Hm.. the last time I tried to look up an old posting I made a couple of years ago via my "User-name trace" it only went back about a year. I know I've been annoying fellow Mudcatters for some time longer than that! Perhaps we were going about it via the wrong route(?).

Re the "Spam"; Lord knows where it all comes from; we just accept it as one of life's little annoyances, cull it out, and move on. some of it is actually a little amusing, like come-ons for wonder elixers to "enhance" things that we a.) Don't have now, nor did Nature ever provide us with in the first place, or b.) Have little or no actual use for at this particular point in our life. I'd like to write them back and explain this to them in hopes that they'd stop wasting their time with us, but of course those return e-dresses to "remove" are all bogus.

I really don't know if Delphi is any better or worse than others in this regard. We are somewhat selective in what "cookies" we accept, and I think that helps.

Re the Parlor Guitars; If you look on my "Welcome" thread, you will find a graphic "attachment" of me playing one of mine at Ft. Knox in Bucksport, ME a few years ago. I string them up with "gut", as explained on one of the threads.

I am told that there were a few of the larger "Spanish" guitars around in the 1850's & on, but they were a distinct minority until the 1870s'. Apparantly the little "Parlors" were still fairly common right up into the 1920's. Once and a while some modern producer will offer a "Parlor" style guitar, but they are at a premium price. I suppose that Martin or other Luthiers could make you a dandy one - provided that you had very "deep pockets" for it!

With properly set and good quality gut strings, a decent period Parlor guitar will produce surprisingly full and rich sound for it's diminutive size. They were pretty lightly braced, which may have something to do with it. Unfortunately, most of the surviving specimens I've encountered have been strung up with steel and otherwise abused by young aspiring rock-stars over the years, and thus wrecked to some extent or another.

We will indeed look forward to seeing some fellow 'Catters over there from time to time; the more the merrier! Thanks for your interest!