OME mandolins

[John Kasley]

There is an ad in the Cafe classified right now, someone looking to trade a Gibson F9 for an OME "F5 style".
I'm not aware of such an animal. I have seen and played a couple of ODE A models (with f holes) and understand they were made by Givens.
I'd appreciate knowing more about OME mandolins. What years were they made, who made them, how rare are they, current value, etc.

ODE/OME is pretty well known in the banjo world. ODE was the company/brand name before it was sold to Baldwin and thereafter Gretsch. Chuck Ogsbury, the owner of ODE, started up OME after his non-compete agreement expired.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I only heard the song....OME on the Range.

[jefflester]

There was one in the classifieds several years ago.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...d.php?p=166403

Jim Richter (edit: Hilburn) wrote (see post #14): "I'd like to know where Ome #1 is. It was an all black F and the only F with the Ome name on it. Add to that the fact that Nugget made it and you have a very rare bird."
(and it showed up in the classifieds)

[Ken Berner]

I'm not sure if the ODE A-style mandolins were built by Mr. Givens; my understanding is that they were probably built with his innovations in mind by someone else. Am I confused again?!

[JimRichter]

I don't think I wrote that about the Ome F5. That probably was Jim Hilburn.

A little over 5 years ago I had an Ome A5 on approval from Mandolin Brothers. The legend was that Mike Kemnitzer (Nugget) built it. That was Stan Jay's hyperbole. In truth, Nugget, I think, only built 3 Ome mandolins (one of which is in the hands of Andra Faye of Saffire). He did set up the tooling for Ome as well as cut some inlays for around the first 20 instruments. The one I had had Nugget cut inlay.

Givens was associated with Tut Taylor and Ode--not Ome.

Jim

[jefflester]

I don't think I wrote that about the Ome F5. That probably was Jim Hilburn.

Ooops, corrected.

[Spruce]

I'm not sure if the ODE A-style mandolins were built by Mr. Givens; my understanding is that they were probably built with his innovations in mind by someone else. Am I confused again?!

Everyone is confused about the topic of Ome mandolins, including those who were involved...

Here's a pic of an Ome A5 I have kicking around here somewhere...
Nice little mandolin....

[jimbob]

All I know about OME mandolins is that there was an A floating around for sale for a while. I tried to buy it, but they wouldn't deal....I figured it would have been a nice catch based on Jim Hilburn's story related to his OME and how nice OME banjo's are.

[Jim Hilburn]

Here's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
In '75 someone told me they had started making mandolins at Ome in Boulder. They moved their shop about every 2 years and at this time they were in a warehouse/industrial building right behind the dinner theater out by 55th and Arapahoe (for you Boulderites). I went out there and they had #1 and 2 freshly lacquered.

#1 was the all black F and #2 was a sunburst A. I couldn't afford the F anyway ( actually I couldn't afford either of them) and the A was the one with the sound. It was very strong and I started hatching the plan of how to get the $.
I had brought along my old Gibson A which I thought was the best sounding instrument ever made, but of course I had never played a decent f-hole mandolin. There was no comparison.

I don't remember who I talked to about them, but there was a guy carving one of those fancy resonators they make who was paying a lot of attention to what was going on. I later learned he was Mike Kemnitzer. He had built those 2 and also #3 sometime later. At the same time he was setting up shop to go out on his own and was making Tim's A at about the same time. I think he had built a couple others on his own before this, one being Ed Neff's.

I sold my Jeep so I could buy the mandolin and learned much of what I know on it. But once I made my first mandolin, I foolishly sold it, even though i made $100 on the deal. I would guess it's still around the Denver area but I've never heard about it again.
I think Paul Schneider of Summit built many of the other Omes. The one in Bruce's pix at least has the Nugget style floral inlay and may have been cut by Mike.
The black F did show up for sale around her about 3 years ago and I doubt anyone knew it was really a Nugget.

