Antebellum Instruments

Clippings: 1927 Octave Plectrum Banjo

2012-01-30T21:11:00.002-05:00

Click the pic to see this full size. This is an article about yet another giant banjo of yesteryear... this time rather than a bass banjo it's tuned like a plectrum banjo but an octave lower. To me this seems rather pointless since you can tune a plectrum banjo an octave lower ON a plectrum banjo and retain good string response and balance.

But, then again, if you have an 8 foot tall fella in the band, this might be the ticket.

Inventory / Sound Clips

2012-01-29T20:21:00.001-05:00

I just added sound clips to most of the inventory listings, as well as a new listing for the recently posted bari uke.

c.1935 Gibson-made Recording King? M-5? Archtop Guitar

2012-01-29T18:31:00.006-05:00

This guitar is essentially identical to a Gibson Recording King M-5 model except that it's finished natural, much like the also Gibson-made Kalamazoo Oriole models from the early 1940s.

This is a customer's instrument (hence, not for sale) and my work on it included a fret level/dress, cleaning, and light setup. It has some finish blush all along the edges of the top which is unfortunate but not so noticeable.

Like the similar Recording King model, this sports a solid spruce top, solid maple sides, and a laminate maple back. The neck is mahogany, in a light v-shape, and has a truss rod. Both the bridge (adjustable) and fretboard are rosewood, though I think the bridge saddle is a replacement.

Everything appears to be original on this guitar save that bridge topper and maybe the tailpiece, which is a peculiar "compensated" type and very classy.

Original bone nut, cool Waverly tuners, truss cover.

Profusely cool pearl inlays in the board. Board is bound as well as the top, back, and the pickguard.

Good sturdy bridge.

Here's that "Straton Compensator" tailpiece up close.

Don't you love that firestripe celluloid pickguard and "checker" purfling?

This guitar is both classy-looking and gorgeous-sounding as well. It has a very similar tone to this KGN-32 I worked on recently (click for link) but more gutsy and loud.

Nice flamed maple sides.

Pretty flamed maple back.

Original Waverly tuners work great!

Good heel join.

Again, the cool tailpiece -- which has also had a repair during its lifetime.

c.1925 Stromberg-Voisinet Tenor Guitar

2012-01-29T18:21:00.008-05:00

This very cool-looking tenor guitar is a customer's instrument. It was made by Stromberg-Voisinet (later Kay) in Chicago around 1925 or so. This body shape was only used by this company and in the 1930s became the classic shape for the archtop KayKraft instruments which are famous with blues players nowadays.

My work included replacing a missing upper bout brace, hairline crack fill/repair, fret level/dress, cleaning and setup.

This has a solid spruce top with birch back, sides, and neck. The fretboard is dyed maple veneered with "mother of toilet seat" (celluloid) in a pearly pattern. The bridge looks like dyed maple as well.

Fun "Gumby" headstock. Bone nut. Note that everything is 100% original on this instrument.

Bound board as well.

Fun bridge! I like the top-mounted strings. Makes restringing quick and easy.

Here's the distributor's label in the soundhole.

Fun purfling. The top, back, and soundhole are also bound.

Did I mention the cool pickguard, too?

This tenor has a full 23" scale and per the customer's request set this up with DGBE tuning in steel. With the smallish body this makes it feel very "baritone uke."

Friction tuners.

Sound is punchy, loud, and direct.

c.1960 Harmony Baritone Ukulele

2012-01-29T18:12:00.003-05:00

Here's yet another Harmony baritone uke to add to the Antebellum archives. I work on these quite a bit and mostly hunt for 1950s ones, but this (early) 1960s model is nice as well. As typical, the body and neck are all solid mahogany with a Brazilian rosewood fretboard and bridge.

My work included crack repair to the top and the back, a fret level/dress, and bridge modification as well as cleaning and a setup. It's a nice warm, mellow and sweet thing now, and plays great.

The plastic nut and the (originally) plastic saddle identify this as a 1960s model baritone made by Harmony. The 1950s ones used bone.

Brass frets are in great shape -- also, faux MOP dots.

Usually these ukes have a classical-style bridge that uses "tied" mountings for the strings. I've recut this bridge lower, removed the tie-block rear, and installed a fret saddle to replace the now-removed plastic saddle. Usually I can just recut the saddle lower to improve action on these old baris, but unfortunately the mounting holes for the tie block were drilled too high to get proper downpressure from the strings on the modified saddle area.

So, this modification works nicely. Instead of installing bridge pins I simply drilled tiny holes and use a "pop through, pull out the soundhole, knot, and pull back up" string attachment. This is very secure, puts very little sideways pressure on the bridge, and looks nice and clean.

Good looking 'hog on this one. In person it's almost a chocolate-y brown color with of course the usual years and years of use-wear. There is one maybe 6" long glued-up hairline crack on the front to the bass side of the bridge.

Note the repaired hairline cracks on the upper bout. All stable.

Simple friction tuners work fine.

Tortoise binding.

Inventory Updated!

2012-01-25T21:54:00.001-05:00

Finally, the inventory is updated! I get the feeling like I missed a few instruments, though, even so... so I'll check on that in the morning. Enjoy!

c.1925 Washburn 5315 Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

2012-01-25T18:13:00.004-05:00

This poor old Washburn uke from the mid-20s sure has suffered quite a bit in its life! When I got it, the neck had been "reset" with what seems to have been some sort of awful white glue, there were numerous hairline cracks needing to be repaired, seams needing reglues, there was (and still is) wood missing around the soundhole, and the bridge had been "recut" in a freakshop sort of way -- with the action "lowered" via cutting long grooves from the string mounts. The tuners were also all mismatched replacements.

So... I fixed all that, recut the bridge to a modern "string through the top and knot" style, with a fret saddle, reset the neck properly, leveled and dressed the frets, cleaned it all up, and voila -- a super-nice playing, super-nice sounding little all mahogany uke -- just what I'd expect from a higher-end Lyon & Healy uke product (my own favorite uke is a L&H tenor from around the same time).

Even bruised-up, this is a winner of a uke and sounds just a nice as any old Martin -- with more of a focused, cutting tone.

These are replacement Grover tuners and they work just fine and fit in just right.

The fretboard is rosewood with nickel-silver frets and with an ebony nut. The rest of the uke is all solid mahogany.

The dots appear to be celluloid.

Here's my recut bridge -- note that there are the remains of one of the "grooves" cut by a previous owner near the A string hole.

It's like it's missing a tooth!

Stamp in the soundhole.

All of the Washburn-branded ukes I've had the pleasure to work on and play have been solidly-built, excellent-playing workhorses after the fixing was done.

Good quality mahogany.

Note that near the heel there's some discoloration and finish muck-up caused by the removal of the nightmare glue-job that had been done on it before its current neck set.

A good'n!

c.1955 Harmony H1215T Archtop Tenor Guitar

2012-01-25T17:52:00.004-05:00

These archtop tenors make excellent take-anywhere instruments for tenor guitarists or tenor banjoists who want a loud, simple, and punchy instrument. Unlike earlier tenors (1920s through 40s), these Harmony-made archtops have a 15 1/4" lower bout for lots of volume and "body" to the voice while also featuring the shortened body length that allows for a comfortable-playing and comfortably located 14 fret neck join.

I've worked on a few of these and liked each one I fixed up. This one was a trade-in on another instrument and I'm glad to have it in the shop until it finds its new home. These are fun to play and have a nice punch to them, plus that sort of spooky compressed old Harmony archtop box sound.

This guitar is entirely made from solid birch and unlike the later (read: 1960s) models, the 1950s ones actually have pretty thin tops which makes them "handle" better as well as sound better. All that "bling" -- the "binding," sunburst, wood grain, position dots -- is all just painted-on, which from a blues or old-timey perspective is actually pretty funky and cool.

My work on the guitar included regluing a loose top brace (this has "tone bar" bracing) as well as drop-filling a couple of hairline cracks. I also cleaned it up, leveled and dressed the frets, and set it up. Plays great, now, with low action of 1/16" on the treble and 3/32" on the bass at the 12th fret -- as good as it gets.

Original adjustable rosewood bridge with brass adjustment wheels.

Simple, sturdy tailpiece.

Original bone nut.

Brass frets, painted position markers.

Nice-looking simple tuners. After some WD-40 they work great.

Tight, sealed hairline near the neck block.

Note the faux woodgrain.

A cool guitar! I set the nut up on this guy so it can be strung in a variety of tunings (with a variety of string diameters) and still maintain proper action height at the nut.

c.1915 Italian-made Puglisi? Bowlback Mandolin

2012-01-25T17:43:00.002-05:00

Practically identical in construction to this Puglisi-branded bowlback I finished a few days ago, this (also Italian, probably by the same maker) mandolin is a fantastic instrument. Unlike the other, which has light relief to the neck, this one has a dead straight neck and plays perfectly -- and in addition to that -- this is one of the loudest wood-bodied mandolins I've ever played, which is all the more striking since it's a bowlback. This thing can cut.

My work on this instrument included replacement of two missing mid braces, various seam repair to the top edge on the treble side, general cleaning, fret level/dress, setup, and whatnot. The bridge is also a replacement -- in this case a modified vintage rosewood one I had in my parts bin. The tuners are probably 60s/70s replacements which I intended to swap out for parts-bin vintage ones, but I didn't have any on hand with the proper post spacing, so after a quick lube I popped them back on and they work just fine.

