string slots are staggered for correct intonation, and it’s hard to imagine that intonation is fine with what should be the B slot sitting at the A position and displaced toward the nut.

If it’s fine, leave it. But a saddle like that would throw intonation off on any guitar I’ve ever seen.