1st use of plastics in Luthiery 1900?

[krishna]

Just off the Handel tuners thread on Post A Pic, and the tuners ARE plastic ,not bone, and 1st appeared on the Gibson mandos very early. Is this the 1st use of plastic on string instruments? I bet Charlie D knows a bit about this...What about binding use...Kerry

[Luthier Vandross]

There was a general change around 1920. I am not exactly sure when celuloids became available.

Handel tuners are not 'plastic', some of them are a white bake-lite material, some are ivory, and some are bone.


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[Eugene]

...but most "Handel" buttons were ivoroid, a celluloid. #Celluloid was registered as a trademark in 1870. #I don't know its first appearence in musical instruments, but tortoise-colored celluloid was definitely replacing the shell of hawksbill turtles in the later 1880s. #Real tortoise shell had virtually disappeared from musical instrument construction by the beginning of the 20th c.

[krishna]

Anyone else care to chime in?

[Luthier Vandross]

Most of these things are probably best answered in books, like Longworth's Martin history.. I am a technician, who pays some attention... Mike was an historian, who paid attention.

Figure whenever it says Martin did something, the other's had been doing it at least 10-15 years. ;)


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