Simple design with alternating "rope" binding and simple multi-ply wood purfling. Celluloid "tortoise" inlaid pickguard with pearl-inlaid rosette. The bowl is made from Brazilian rosewood and the neck and headstock are veneered with rosewood. The top is spruce and the whole build is quite light. Fretboard and bridge are also rosewood and the frets are brass and include a zero fret at the (bone) nut.

MOP dots in board.

While fairly simple in decor as far as Italian bowlback mandolins go, this one has it where it counts in terms of tone, volume, and playability.

Rosewood bowl is in great shape.

Skirted neck join.

I like this "two strings per peg" tailpieces. They just look classy!

Inventory

2012-01-24T17:42:00.003-05:00

I'm going to be updating my inventory pretty soon. Stay tuned. It's way outta date right now.

c.1900 Oscar Schmidt Bowlback Mandolin

2012-01-24T14:30:00.004-05:00

This bowlback mandolin, though unmarked, was almost certainly made by Oscar Schmidt in New Jersey around c.1890-1900 or so -- and I'd say leaning on the earlier side. It's 100% original and has old-fashioned "hollow tube" brass-plate European (German?) made tuners.

The neck is mahogany while the nut, bridge, and fretboard are ebony. It also has a Brazilian rosewood bowl and spruce top, all of good quality. My work on the instrument included brace re-glues, hairline (center join) glue to the top, a fret dress, cleaning, and setup.

For an old Oscar Schmidt, this mandolin is in fantastic shape, missing only a few pieces of pearl from its bindings but otherwise unharmed. The top had sunk a little before I reglued the braces but it's settled back to an almost ideal shape (and plenty stable).

Tone is sweet and sustained with that great classical clarity one expects from a nicer bowlback. Bass is not thin on this and the overall sound is balanced. It's a slightly narrower-width body than most other American makes, so it feels pretty comfortable in the lap and less topsy-turvy.

Did I mention the pearl stars and butterfly inlay in the pickguard? Nice!

Rosewood-veneered headstock. Note the hollow-tube brass shafts on the tuners as well as the bone buttons!

MOP dots on the board, too. Action is just about perfect -- 1/16" at the 12th fret -- despite a very tiny hair of relief to the neck.

Cute tailpiece.

Isn't that pretty?

Nice old tuners.

Overall, a great old American bowlback. Maybe not as wide-spectrum and full as a Vega but certainly as nice as an old American Conservatory or high end Washburn as far as tone goes.

c.1915 American-made 6-String Balalaika

2012-01-22T16:07:00.006-05:00

Six-string balalaikas (balalaikas are a Russian folk instrument) are much less common than their 3-string counterparts, but an even rarer thing to come across is an early American-made balalaika. I've only seen a very few of these.

Hardware (cut down mandolin tuners and tailpiece) on this is obviously American-origin as are the general fittings and materials -- this has a maple back similar to American-made bowlback mandolin construction and the purfling around the top edge is similar to many Chicago-made instruments from the teens -- so my guess would be that this was a c.1900-1920 build, probably made by someone familiar with the mandolin-building industry in America at the time.

My work on this included a cleaning, fret dress, seam re-glues, hairline crack repair, new bone nut, and installation of this weird adjustable bridge (a parts-bin find that worked perfectly for this instrument, in the end).

Judging from the fretwear and original (damaged) nut on this instrument, it lived most of its life using steel strings on all 3 courses. The neck, though quite skinny and unreinforced, only had a little bit of warp to it, so I figured it was okay to use some really light gauges to string it up again (I think a typical six-string set is 2x12, 2x10, 2x8 in an EEA tuning comparable to the D&A strings in pitch of a mandolin.

I tried that tuning at first and then went a fair bit lower to where it's at now -- DAD tuning in exactly the same pitch as found on trichordio Greek bouzoukis (the 6 string variety) and same pitch as a mountain dulcimer tuned to DAD. Celtic musician Alec Finn is well known for using this tuning to back melody players in Celtic traditional music and it works quite well.

At any rate, with so many frets available (neck join is at the 16th and last fret) and coupled with a capo, this tuning makes a really useful accompaniment instrument for traditional songs if a modal sort of sound is desired. The standard balalaika tuning was perfectly fine but is limited to its own genre and the bigger, more mandola-sized body of the balalaika really likes the lowered pitch.

I had to flip this adjustable bridge topper over and modify it to get enough height for the strings. This needs about a 7/8" tall bridge. As a bonus, the adjustable feature of this bridge is really useful since the top of this instrument has zero bracing, so like a banjo head, in different weather it will either sag or get flatter, though tuned to pitch there's barely any sag at all -- a condition helped by the fact that the soundhole is so tiny.

Typical mandolin tailpiece.

These cut-down mando tuners work just fine.

Good strong neck join with lots of back angle.

...and a pretty maple back.

c.1920 Bacon Professional FF Banjo Mandolin

2012-01-22T15:45:00.006-05:00

This is a customer's Bacon (Groton, CT at the time) banjo mandolin and it's in fantastic condition -- all original save the new rosewood bridge and a replacement Remo head. My work included a dowel reset, fret dress, and setup.

These Bacon Professional models (with full donut-y big tonering and double-wall rim with f-hole cutouts) are pretty rare and most date from the teens. The Groton mark on the dowel suggests, however, that this dates around 1920 or so, when the Groton factory opened for production.

As its name implies -- this is a professional sounding, playing, and looking instrument and has a projecting but sweet tone with excellent volume. The new heavier mandolin-style rosewood bridge helps, though, to add sweetness and less of a penetrating thin sound to the instrument.

Typical Waverly "cloud" tailpiece looks elegant, here. The scale on this is 13 7/8" and I'm using 32w, 20w, 13, 9 strings on it.

Bone nut, rosewood veneer on the headstock, and nice logo.

Gorgeous MOP inlay in the board (which is a dyed pearwood board).

Nice multi-lam veneers which give a really classy look.

Bound board and pretty hard maple neck.

Hardware is in gorgeous shape.

The funniest bit is that while the rim outside uses a plain-wrap maple, the interior uses this flamed maple.

Tuners work fine.

Really cool rounded heel.

I had to shim up the neck brace to get it to function correctly.

Here you can see the lip of the Bacon-signature tonering under the head.

A nice one and a lucky owner!

c.1925 Stromberg-Voisinet (Kay) Mahogany Hawaiian-decal Parlor Guitar

2012-01-20T16:24:00.003-05:00

This is by far the best example of one of these old Stromberg-Voisinet (later Kay) Hawaiian-themed all-mahogany parlor guitars I've worked on -- and I've worked on a good number of them both for resale and for customers. This one is both in better shape than average and classier than average. It also has a very fingerpicking-friendly, sweet and warm and woody tone with great sustain and ringing harmonics. A lovely little 'hog guitar!

It sports a solid-mahogany body with a (poplar?) v-shaped neck and faux-rosewood (dyed pearwood?) fretboard and headstock veneer. The original bridge was missing so I replaced it with a rosewood one from my parts bin. Other work included a neck reset, fret dress, light cleaning, new ebony bridge pins, tuner lube, and small hairline crack drop-fills to the back of the guitar. Except for those noted repairs, the guitar is crack free and the finish is in weather-checked but beautiful shape and gleams.

This has the cool "Gumby" headstock which is also bound. Note that the nut is probably a replacement and is rosewood. I reused it instead of making a new bone one because it looked nice on it and I actually prefer wood nuts.

Smallish frets. Note the cool aged binding and the MOP/diamond-y inlay.

This has very cool "Larson-esque" inlaid marquetry purfling and rosette in a brown/tan/blue arrow motif -- very nice and very a-typical for these guitars (they're usually plainer purflings).

The decal is in excellent shape.

This dark new rosewood bridge not only looks great and proper with this guitar, its somewhat bellied design and longer than normal wings help reinforce the ladder bracing of this guitar's top. I'm using 48w-10 DR Sunbeams on this to keep tension down and tone up.

Hah! And a surprise decal on the BACK too! Combined with the gorgeous mahogany and bound top and back these decals really pop out.

...and a pressed-in leaf pattern on the rear of the headstock. And, oh yes, this headstock is "half-slotted" so you get the strength of a solid headstock with the cool looks and non-protruding tuner shafts of a slotted one.

Now that the neck is reset it's perfectly good to go.

Fun decal on the back.

Still, more gorgeous 'hog on the sides!

These tuners are also replacements, probably German-made around 1955 or so. They're good quality and look nice on the guitar.

And a nice end-strip with original wood button, too!

c.1900 Puglisi Reale & Figli Italian-made Bowlback Mandolin

2012-01-20T16:09:00.004-05:00

From what I recall, these Puglisi mandolins were regarded as pretty typical Italian export mandolins. This one fits that bill, though to be honest the tone is far better than any of the other general Italian mid-grade mandolins I've worked on -- instead of spidery and thin on the bass side this one is very full and rich throughout its range with great focus. It reminds me more of a Martin or Vega flatback as opposed to what I generally expect from Italian bowlbacks (very focused on the mid and high end to the detriment of the G course). This probably has to do with its slightly wider-than-normal body and very light build.

