Grant Egerdahl - The Guitar

About the Guitar

Over 110 years and counting

The instrument crossed the Atlantic three times with Julia on her adventures as an immigrant from Norway to the USA.

The guitar was recently restored to playable shape by an instrument maker in our extended family. During the restoration, cracks on the top were filled, the neck worked back into shape, frets leveled, tuners replaced and the "mustache" bridge reconstructed from scratch (not an easy task!).

Photos

Grandma Julia - Circa 1910

Grant Egerdahl - 2019, Exactly

Wear'n'Tear 1

The Top

The picture that went 'round the world!

The Mustache

Hamarøy, Norway - Julia's Neighborhood

The Mustache - up close!

Ghost guitar - a shadow cast

The city of Kristiania was renamed to Oslo in 1925

Wear'n'Tear 2

Julia spends her time hanging out with son Harold's guitar

Thanks to my wife Vanessa for her camera work! The picture she took that graces the top of this site (and appears in full here - left side just below Julia standing with the guitar) is one that found its way into the #12 spot of Flickr's "Top 100" in the summer of 2019. The photo quickly went around the world with over 70,000 views the next day - a stadium's worth of people. We shook our heads imagining how if we could travel back in time and tell young Julia - in a very remote Hamarøy in 1910 - that her guitar would someday be seen by a global audience - how she may have scoffed at the possibility of the idea!