[MikeEdgerton]

...The black F did show up for sale around here about 3 years ago and I doubt anyone knew it was really a Nugget.

They probably do now

Great historical information, thanks for sharing it.

[Spruce]

Great historical information, thanks for sharing it.

Here's some more for the history book....

Awhile back, there was an Ome for sale at (I think) Mandolin Brothers...
Here 'tis.

Here is the description of the pictured mando:

"88-2416 Ome (used, c. early 1970s) f-hole, A-style mandolin, sunburst top, sides and back, in very good condition with newer stripped rectangular hard shell F-5 case.

This mandolin, according to various sources, was made during a period that Mike Kemnitzer was working as supervisor of the Ome mandolin division in the early '70s. It is said that about 50 Ome A-style mandolins were made. One Michael Kemnitzer was hired to be in charge of that division and the first 35 mandos were made while, it is purported, he was at the helm. After he left, legend has it that the staff finished the remaining 15 pieces, whose production he had guided. We do not want to fail to mention the number "20" that is stamped or roll-marked on the back under the bass-side soundhole. If it was mandolin #20 out of 50 then this, indeed, if you can stand another alliteration, clinches the Kemnitzer connection. This pear-shaped package of perfection has an ebony fingerboard inlaid in the banjo style with mother-of-pearl diamonds, etched parallelograms, pitchforks, S-shapes and scrolls; the peghead is inlaid "OME" in stylized script with a large flower and vine below. There is an adjustable truss rod represented by a black un-bordered cover. The bridge is two-piece, ebony; adjustable to match ebony creme bound board. The tailpiece cover is plain gold-tone, slide-on; the fingerboard is elevated, the top is bound in white-black-white, as is the headstock and back. There is a small, probably added, strap button sticking out of what would be the heel cap if it were separate, but said cap is an integral part of the birds eye maple two piece back. The neck is flame maple, three-piece. Tuners are etched/filigreed backplate simple units with pearloid buttons. There are typical chips, nicks, dings, and signs of use overall and additional finger-wear on the on back of neck which is also finger-worn. We feel that the back of the neck was oversprayed, over the visible wear. In our opinion this mandolin says Mike Kemnitzer (later the founder and builder of Nugget Mandolins) all over it. The big neck shape, the huge tone and induplicable volume (some mandolin players who own them are sent out in the hallway to play during recording sessions) are hallmarks of the N-word and, as well, of this superb mandolin. $3608 or at our cash discount price $3500. "


OK, Here's Mike's take on that mandolin (above) in his own words:

"I don't believe the Ome mandolin pictured is one of the prototypes I made. I went to work for them in the fall of 1974 after a failed attempt to set up mandolin headquarters in the the San Francisco area.

I hired on at Ome for minimum wage to keep from going back to Ohio and to learn about how they made those beautiful banjos. The owners almost immediately started talking about making mandolins and after hours I made two prototypes while they watched; an A and a black F. They were not the greatest, I was not allowed to redo anything that went wrong and they vetoed they way I wanted to do certain things. (Hey, they were paying me that minimum wage!) I worked at Ome as a regular employee for about a year, mostly shaping the heels and hand stops on necks, routing inlay pockets and doing mill work.

After quitting to pursue my mandolin making and to work in a fiddle shop, I was hired to make mandolin tooling for them, and as part of my pay and as "proof of the tooling" I made three more prototypes using Ome's wood. I personally sold those three instruments. One now resides here in Michigan near me, one is played in the group The Uppity Blues Women and the third was sold to a friend of Tim O'Brien's. In spite of what many folks were told, all the Ome mandolins except my prototypes were built after I was no longer working there. After leaving, I did hand cut thirty some sets of inlay for them, (the mandolin in question does have one of those sets). As well, after leaving I did the heel and resonator carving on their high end instruments until I moved to Michigan in 1981.

Some of those Ome mandolins are very good instruments but I had no hand in their construction. Ome deserves all the credit.