My work included a reglue of a crack on the neck (a hairline with the grain on the neck), some seam reglues towards the tailpiece, a fret dress, cleaning, new compensated bone bridge, replacement (1920s) tailpiece from my parts bin, tuner lube, and setup. While there's a little warp (maybe a hair under 1/32"?) to the neck on the treble side (and maybe 1/64"?) on the bass, it's still a comfortable player due to the shorter scale (13") and the extra-light strings.

I have it tuned down a step (FCGD) at the moment as well, since I only had 32w-9 strings on hand and I generally prefer 28w-9 for tuning fully to pitch on old Italian bowls since they're so fragile.

What's extra cool about this mandolin in particular is that the inlaid "butterfly" on this one is actually a moth! It has a pearl center and head and wings of black, etched celluloid? methinks and cream celluloid background. It's a very elegant and classy looking thing that suits the simplicity of the rest of the design.

Woods are -- spruce top, Brazilian rosewood bowl, and rosewood-veneered neck and headstock with a rosewood fretboard.

This has a zero fret, but as typical for old zero frets, this one was a little tall so I had to slot it like a nut anyway for proper action height. Bone nut is original, though. Tuners are 1920s/30s American replacements.

Big MOP dots in the board look cool. Note the fractured binding on this edge bit, too -- the binding has damage in a few spots but the top itself is stable.

Really gorgeous. Note also the maker's stamped-in mark on the top below the bridge.

The rosewood is nice on this as well. I had to glue up a few seams on this, though someone beat me to a few of them before I got it.

I didn't have a tailpiece cover for this one so I muted the strings from under their "extra length" instead.

Ephemera: Russian Folksters

2012-01-15T16:12:00.003-05:00

I'd be down with hearing this trio in my livingroom -- a balalaika, what appears to be a c.1920s German gut-stringer guitar, and a fiddle? Not bad! Anyone want to chime in with the approximate date on this? I'd guess vaguely 1950s but I'd probably be wrong.

c.1930 Stromberg Voisinet Hawaiian-decal Parlor Guitar

2012-01-13T13:17:00.005-05:00

If you've been following the blog for a while you may have noticed several other Kay (Stromberg Voisinet until 1931) instruments very similar to this one. This solid-mahogany bodied, ladder-braced, slightly-smaller-than "O" sized guitar was a mainstay of the company's guitar lineup from the mid-20s through the 30s. While I assume many were used for Hawaiian-style lap "steel" play (this one, too -- as it had the "number" learning system from the era written at each fret position) these are really put to best use as regular "Spanish" style guitars.

The necks on these are v-shaped, 1 3/4" at the nut and have flat-profile fretboards -- but unlike other company makes (Regal in particular) the v-shaped neck is much nicer on the hands for extended play, especially if you're playing chords up and down the neck.

Unlike this (click for link) and this (click for link), this model has a poplar rather than mahogany neck with a regular "slotted" headstock instead of the more-often seen gumby, half-slotted headstock. It also has a plain-style dyed-maple fretboard instead of the more usual pearloid one and is less fancy in some ways (less binding) but fancier in others (fun screw-on pickguard).

My work on this instrument included this new rosewood bridge, crack repair to the bass side and a hairline repair on top lower bout as well as a fret dress and full setup. The bridge pins (dyed hardwood with MOP dots) are all original save one, which is an identical same period match from my parts bin.

This decal is in spectacular shape compared to a lot of these. Note the sailboat above the treble bridge wing and the lighthouse above the bass bridge wing.

Original bone nut. I lubed the tuners and they function perfectly.

Brass frets, MOP dots... dead straight neck. Action is just as perfect as you can ask for an old 12 fretter with a flat board -- 3/32" from fret at the 12th.

This screw-on pickguard is more typical of '30s Kays and I'm guessing it was original factory hardware as it looks the part. Note the cool marquetry inlaid rosette and top purfling.

Here's that bridge. I like this wide, thin style of repro bridge -- they're new old stock West German bridges I get off of eBay and compared to other belly-bridges available on the market these look much more natural with old Harmony, Kay, and Regal makes from the '20s and '30s. Despite the fact that many of these guitars used straight, rectangular bridges, I feel that belly bridges are a good safe addition when an original bridge is damaged or missing as they really do help to stabilize a ladder-braced top from warping and excessive pull from steel strings.

Really pretty solid mahogany body. The mahogany gives a balanced, warm, and woody tone with mellow high end and tight bass.

Steel plates, brass shafts and gears. Nice!

I clamped this crack up perfectly before going to bed but unfortunately it settled slightly while I was asleep. This happens once in a while -- the repair is solid but not perfect visually. This usually happens because some chips out of the wood have occured on the edge of the crack over years of neglect... which is the case, here.

Nice back, too.

The neck set was good to go upon arrival.

...and it has a dilapidated, but "good for dust cover and storage" use original case.

Workshop: Multitasking

2012-01-12T23:35:00.001-05:00

Here's what happens when one repairs cracks, glues a new bridge, and does a fret dress all at the same time...

c.1930 Italian-made Gallesi Tenor Banjo

2012-01-12T14:41:00.007-05:00

This is a customer's tenor banjo I just finished up work on last night. It's definitely of Italian origin and probably from the mid-30s or maybe even post-war in the '40s. It has a typical Italian-style build with its shorter (19") scale, zero fret and "zither-style" resonator/rim/floating head design, but slightly better design and construction overall vs. similar banjos made later in the '50s and '60s.

The neck is mahogany with a dyed-something fretboard. Note the oft-reglued plastic nut and also the zero fret.

The pearl dots have disintegrated here and there but give a nice lived-in sort of charm. Note that I've dressed and leveled these frets. The neck has a hair of warp overall but the action is still nice and very fast. I've set it up for DGBE tuning per the customer's request with 32w, 24w, 17, 11 strings.

Cool old head. The design of this puts the bridge right in the middle of the head which gives it more oomph and good bass response despite a smaller head size vs. typical American tenors.

The bridges that came with the banjo were too tall but this 1/2" Grover tenor bridge fit perfectly.

See that adjustable little wheel/round mechanism? A number of those adjust to grab the internal wall of the resonator/rim assembly... so you can adjust pitch/angle/height of the whole head/tension assembly which makes setting this up quite easy. In fact I had to set the whole thing at an angle because the neck joins the pot on a slant which meant that unless I cut an angled bridge action height would have been weird across the strings.

Note that the pot is also made entirely out of mahogany with a nice warm/deep lustre. The walls of the pot are 2-ply solid wood and quite strong.

These geared tuners make life so much easier in the tuning department!

"Gallesi" is stamped in the heel.

...and an adapted Italian-style mandolin tailpiece completes the design.

...with super-cool case, too!

The original owner must have made this wrist-rest/pickguard piece but unfortunately he/she cut it too big, so I had to remove it to get proper action -- otherwise the strings would bottom out on it about halfway up the fretboard.

And here's a Grover-ish Italian maple/ebony bridge from the case. Cool!

c.1965 Harmony-made H929 Stella Guitar

2012-01-12T14:23:00.004-05:00

Ah, yes, the everyman's model H929 "Stella" branded parlor-ish sized student guitar. All solid birch, flattop, ladder braced, sturdy, simple -- and when actually setup properly -- not a bad playing or sounding little instrument at all. In fact, I know I've recently seen a number of younger touring musicians using these and similar all over the place.

In 1939 (correct me if I'm wrong) Harmony bought out Oscar Schmidt and brought the OS brand names (Stella, Sovereign, La Scala, etc.) under their own umbrella. In the same year, this model's slight model-number predecessor became available under the Stella name (note that the Oscar Schmidt Stella instruments are entirely different beasts). Since 1945 this model remained relatively unchanged right up to the 1970s and was several generations' first student guitar.

While the factory setup might not have been ideal, many of these guitars (after work) turn into great little take-anywhere workhorses with a bluesy, loud, and mid-rangey tone. These same attributes actually make them great recording guitars as well, since their tonal response is so balanced and flat.

My work on this one included cleaning, a fret dress, setup, and a replacement bridge as well as a few tuner shafts/gears.

The "steel reinforced neck" (steel bar) on this one is perfectly straight, thank the gods. The 24" scale coupled with the 50w-11 string set I have on this fella make a nice 1930s-sort of feel when mixed with the wider, 12-fret style neck.

Fun pseudo-deco painted fret marks and faux-rosewood board. Brass frets.

The white pickguard isn't my first choice of color but works with this instrument's faux-woodgrain top.

The bridge is a random bone mandolin one from my parts box that I popped in to start seeing what height would be right for a new bridge. Well... it sounded just fine so I added some slots for proper guitar spacing and left it like that.

Note the faux-grain on the back, too.

These 3-on-a-plate tuners show evidence of "parts-ing out" in that when I got the guitar, 3 shafts were completely missing and two of the remaining ones had been replaced with mismatched ones. Now it has 6 mismatched shafts, all from about the same era. Fortunately... they work "good enough for government work."

Hah, here's an old "repair" -- bolt through the neck heel and tightened up on the inside. Fair enough...! I expect to see stuff like this on these old student guitars... and more often than not the repair works well (as it does here) though it of course adds some weight.

There a repaired crack on the bass side as you can see here.

...and, as typical, the end pin is broken off inside its socket.

