Early 1900s Vega Model 35 Guitar - Good Condition

This Vega Model 35 is a great example of a parlor-sized guitar from the early 1900s. Built in an era when gut and silk-and-steel strings were the norm, it offers a taste of turn-of-the-century American guitar making in a size that's as comfortable in your lap as it was a hundred years ago. It's simple and unadorned. Vega invested in the wood and the build quality, not the frills, so after around 100 years it has loads of mojo and sounds just gorgeous.

Build & Materials

• Top: Solid spruce
• Back & Sides: Brazilian rosewood, with beautiful, unusually figured grain — a reminder of the exceptional rosewood available in the early 1900s
• Bracing: Ladder braced

Size & Feel

• Scale Length: 25"
• Upper Bout: 10 ¼"
• Lower Bout: 14 5/16"

Sound Profile
Originally designed for gut or silk-and-steel strings, this guitar plays easily and sounds fantastic.

The Details

• Built by Vega, early 1900s
• Several top cracks, four large back cracks, professionally repaired; a large dent was also repaired on the treble side, some small dings/chips in the laquer to the top
• Parlor-sized body — ideal for fingerstyle players and collectors alike
• From the Marvin Rosenberg Collection

The Marvin Rosenberg Collection
This guitar comes from the collection of Marvin Rosenberg — patriarch, attorney, corporate counsel, competitive sports car racer, and lifelong lover of folk and Americana music. For decades, Marvin showed up to jam sessions and bluegrass venues with friends, and that same passion shaped his instrument collection. He sought out player-grade instruments — vintage pieces with real, honest wear from a life of actual use — over pristine collector-shelf pieces, assembling a personal collection of guitars, mandolins and banjos meant to be enjoyed rather than admired behind glass. Each piece was a tool of a passionate musician, chosen with the discerning eye of someone who understood exactly what made it special.

In stock now at Wood & Wire. A genuine piece of parlor-guitar history, played and loved!

* The information presented here was collected from the estate of Marvin Rosenberg and independent research. It is accurate to the best of our ability.