Mike Kemnitzer "



There are some pretty good threads on Omes on these pages, but the search engine doesn't want to cooperate.
For instance, if you search for "Ome Mandolin", you get:

"Sorry - no matches. Please try some different terms.
The following words are either very common, too long, or too short and were not included in your search : ome, mandolin"

Does anyone have some tips for reclaiming those Ome threads?? As I remember, there was some good history written down on those pages...

[MikeEdgerton]

There are some pretty good threads on Omes on these pages, but the search engine doesn't want to cooperate.

You just gotta know how to beat the search engine.

Well crud, I can get it to come up in my search tool but can't keep it.

Trying again:

Nope, can't get it to stay.

OK, here are the three threads found.

Here is thread one

Here is thread two

Here is thread three

[jim simpson]

I think I've posted this photo before in a previous discussion of OME mandolins. Here is an old friend (Jim Govern) playing his OME in a jam session in my hometown of Wheeling, WV. This was from the 70's. It's funny to see Mollie O'Brien in the shot as she will be in town tomorrow for a concert.

[Jim Hilburn]

I guess I don't need to keep repeating my story when it's all in the old threads, which I just read again.
But as a sidebar, I think many who have been playing mandolin in the last 20 years or less don't realize how different it was in the "olden days".
I was turned on to mandolin when I moved in next to a jugband in 1971. Up until then I was strictly about electric guitar. I took flatpick guitar lessons from a guy named Doug McKee who was the first person I knew that built his own F-5.
He told me it was the only way to get a decent mandolin because no one was making anything worth buying. Remember we were in Colorado. At that time there were several people exploring how to make an F-5, Randy Wood, Tom Morgan, John Hutto, Bob White, Bob Givens, and I'm sure quite a few more. But in the big picture it was a wasteland. It wasn't until the mid 70's that things slowly began to loosen up. In the most unlikely scenario you could imagine, Steve Gilchrist was trying to build based on the pictures on his Bill Monroe records on the coast of Australia. John Monteleone got started and Mike ended up in Boulder and began his epic journey. I happened to trip into that scene and got a crusher mandolin at a time when crushers were very rare.

[jim simpson]

I think I've posted this photo before in a previous discussion of OME mandolins. Here is an old friend (Jim Govern) playing his OME in a jam session in my hometown of Wheeling, WV. This was from the 70's. It's funny to see Mollie O'Brien in the shot as she will be in town tomorrow for a concert.

Correction: Mollie will be in town March 7th - Pine Room, Oglebay Park

[Spruce]

In the most unlikely scenario you could imagine, Steve Gilchrist was trying to build based on the pictures on his Bill Monroe records on the coast of Australia.

Those of us who were trying to build the F5 mandolin had only pictures and the 2-sheet Morgan plans to go by, till Siminoff came along in '78 (?) or so...

Juxtapose that over todays available online info (these pages especially), and it's no wonder mandolin building has taken such quantum leaps in quality and availability in the past decade...

[sl8ofHand]

I've played Andra Faye's OME...it's a great Mando...and there's a picture on the cover of her CD, 'Walkin' Home to You' (I know because I did the artwork for the CD and liner...)

Sl8ofHand (John S)

[JeffD]

He told me it was the only way to get a decent mandolin because no one was making anything worth buying. .

This is an amazing thing to consider. Because so much of what we take for granted today came out of that reality.

[Spruce]

I've played Andra Faye's OME...it's a great Mando...and there's a picture on the cover of her CD, 'Walkin' Home to You' (I know because I did the artwork for the CD and liner...)

Interesting...

You can see that cover here....
Looks a whole lot like the Ome I have here, and had for sale forever....

A real sleeper, IMHO....

[OldGus]

Here is one being played http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6W86kpVvKU&feature=plcp. They are rare.

[Jim Hilburn]

Sorry, Gus. That's a different animal.

[OldGus]

Oh that's an Ode, I was in a hurry to post because I was cooking, yeah that's it! haha sorry.