Ephemera: Suited Guitar Stylings (c.1940)

2012-01-10T09:46:00.002-05:00

This fella's playing a late-30s Harmony-made guitar with all the period's trappings -- mother of toilet seat (celluloid) fretboard, fancy decals, probably a brownish-red sunburst top, crazy pearloid pickguard, and -- hey -- what else? These guits sounded pretty nice, too. Note that this guitar has the more familiar '40s/'50s style Harmony 12-fret body while it features cosmetics from the '30s -- definitely a transition instrument.

Video: Gibson PB-JR Banjo Conversion

2012-01-08T16:42:00.001-05:00

c.1925 Gibson PB-JR (?) Plectrum Banjo Conversion

2012-01-08T14:48:00.004-05:00

Essentially identical in construction to this mid-20s Gibson Mando-Banjo Junior (click for link) I worked on for a customer, this long-necked Gibson "Junior"-style instrument was originally a plectrum banjo model with 4 strings. I'd been looking for a banjo just like this to convert to a 5-string, but with all the strings running over the nut (rather than with a 5th peg "hump"). I had a nice Vega plectrum for a while I was considering this mod on but wanted a lighter-weight instrument.

I love playing 5-string banjo in group, but I always get frustrated with railroad spikes, multiple capos, and whatnot to play in various guitar-friendly keys, so running all the strings from the peghead makes sense as I can just pop one banjo capo on the neck and I'm immediately in a different key.

This is a rarer instrument, but fortunately not as valuable as most Gibson banjos since it's very simple and spare: no tonering, just a wooden shaped-top rim -- very plain inlays (just MOP dots for position) -- but a full 2 octave scale with a good thick rosewood board and fast playability. You can see the extra (old) slots in the ebony nut still, but I'll be sanding that down for looks soon.

I'm not worried about extra string tension because this plectrum neck is rather thick front to back, perfectly straight, and I always use really light gauge strings. I have it tuned to "standard" G with 08, 20w, 13, 10, 09.

In person you can see some cool streaking in the rosewood board. Looks really pretty. The MOP is real bright on this 'jo, too. Frets are typical thin, low, and fast old Gibson style.

I think that fretboard extension is way classy. Also, when slapping the capo up at the 7th and 9th frets you still have an octave+ to play in. The narrowness of the string spacing isn't a problem with me -- feels like those skinny-necked Asian banjos from the 70s but way faster since there's no "hump" to run into.

I'm not sure on the originality of this tailpiece, but it's certainly been on the banjo a LONG time judging from the wear at its mounting point. When this banjo came to me it also had a home-made resonator attachment which I've stowed away for safe keeping.

Double coordinator rods and a multi-lam maple rim and maple neck give this banjo incredible strength and a sweet, lingering, decently loud old-timey voice. I love the tone. Almost all the hardware is original to it -- I had to add 4 washers on the inside and a bridge but otherwise it was all there.

Note that I actually had a very similar tuner in my parts box. I'll be getting around to swapping out that washer on the middle one for something like the others pretty soon. I put this all back together in the wee hours last night so I wasn't in the mood for hunting toooooo much.

...and you can see I've already popped on one of my vintage straps.

Here's the funky Gibson label inside. Probably was a gold foil-y thing originally.

Hah, and yes, an original Rogers head, too. Rim is 10 1/2" which is exactly the size I like in my lap. 11" rims always feel too big to me.

...and best of all, it has another of my favorite ingredients in old banjos... a wire-style armrest. NICE!

Yessir, I'm in love with it. I'll be posting some YouTube selections soon enough with it. Haven't been on the tube with a banjo in ages.

Ephemera: Three Ladies (c.1900)

2012-01-05T21:56:00.002-05:00

Guitar, autoharp, and fiddle. Nice! Note that the guitar looks German in origin and from around the same time -- late 1800s to early 1900s. Autoharps were pretty darn new when this lady was playing one, so that's quite the fancy assortment of instruments these three have.

c.1938 Kay-made Oahu Volu-Tone Spanish Electric Guitar

2012-01-05T14:39:00.005-05:00

Kay made these electrified archtop-body "Spanish" guitars for Oahu from 1937-1939, hence my "1938" date. These are among the first generation of true production electric guitars (not lap steels) and have that hollowbody, jazz box sound and feel in spades.

This one had a number of things needed to be addressed when I got it: neck needed to be reset, it needed a fret dress, new bridge, new nut, and the pickup's (presumably for shielding?) "wings" needed to be taped back up so they didn't rattle or fall out. While I did that work I also replaced the old end pin jack (a screw-on style) with a new Switchcraft acoustic-style endpin jack and installed a strap button as well.

The result is a decent-playing, very cool, very rare, and stylish instrument perfectly suited to blues, old-timey jazz and swing, and for that matter... anything an electric player might want for that different, '30s and '40s jazz-box sound.

Crack-free instrument and bound on the top, back, and fretboard. The sunburst is pretty cool as well. Everything but the neck is laminate, though even with the lighter-gauge electric strings and 1/2 lb pickup installed, it still manages to have a pretty loud and decent acoustic tone with good projection.

New bone nut, cool Oahu decal.

MOP dots in a rosewood board. Nickel-silve frets are dressed. These old Kay-built archtops have a 25 7/8"-ish scale which means that they often have neck warp issues as the long scale coupled even with regular lights (54w-12) means a lot more tension than on a more normal 25 to 25 1/4" scale.

This one is no exception and has a 1/32" warp down its length. I managed to reduce the "feel" of that warp in terms of playability by leveling the frets more closely at the nut and neck join (so the action is 1/8" at the 12th) but it's still there and means this doesn't play super-fast but plays fast enough. Feels essentially like playing a typical old acoustic but springier.

Very cool radio-dial bakelite buttons and dial plates.

Such a profusion of fiery tortoise celluloid! Note the individual pole piece style pickup.

Rather than slap on a regular repro adjustable rosewood bridge, I cut this compensated one out of a scrap piece of ebony in my box of wood bits. I tend to think these one-piece bridges add a heck of a lot more in the way of tone to old archtops, but they sure are more of a bother to make and install.

Sturdy tailpiece.

The "look" of the guitar is too cool. It reminds me of some old sci-fi robot.

These appear to be later tuners (1950s/60s) but work just fine.

Here you can see the new standard-style Switchcraft jack and also a newly-installed strap button.

...and it even has a grungy original case.

Ephemera: Bicycle-Powered Band (c.1915)

2012-01-03T20:59:00.000-05:00

I think the title explains it all...

c.1916 Larson-made Stahl Flatback Mandolin

2012-01-02T17:12:00.006-05:00

This is a William C Stahl-branded flatback mandolin that was almost certainly made by those famous Chicago Swedes, the Larson Brothers, around 1915 or so (the label inside has February 17, 1916 handwritten on it). This style of flatback mandolin, with its tight-grained gorgeous spruce top and rosewood back and sides, is very close to Lyon & Healy's "L.H. Leland Brilliantone" instruments, which are also known to have been made by the Larsons -- thooooough -- this model is a bit fancier than the Lelands.

Stahl instruments are also well-connected to Larson lore so it's all a good fit.

As one would expect, the workmanship is phenomenal and after necessary work it plays very well, is very loud, and has a beautiful wide-ranging tonality which fits perfectly in old-timey, Classical, and Celtic-y genres but probably doesn't have the honk needed for bluegrass.

This instrument's original tailpiece was damaged and missing its cover, so my first bit of work was to recover this (slightly later) tailpiece from my parts bin, which looks pretty decent with the instrument. This mando had also been "oversprayed" with some sort of ugly varnish, so my next task was to lightly sand down to the original layer and then polish up the finish all over until I was back to a more period look -- and I can say that it looks quite nice, now, with that hand-finished and polished look I expect from these.

After that, a cleaning, fret dress, slight bridge recutting, and setup brought it back to peak performance.

Very pretty rosewood headstock veneer. Original bone nut.

Bound ebony fretboard with pearl dots. The fretboard extension tipped ever so slightly "up" towards its end, but the fret dress I did on it leveled the frets out so the action is ideal and playability is, too.

Cool Stahl label.

This bridge is actually dyed rosewood with a one topper and is original.

Note the fun Chicago-style marquetry purfling/rosette. This was more vibrant when it was made (originally had bright green and red and yellow) but has aged in to these nice amber tones.

The inlaid celluloid tortoise pickguard is real cool, bowlback style. Note the tiny pickguard crack to the bass side of the guard. Perfectly stable and not-through.

Not the best tailpiece but works far better than the (broken) original -- which would have been a "cloud" style two-piece unit.

This is just a lovely instrument to both look at, play, and listen to. It's got it all.

Bound top, back, and soundhole, as well as fretboard.

Inset tuners with a cover hold up a lot better than mated-to-the-rear ones and also look stylish. The knobs follow the curve of the headstock and are ivoroid.

A typical Larson-style heel where the back goes right over the neck block area. This makes for a really secure joint. Note also the slight leavings of the "overspray" varnish which I've mostly removed. It was thicker on the back so it's much more visible there than anywhere else as I didn't want to sand right down to the wood or anything like that. My goal was to sand down to the original finish layer and then polish out.

Though you can't see it, there are 3 two-to-three inch long hairline cracks on the back, all glued up. There's also a couple on the sides, also all secure.

When I removed the old tailpiece and installed this one, there was one visible old screw mount hole below the neck tailpiece. I used its placement to install a strap button with felt cushion. If the new owner finds an old cloud tailpiece to replace the original, he/she could then mount it and it and reuse this button with it.

Note also my blue foam "mute" under the tailpiece cover area. As usual, I install these to mute the extra string length to cut down on overtones. A totally optional piece of gear.

Workshop: Early Kay Guitar Pickup

2012-01-02T17:05:00.002-05:00

This is a pickup on a Kay-made "Oahu" Spanish electric guitar model (ie, regular style electric guitar) from the late 1930s, probably 38-39 or thereabouts. It's a laminated archtop body in a typical Kay-styled shape and neck profile for the time, but of course electrified with this very cool pole-style pickup.

This pickup is rather heavy and has a big old magnetic baseplate and two big magnetic blocks to either side of the "pole" center area (those blocks are to the left and right of the pole pieces with new electrical tape on them to hold them in place -- the original masking-style tape was torn and loose and dried out).

This whole bit is enclosed in a softwood box and then covered over with some tortoise-y celluloid material and suspended to the top from that.

...and here's the bottom with the connections going to the waxed-covered thick gauge wire leads.

I'm eagerly awaiting completion of this instrument and I'm sure you'll all enjoy seeing the rest of what this guitar looks/sounds like. These Electro-Spanish models are darn rare!

c.1930 Gibson-made Clark Tenor Banjo

2011-12-31T14:24:00.006-05:00

Update: After checking with Spann's Guide to Gibson (a good read), the author lists the Oriole style TB model (which this is closely related to) as only from 1927. The construction methods used on this banjo tend to agree with a '20s Gibson banjo build more than a '30s one, so a '27 date would probably make sense for this fella as well. Just my $0.02 worth.

This tenor banjo was made by Gibson for (I think) Clark's Music Center and is very similar to '30s-era "Kalamazoo Oriole" (Gibson in-house brand) tenor banjos from the time but has a "mahoghany" finish rather than natural (which most Orioles had).

The scale on this is 20 3/4" which puts it in that "17 fret" tenor category, perfect for melody players and folks who want to retune to GDAE for Celtic or old-time fiddle tune playing. I prefer the "standard" CGDA or step-up DAEB lately, though, myself as it's more fiery like a mandolin and works just as well for Celtic or old-timey stuff.

This was in pretty good shape when I received it but needed the usual work -- new head (I installed a newer 10 1/2" Remo Renaissance from my parts bin), cleaning, setup, and whatnot. It's all original save one replacement (matched) nut and a replacement (vintage) maple bridge.

Ebony nut, looks like a plain-Jane ebony fretboard that's been stained further to give it a uniform black. Note the fretboard is bound and the dots are MOP. Frets are standard thin, low Gibson style frets from the period.

Action is EFFORTLESS on this instrument, which is often the case on pre-war Gibson instruments.

Cool old maple bridge has what looks like an early plastic-y saddle installed in it.

Fun mandolin-style cloud tailpiece. I love the look of these on banjos.

Renaissance heads are the best of both worlds -- very stable like a synthetic but with a crisp, warmer sound typical of really good skin heads.

Nice original, heavy-duty hardware.

Nice, simple friction pegs hold well.

The single-coordinator-rod construction elimnates the need for dowels and let Gibson make the heel of their banjo instruments thinner and smaller and thus less cumbersome vs. doweled instruments. It also eliminates the need for "dowel resets."

...so practical!

Tailpiece area.

Ephemera: Mignon Lute-a-banjo? (c.1890)

2011-12-29T16:28:00.002-05:00

Ah, what is that peculiar instrument this "gypsy" supposedly from the French opera "Mignon" supposedly playing?

5 strings, guitar-ish scale, and mandoa-ish body -- some sort of Pollman-like "banjola"-y mandoline-banjo hybrid? Either way, I like the look, but I wish I had that instrument!

c.1920 British-made Banjo Mandolin

2011-12-28T16:55:00.005-05:00

This is a British-made banjo mandolin, c.1920 or so, with a "zither banjo" style suspended-in-rim-on-brackets head mount. This rim design gives a projecting, focused, and loud sound but not a lot of bottom end -- so as expected this has a sort of spidery tight sound that cuts real well but isn't as mellow as a typical American instrument.

I worked on this same mandolin a while back for a customer, but since then its been oversprayed on the rim and headstock and the neck reverse has been refinished natural. Also, a new tie-dyed sort of head was installed (all not on my watch). I received this in a trade and did a setup on it, light fret dress, and recut a vintage bridge to be a compensated-style banjo mando bridge.

It plays great, has a fun tone, and has a wider neck which makes a lot of chord forms much more accessible up and down the neck vs. a typical 1920s neck from the time (typically only 1 1/8 or less at the nut and narrow right to the heel). This sort of feels like a Gibson mando-banjo Jr model ("MB-JR") in terms of tone and playability, but with a sort of springier shorter scale and more sustain.

The nut has a broken bit on the A string pair but the pair still has slotting room left.

Ebony boards, pearlo dots, frets are freshly dressed.

This green/swirly dyed head looks pretty snazzy on this pot.

I recut this old bridge from my parts bin with a compensated top for mandolin stringing.

Tuners work great.

I always liked the cool metal "dot" in the middle of these zither-style rims.

Fun "British Made" tag.

And it says "English Make" on the tailpiece as well. Note the typical Euro-style "strap button."

And it has its original case as well.

Brass-plate tuners work dandy.

Ephemera: Cat Party with Guitar (c.1910)

2011-12-28T16:52:00.002-05:00

Cats sure do adore music, especially when tossing back whiskey and banging out chords on an old Panormo-style guitar.

Video: Catamount

2011-12-28T04:03:00.002-05:00

Insomnia over here means you get a new video over there. Fun was had by all.

Nice stuff coming up!

2011-12-27T18:56:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone's holidays are proceeding nicely. Ours has!

There's some beautiful stuff coming up soon, including:

c.1940 Kay-made "Oahu" Early Archtop Electric Guitar
c.1925 Gibson-made "Clark" Tenor Banjo
c.1915 Larson-made Stahl Rosewood Flatback Mandolin
c.1900 Pearl-bedecked Oscar Schmidt Bowlback Mandolin
c.1910 Italian-made Moth (not b'fly!)-pickguard Bowlback Mandolin
c.1900 Italian-made Rosewood Bowlback Mandolin
c.1925 Holed-donut-y Tonering Mahogany Tenor Banjo

Video: The Wren Song

2011-12-24T19:17:00.004-05:00

Here's a very traditional old Irish song that I've slowed down from jig to waltz. Tom and I played this, Xmas in Carrick, and a set of our home-made jigs for a show on Friday. We figured we'd let some holiday fever reverberate a bit on YouTube, too...! Merry, Merry!

Ephemera: A Joyful Christmas (c.1900s)

2011-12-23T17:46:00.002-05:00

Merry Xmas, Holidays, New Year, whatnot, to you all! I'll be off until next week but you can get in touch if'n you need to via e-mail or the phone. There's a ton of "stocking stuffers" in the inventory again, by which I mean ukes.

Just a note: these silver-backed cards in this style date to the early 1900s-teens. We have a couple from I think 1908 or so.

c.1925 Oscar Schmidt Sovereign Banjo Uke

2011-12-23T16:57:00.006-05:00

Up until Harmony acquired the Oscar Schmidt brand names in the late '30s, Sovereign was that company's high-grade line of fretted instruments. This banjo uke dates from the early to mid 1920s and, while it's had a rough life, certainly lives up to the Sovereign name.

This is a good-playing, loud, and full-sounding instrument with a wider-than average fretboard which makes it very "old school uke" in terms of feel -- not the narrow banjo uke necks typical for the time.

Rather than the typical smallish uke pegs most other maker used, OS instruments typically mounted full-size Grover Champion banjo pegs, which are (as far as I'm concerned) the best of the old friction tuner designs.

My work on the uke included a fret dress, new (vintage stock, note the cool signature) skin head, cleaning, and setup. I also added a replacement bridge.

Simple vintage bridge gets the job done.

Possibly James E Long? ...though it does read "Jams" -- heh heh. I had this skin (just the right size) hanging around in the old heads bin and I figured this signature front and center would be kind of cute.

Note the Vega-ish style tonering -- almost like a Little Wonder with a hoop ring in a half-spunover sleeve. This imparts loud, bright, but also balanced and crisp tonality... with a warmer undertone

Neck is three-piece and looks like a plain maple or similar and either ebony or an ebonized wood?

Rim has an ebony "rim cap" and some inlaid striping. Rim also looks like maple to me.

Here's the Sovereign stamp.

...and here's the weird part! The original neck brace was missing and someone had done some "aftermarket" attempts to get the neck on the pot well. This included (1) the big screw which uses a key as its washer and (2) a replacement neck-brace, though the replacement brace didn't have either of the ebony shims needed to make it work when I got the uke.

It's a cute looker, too, with some worn-in charm. The fretboard and nut are ebony, as well, by the way -- I think I forgot to mention that.

...and a non-branded "No Knot" style tailpiece.

c.1925 Lyon & Healy "Mauna Loa" Concert Banjo Ukulele

2011-12-22T14:38:00.007-05:00

While the headstock playfully calls this a "Mauna Loa" brand instrument, this is a Lyon & Healy affair, similar to their mid-grade American Conservatory model "tenor banjo ukuleles" from the time. This is what they considered tenor scale (15.5" which is somewhere between concert, and tenor, really) on an 8" pot. The materials weren't as fancy on this model as on the higher-end Washburn-branded instruments, but it certainly has a powerful, excellent tone, and after restoration is a fantastic player.

My work included installation of a replacement (vintage) skin head, replacement (vintage, ivoroid buttoned!) set of tuners, replacement bridge (vintage, yes), replacement tailpiece (also vintage!), some replacement (again, vintage!) hooks/nuts/shoes for the rim, and of course the usual cleaning, fret dress, and setup.

These longer-scale banjo ukes are rare on the marketplace and rare in general. They offer a uke player excellent fret access, lots of volume, and a fine tone that is distinctively different and more "professional" in sound (ie, more sustain and better note separation) compared to a regular soprano-scale banjo uke (which tend to have a plucky, mellow quality which is also nice).

Cool pressed headstock logo.

Keep in mind that a lot of the "Mauna Loa" branded instruments hail from the '20s but there are a number of plastic ukes, made by a totally different maker and brand, under the "Moana Loa" label from the '50s and '60s.

Fretboard is some sort of dyed hardwood. Nickel-silver frets, MOP dots.

The "new" vintage head looks perfect with this instrument.

I used this parts-bin maple bridge because it's so thin and transmits string energy quite well.

Ah, yes, and build: plain-Jane maple neck, laminated-maple rim, with birdseye maple veneer on its outer edges. A lot of the hardware is original to the rim, including the very cool L&H-patent round shoes.

The original tuners were all gone but one so I installed these cobbled-together banjo-style friction tuners with ivoroid buttons from my parts bin. This is actually an upgrade as the long stems make turning these much easier!

Get a load of that resonator! SO COOL! It's a solid brass plate that's had layers of gobbledy-goo painted and plopped on in this fun sort of embossed-looking pattern. And... red/olive green-gold -- what better to go with maple?

There's definitely a bunch of wear to this instrument but it sure looks cool.

Here's a simple "model A" banjo tailpiece I rescued from my parts-bin for this uke.

c.1925 Dayton Banjo Ukulele

2011-12-22T11:54:00.006-05:00

Dayton brand instruments are hard to find -- there weren't a lot of them made -- and are of nice quality, if a little rough around the edges visually here and there. Their banjos are quite well respected especially since they use block-rim construction (where the rim is glued from many small blocks and then turned) which is quite heavy-duty and imparts great tone.

This sweet little banjo has some hardware grunge but has survived quite well. It looks like the heel we repaired at one point in the past, but my work on it was the usual: cleaning, fret dress, hardware de-gunking (where possible), replacement bridge (from the parts bin), replacement tuners (new style Grovers), and a setup. I also installed a replacement head on this one since the original was torn to shreds.

Ebony headstock veneer and ebony board and nut.

MOP dots, nickel-silver frets.

I used as slightly thicker skin to tone down the instrument somewhat. Daytons generally use pretty big tonerings and coupled with the heavy-duty rim that can mean harsh sound. This head makes it sound perfect -- sweet and bell-like and mellow but with incredible volume.

The bridge is straight maple or birch and works well with gut/nylon strings.

Here you can see that block rim design a bit. Also note how the hooks go into holes in the edge of the tension hoop -- nice touch! I want to say this instrument is made from mahogany and walnut but I honestly just can't be sure exactly what it is with the dark stain.

Good-sized heel.

The neck is attached to the rim Gibson-fashion with a single coordinator rod. I love this rugged design. No fuss!

And there's the nameplate!

The worst-rusted bit is the tailpiece, but it still functions just fine.

Ephemera: Banjo Uke Chair Climber (c.1925)

2011-12-22T11:51:00.001-05:00

That banjo uke looks like a typical 1920s-30s cheapy Sears-sold instrument. Looks like it's getting good use, here, though! Check out that outfit!

c.1925 Regal Flamed Mahogany Soprano Ukulele

2011-12-22T11:39:00.003-05:00

Here's yet another one of these beautiful flamed Cuban mahogany Regal sopranos from the '20s. If you've watched the blog for a while you've seen a number of these -- simply put, because I hunt for them. They're some of the nicest bang-for-buck sopranos I have certainly ever played and worked on and are made from top-flight wood as well.

This one had some work done on it previously: the neck had been reglued and the bridge had been reglued. I shored up a little of that, cleated and filled a hairline top crack to the treble side of the bridge, gave it a fret dress, cleaning, and setup. All good to go!

These ukes have a loud, strong sound with a decidedly bell-like tone to them. Good sustain, clarity, and a useful balance of tonality which makes it good for a number of different playing styles are also present in these guys. I love 'em!

In addition, they simply look gorgeous. The neck is plain-Jane stained poplar (usually), but the body is flamed Cuban mahogany which, combined with a vintaged original finish, turns this beautiful orangey/red koa-ish color. It's also a fantastic tonewood.

Note that the trim on this would originally have been bright red/green/yellow and black, but most of these ukes have that color fade to warmer woody colors as they age due to exposure to sunlight. Either way, it still looks impressive!

Original frets, freshly dressed.

Gorgeous! The top/soundhole are both bound in black celluloid.

The original bridge has a chip out of one corner -- typical -- and would normally cause string seating issues. I drilled the mounting hole and slot for the string a hair deeper, though, and thus avoided having to either modify further or cut an entirely new bridge for the uke.

Incredibly flamed mahogany sides, too!

...and back! See how it looks almost like koa?

And there's the Regal label! This type of uke usually has either no label or a distributor's brand name and it's rare to find one with the actual Regal brand inside.

Workshop: Skin Heads Drying

2011-12-21T14:46:00.002-05:00

Here's a sight for sore eyes! Three banjo uke rims just received new skin heads this morning (I should say, received old ones, as I re-use torn heads from antique 5-string and tenor banjos when mounting new skins on old banjo ukes when I can, as they look oh-so-much cooler with a vintage instrument). They're drying up in front of the pellet stove in the kitchen at the moment (hence the nice orange glow).

I usually let them dry to the touch in front of the stove in winter and then simply air-dry them through the next day before stringing. As far back as SS Stewart's time there were folks telling folks what to do or not to do when mounting a new skin head. All I say, is: as long as you mount it evenly and have enough wrap above the flesh hoop, who cares how you dry it, if you put shellac on it, coat it with eggs, inscribe runes, or dance a devil's jig around it while you do it?

And as far as what note to tune such banjo head to so and so... don't even get me started.

c.2006 Alvarez RD20S12 12-String Guitar

2011-12-21T10:54:00.002-05:00

This recent Alvarez is a trade-in, and after some truss adjustment and a light setup at the nut, returned to being a good player. It's got a huge, lush sound, which has a lot to do with it having nice modern x-bracing and a solid Sitka spruce top.

There are some things about this 5-year old instrument that definitely mark it as an import -- the fretboard dips slightly after the 14th fret, there's a bit of belly behind the bridge, and the rear of the bridge has some lift... but bang for the buck, this is a great guitar if you're in the market for a 12 on the cheap. It has that big Guild-y, 12-string warm jangle in spades.

Rosewood bridge and fretboard, laminate mahogany back/sides and mahogany neck with truss.

Classy-looking pearl rosette.

This is the Regent series take on the Yairi style bridge... though it's coupled to the saddle part of the bridge which sort of defeats the point of the Yairi bridge. So I'd consider this a moustache-style traditional bridge.

High gloss finish is excellent everywhere.

Individual sealed tuners make the headstock a little heavy but sure are accurate.

Just a simple workhorse.

Ephemera: "The Cockerels" (c.1930)

2011-12-20T19:15:00.003-05:00

Let me introduce a new post format for the coming new year...! I have the usual instrument posts, sometimes a video post, and sometimes a "clippings" post... now I'll be posting some "ephemera" pictures from now and then when I score a good "find" on the 'net. From time to time I scour the 'bay for old photos and post card images that involve instruments and then scoop up the better ones with a snapshot. So... I'll be sharing these with you as I find them.

Let's start with this cool one from the late '20s/early '30s -- it's a promo shot of "The Cockerels" -- what was then called a hillbilly or country band. Note the familiar lineup for the time that you hear on a lot of old-timey theme radio shows from the day: guitar, fiddle, and tenor banjo. If you listen carefully to many old-time records you hear a lot of tenor banjo thrown in. What makes this photo more interesting, however, is that the (Weymann?) tenor 'jo is also joined by what looks to be a National Triolian resonator guitar as well as a fiddle. Talk about volume! I'll bet these guys had a fun sound up on stage.

NEW ALBUM! "Dark Old Wind"

2011-12-17T17:08:00.004-05:00

I have a new album out! It's called "DARK OLD WIND" and is full of a lot of this year's newly-penned songs. I have it, of course, for free MP3 (high quality) download over at my website (click here for link).

In addition you can also pick up a hard copy in the form of a burned CD in these nice, hand-printed CD sleeves (recycled paper) in varying forms of the green/red and gold/green/red more artsy-ish version. The CD form's audio quality is better, even though the MP3s are 320k ones. You just can't beat hi-fidelity! At any rate, if you want to pick up a CD it's $6+2 s/h (so $8) and you can hit this button to do that:

This album was loads of fun to record. You're only hearing me on it -- I play everything and do all the singing -- but you're hearing a ton of my influences peeping out. There's old-timey, honky-tonk, Appalachia, a bit of Celtic here and there, proto-rock, folk rock, murder ballads, some Chet Atkins-y jazzy tinges around the edges, whatnot.

Let me know if you like it!

c.1890 F.O. Gutman "The Wonder Royal" Banjola

2011-12-17T16:07:00.006-05:00

While there's much debate between various (self-important?) modern makers as to who came up with and coined the name "banjola" -- the fact is that it's become the standard modern use name for a 5-string banjo neck on a wooden, mandolin-ish shaped body. There's also no doubt to the fact that these instruments have been around for a long, long time under a variety of different names. Here's a video of it:

This one, presumably made in Cleveland, Ohio by "The Royal Music Company" -- is definitely a strange, simplified knock-off of an August Pollman "mandoline-banjo" (the forebear of modern "banjola" type instruments) -- or is it just a spin-off concurrently built at the same time? In many ways, though, this instrument is much more like a cookie tin, cigar box, or old Appalachian style banjo in its construction.

First off, it's very thin, has a very small soundbox (due to the neck's "block" coming right up to the soundhole), and the neck and body as well as the top are all one single piece of wood. One would think that this would sound terrible, but like many of those funky handmade Appalachian-style banjos, it has a sort of pleasing, nasal quality to it that sounds excellent on minor tunes and vaguely dulcimer-ish.

My work on the instrument included gluing up parts of the back (the seams had separated near the neck and on the "lower bout" in places, a fret dress, replacement of one fret, replacement (maple) bridge, replacement nut (a bin-found old bone one which I recut -- it's funky enough to look sort of right), and replacement 5th peg.

Before anyone harangues me for the modern geared 5th peg -- I've had a hard time getting new friction 5th pegs recently (the only kind I typically keep around) and strangely enough, had this geared one on hand and it fit perfectly in the 5th peg hole without any reaming.

These peculiar friction tuners have adjustable tension from the TOP rather than the rear. Also, because the peghead is cut flat instead of on an angle, one needs to really make sure to load the string so it winds directly to the base of the tuner shaft, otherwise there's not enough downpressure on the string behind the nut. I may "solve" this problem yet, however, with a simple eye-hook "string tree" for the G&B strings.

Clay dots in a ?? hardwood board. Looks sort of like an inexpensive grade of rosewood. Frets are nickel-silver, though.

This was an ebony-topped maple bridge I had hanging around in my parts bin. I converted it to plain maple and recut it for this instrument and it looks the part and sounds better than a thicker bridge did. Note that, helpfully, the "maker" stenciled a "place bridge here" on the top. Convenient.

Details like these all add up to a definitely catalog-sold instrument... and the "25c for lessons" promotion in the soundhole sure seals that deal.

This has a nice sort of rustic look and sound.

The neck has a 1/32" warp to it, but it plays just fine for old-timey and clawhammer styles. I wouldn't want to do any speed picking on it up the neck, though!

The truly bizarre design element for me, personally, is that the neck is made from the same quartersawn softwood as the top of the body. While it seems stable enough (now) I would think that this would sap volume somewhat, but that hardly matters when one considers the rest of the build, I suppose.

Cute, funky old tuners.

Like on many instruments from the time, the back and neck are all painted black.

The mandolin-style tailpiece leads me to believe that steel strings were intended for this instrument. I have light gauge "09s" on it.

Here you can see how the neck "block" goes right to the soundhole. The rest of the body is cutout right from that, with a roughly ukulele-sized sound chamber cut out from the sides.

Video: Weymann Mandolute Mandolin

2011-12-16T14:08:00.001-05:00

Clippings: 1914 Bruno Harp Guitar & Mandolute Demand

2011-12-16T12:09:00.002-05:00

I haven't done a "clippings" post in a while and I thought that this clip, boasting both a beautiful Bruno-branded harp guitar and also an article about the steep demand for Weymann mandolute family instruments (see next post down, the 1916 Weymann mandolute mandolin) -- would be a nice change of pace. Cool stuff, huh?

c.1916 Weymann Style 20 "Mandolute" Mandolin

2011-12-16T11:37:00.007-05:00

Ah, here's a rare thing: a mid-teens (serial dates it to just about 1916) style 20 (that's the model number) Weymann (made in Philadelphia, PA) "mandolute" (that's their clever branding) mandolin. It's a wonderful-sounding instrument and was in really good shape when I got it. Unlike a lot of these that have been abused, this one has only two mid-size hairline cracks on the back and none on the top or sides. It's also all original save for the bridge, which is a replacement I made for it.

Followers of the blog will know I'm crazy for Weymann instruments: they're just so well built and always sound fantastic. This is no exception -- after a fret dress, cleaning, setup, etc. it plays great and sounds even better. The tone is big and nicely loud with a very sort of Vega bowlback tone -- very defined, precise, and pretty with balance throughout the spectrum. It's basically impossible to overdrive it into an ugly sound by playing hard, though it has

In many ways this is built very much the same as modern "Celtic" style mandolins... the top is a flat one that's been domed/arched over braces, as well as the back. The body is deeper and wider than a typical mandolin from the times and in an interesting fashion tapers at the tailpiece and neck block. All of these design features add up to that balanced and precise tone I was talking about.

The top is high quality spruce -- obviously played in a bit -- and features an inlaid celluloid tortoise pickguard as well as rope binding, green/maple purfling and an attractive inlaid rosette.

Rosewood headstock veneer, original bone nut, looks like a dyed maple (or pearwood like on Langes?) fretboard with smallish vintage-style frets.

MOP dots. Note that the fretboard extension is raised from the board just like on Gibsons from the time. This violin-style trait gives much better access to higher frets than ordinary designs and, for me, really gives this a professional feel.

I'm so happy the green has remained nice and bright on that ring.

This is the compensated ebony bridge I made up for this instrument. It's similar to the originals but thinner for better transfer of energy. I also slightly taper the width from the bass to the treble side of it in the hopes of making better frequency response.

P.W. Cowley got this tailpiece engraved, probably upon purchase, and more than likely so it wouldn't be lost among other instruments in a mandolin orchestra!

The rope binding and stepped out "fiddle edges" are soooo beautiful. The finish is also in great shape, despite having playwear throughout. Fit and finish on Weymanns was really nice and it holds up really well.

Just a purty thing!

Here you can see those inset tuners.

Check out the flamed maple on those sides!

Enclosed tuners like these always hold up much better than the usual open geared ones from the time and very rarely need any adjustment.

The flamed maple back is sublime.

Do you see how the body gets deeper in the middle and narrower at the ends?

Tailpiece.

Cool green label in the soundhole. Also note that Weymann often stained the inside of their instruments to match the outside! Classy!

Video: Fireside Chat with my F-2

2011-12-16T01:10:00.000-05:00

c.1982 Alvarez Model 5040 Dreadnought Guitar

2011-12-15T14:57:00.005-05:00

This is a Japanese-made Alvarez 5040 model from '82. Fit, finish, build, and (after setup) playability are all great, and the sound has a nice, even (great for recording), and balanced sort of thing going on. Rosewood fretboard, rosewood bridge (with "half pyramid" style wings like on old Chicago-made parlor guitars), and synthetic nut and saddle. The body is made from incredibly flamed koa wood, but it's laminate.

I picked this guitar up locally and it still had the pickguard-protective film on it! -- though it had been played a little bit, but must've sat fairly "as new" in its case for most of its life. My work on it was a setup though I did do a light fret dressing. It's a good player with a neck that feels halfway between an electric-style thin and a Martin-style thicker type. It's very similar to the newer Martin-made models like D-16s and whatnot.

Just visually, this is an incredibly pretty guitar. Lots of snazz including doubled and tripled binding, pearl position markers and inlays at the 12th fret and headstock, and of course all the fancy flamed koa.

Koa headstock veneer on a mahogany neck. Note the pearl headstock logo.

Just trying to show off the cool tortoise binding.

Check out that back!

Tortoise heel cap, too.

Judging from the reviews online and also my own experience with older Alvarez models -- these are sturdy, well-built guitars, and excellent deals for the money. Even with its laminate top this is a great sounding instrument in the vein of older all-mahogany guitars -- very balanced through the spectrum and with good sustain.

...and it even comes with a hideous yellow-lined original chip case, too.

Updates, again...

2011-12-15T00:17:00.002-05:00

Inventory has been updated again, this time with some sound clips, too.

Also, more stuff added to the roster of "on its way" including a very cool early-electrified Oahu archtop guitar (by Kay) from the '40s and also a Stahl (by the Larsons) mandolin, spruce and Brazilian rosewood.

c.1930 Unmarked Portuguese Mandola Conversion

2011-12-14T11:47:00.006-05:00

This started out as a probably '30s era short scale (17.5") Portuguese guitar, obviously hand-made. It was cracked up on top, needed some brace regluing, and some hairline repairs as well as a fret dress and setup. It was also missing 3 of its 12 tuners with a 4th damaged. So... 8 good tuners, 4 short length, 4 long -- and then it struck me, that the relatively narrow (for a Portuguese guitar) nut of 1 5/8" would allow for a fine mandola on its frame.

So, I did the necessary repairs, fret dress, and whatnot, then cut a new compensated bridge (I tried a bone one but went with rosewood because I like the sound better on this particular instrument) and shimmed and then recut the brass nut. I also arranged the tuners more favorably (spaced better) for the new 4-course, double-strung tuning.

I also installed tiny gold MOP dots in the face of the neck (in mandolin positions) for ease of use.

And the result? A beautiful-sounding, great-playing mandola with a definitely different vibe from a typical flattop or arched/carved-top American-style offering.

I'd always thought mandolas were wonderful accompaniment instruments due to the lowered tuning vs. a mandolin but while I love the sound of traditional heavy-strung, shorter-scale mandolas for playing counterpoint and tunes in different keys, they seem a little awkward for singing with.

This one, with its plain-strung D course, deep and lightly-built, resonant body and lighter string gauges coupled with longer scale (17.5" vs. the usual 15-16" or so scale), makes a wonderful almost bouzouki sound. It's great for crosspicking (or even fingerpicking) chords behind other players but also comes out very fiery and loud when used for melody play (as one would expect of a Portuguese instrument -- they're vibrant to say the least). This has a warm, sweet voice with incredibly good sustain.

The longer scale also means that the two common mandola tunings (CGDA or up a step, DAEB which is more common in Celtic circles) can use lighter-gauge strings for proper tension. I've currently got 32w, 22w, 13, 09 strings on it which are perfect for the DAEB tuning and slightly slack (but extremely quick) for the CGDA tuning. I think perhaps a medium or heavy set of regular mandolin strings (38w or 40w, 26w, 15 or 16, 10 or 11) would suit CGDA better if the objective is pure volume.

Brass nut and typical Portuguese-style tuners. To string these up I usually take loop-end strings and attach the loop at the tuner side, then pull the string to the tailpiece and bend it over the tailpiece nib. After that I take it to a stationary small rod (I put an awl in a vice) and then twist my wraps with the remaining length around the string on that. This lets me make sure the 2nd loop is in the right place because if the strings are too loose before you put them on it means that they won't tune up to pitch as the tuner will run out of room to tune it.

Compensated rosewood bridge. Note the two big cracks on the top -- they've been filled and cleated and are stable.

The top is some sort of softwood while the back and sides look SORT OF like mahogany but I almost think it's "cigar box cedar" which tended to be Spanish cedar (the stuff used for guitar necks in the 1800s quite often and of the mahogany family -- if I recall correctly). The back and sides are paper-thin and have hairline cracks in a number of places on the sides -- all glued up and stable (some by me, some from before) but the player will have to take care not to make more as the sides are so thin that they can easily be damaged.

Nicely crafted Spanish heel keeps this instrument sturdy.

Looks like capo marks on the neck?

One piece back looks dandy.

...and an original brass tailpiece as well!

c.1919 Gibson F-2 Carved Top Mandolin

2011-12-13T18:21:00.005-05:00

A few posts back, I showed off a friend's/consignor's 1922 Loar-era F-2. This is the F-2 I bought for myself in response to falling head over heels for that one! I picked it up from Players Vintage Instruments and it arrived on Monday.

While in the mail a couple of top cracks opened up (sometimes happens during cold, dry season) and the brace below the soundhole popped unglued from one side. I dealt with those minor annoyances and then cleaned it up, gave it a light fret dress, and setup. After that -- whoosh! What a nice instrument. It doesn't have the refined, perfect voice of the Loar, but it does have the same commanding presence and more of a woody, dark tone I associate more with f-hole instruments. I like.

In addition to all that, the body profile is slightly thinner, the arch on both top and back is slightly flatter, and the build is slightly heavier. At some point a Virzi disc (a secondary soundboard, essentially) was installed internally. These supposedly mellow up an instrument and give it a broader-spectrum tonality. Whether it's working to do that or not, this instrument totally does have a sort of romantic, warm and percussive tone, with a smooth violin-sort of sound towards the top of its range.

While the original finish is still on this instrument, it's been "oversprayed" one coat at some point in its life, possibly to remove some of the crazed and crackle-y look from the finish. It didn't really accomplish that and thank goodness, because I really like that look!

Either way, the original finish has aged-in and yellowed and darkened a bit, which gives this mando a warm, deep red-brown color. The missing pickguard (presumably lost in action) outgassed as well, causing some discoloration to that side of the soundhole and fretboard extension binding.

Freshly dressed frets and a freshly polished ebony board. Love for the fingers!

And of course a nice lookin' scroll!

One thing I adore about the pre-Loar Gibs is the non-adjustable bridge. People will haggle over what they do to tone but in general I find that the tone gets darker and woodier with a non-adjustable bridge and brighter and more cutting with one.

As for woods -- mahogany neck, slightly curly birch back, birch sides, spruce top, ebony board and bridge.

The tuner shaft holes were filled and redrilled at some point to accept these very '30s-looking tuners. You can find these on '30s F-4s as I recall. I personally love the look of metal buttons so they're right up my alley.

Original tailpiece/endpin.

And its original case, too!

...with steamship shipping labels.

Inventory Update

2011-12-11T18:09:00.005-05:00

A lot of instruments have been flying out the door -- so I just updated my inventory quickly. There's a bit more stuff here than as advertised -- but it's getting thin! Of note is the incredibly nice Kalamazoo I just posted and also a circa-1930 Harmony airplane-bridge tenor guitar w/pickup from my "private stock."

Oh, and of course, the kick-tail '22 F-2 mandolin.

c.1942 Gibson-made Kalamazoo Oriole KGN-32-ish Archtop Guitar

2011-12-11T17:16:00.008-05:00

As a confessed fan of Kalamazoo guitars (these were Gibson's budget brand in the Depression era), I'm a huge fan of this guitar! The FON in the treble f-hole reads "668x 18" where the X looks like an upside-down L but maybe is just a dash? -- and the 18 is hand-written in red pencil. So, according to the hyphen-dates for factory order numbers this puts the guitar at 1942 (I think). The details of the guitar certainly conform to that year -- the book-style headstock, medium-size comfortable round neck, and various styling.

The coolest thing about this instrument is that it's got upgraded appointments compared to the nearest "factory" model -- the KGN-32 (Kalamazoo Guitar Natural) by the way of a stripe down the fretboard (often seen on Gibson-made Cromwell-branded instruments) and also binding around the fretboard and pickguard. So I suppose this could be called a "KGN-32+" or something like that.

My own personal everyday-use guitar is a Kalamazoo KG-21 (click here for blog post) from around the same time, so it was no question that I'd like the feel and sound of this instrument -- and I do! It's a bit louder and punchier than my KG-21 and has slightly less sustain (though, to be fair, the sustain is awesome on this) but otherwise is very similar in tone to the 21. The neck is slightly deeper feeling, though very much the same -- old round-neck Gibson style, which is very popular on the vintage market especially when it comes to the '40s flattops.

When this guitar came it was equipped with flatwounds and a bad setup -- and still sounded awesome. Now that I've given it a cleaning, fret dress, new John Pearse round-wounds, and a good setup, it plays like butter and sounds even better. It's also mostly original save for a newer bridge saddle -- the top bit -- which is compensated in the modern fashion -- and also a newer Tusq nut.

At one point this guitar was strung left-handed -- and has tiny screwholes in the expected places: on the waist side, by the side of the fretboard, and a very tiny hole to the bass side/top of the bridge. It also accounts for the unexpected pickwear on the bass side of the strings in the "sweet spot."

Cool book headstock sporting both the Kalamazoo brand name and also the Oriole decal!

Gorgeous giant MOP dots with a pair of smaller MOP dots at the 12th. This is a fancy-looking rig!

And I suppose I should be talking about woods, now: solid spruce (pressed) top with a sort of half-x, half-ladder fan bracing, solid flamed maple sides, mahogany one-piece neck with steel reinforcement, and a laminate flamed maple back. Board and bridge are both rosewood.

The foot is original to this bridge but the topper is a newer replacement in rosewood that's compensated for more accurate intonation.

Good-quality heavy-duty tailpiece.

Tortoise pickguard. The binding is also tortoise and is on the top and back edge.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this big blonde shows some playwear and usewear, but is stunningly pretty... and has zero cracks!

Who doesn't like flamed maple like that?

Plenty of play on this neck.

The original Kluson tuners are doing quite well and didn't even need to be lubed.

Someone had installed a strap button below the heel and later removed it. I could of course always pop one back in there -- but silly them -- it's so much better when it's in the side of the heel.

Original end-pin, too, shimmed up with that yucky old yellow tape... but period!

...and an original chip case, too! Not bad!

Coming soon...

2011-12-09T16:31:00.002-05:00

If you haven't done all your shopping (for yourself?!) I have some cool stuff that will be upcoming in the next few weeks to salivate over:

c.1940 Gibson-made Kalamazoo Oriole Archtop Guitar
(this is like a Cromwell + KGN-32 hybrid, really COOL!)

c.1930 Portuguese Guitar
(this may modded to an octave mandolin)

c.1925 Regal curly Cuban mahogany uke

c.1920 Weymann maple/spruce mandolute
(this is the mandolin size one)

c.1920 possibly Bacon? tenor banjo w/donut-y tonering

c.1895 Cleveland Royal Works banjola
(this is a mandolin-body/5-string banjo neck hybrid)

...and more, of course, that don't come to mind!