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James Miller
Feb-19-2018, 2:57am
Seen this photo of this pirate named Scrum (http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Scrum) holding an interesting looking mandolin and sort of made me wonder, what mandolin is that??

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OneChordTrick
Feb-19-2018, 3:36am
Probably a Shippey, or one from Buchanan-eer, Skipper, Moonstone or Hook?

Mike Floorstand
Feb-19-2018, 3:52am
My guess is a Fylde - built by Jolly Roger Bucknall. They have a crossbone nut and tailpieces of eight.

James Miller
Feb-19-2018, 4:04am
Think the next mandolin I get will have a slotted head similar to that. :)

Bertram Henze
Feb-19-2018, 4:07am
My guess is a Fylde - built by Jolly Roger Bucknall. They have a crossbone nut and tailpieces of eight.

That's no Fylde. Looks like some East-European/East-German thing - a slotted headstock in combination with steel strings is such a dead giveaway. More prone to breaking, more difficult to restring.

Ray(T)
Feb-19-2018, 4:08am
Probably a stolen one but certainly not one with tuning machines or bronze strings - I don't think they had been invented yet!

Steve VandeWater
Feb-19-2018, 5:20am
Probably an aarrrrr L Givens

Beanzy
Feb-19-2018, 6:58am
Apparently they had many types of pegs which always came in pieces of eight.
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David Lewis
Feb-19-2018, 7:05am
You'd think it'd be tuned to aarhh, but it B the C...

I'll see myself out.

Beanzy
Feb-19-2018, 8:20am
That not so Ahrrd if you use the right tuna, otherwise you can get in a pickle. With some rum luck you could frigate completely.

MikeEdgerton
Feb-19-2018, 8:43am
A true modern day pirate would play a fake Gibson.

JEStanek
Feb-19-2018, 8:51am
Given when pirates (like this romantic pirate era scurvy dog) were around, late 1600' to mid 1700s, a pirate would have had a bowl back mandolin. If you're not gonna go with that, play whatever you want and pirate it up!

Jamie

Seamus B
Feb-19-2018, 9:15am
I assume that this is made with a nice oscillating wood for sustain -also known as shivered timbers.

Sorry.

Bertram Henze
Feb-19-2018, 9:21am
Real pirates play electric guitar anyway.

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/17096_s_5102.jpg

mtucker
Feb-19-2018, 9:30am
More power to Scrum if he's playing that particular mandola. it's in serious need of a few extra strings and a good setup! :crying:

Timbofood
Feb-19-2018, 9:39am
This one has me stumped!
Not sure when it will be pegged....
I know... “Corner!”

allenhopkins
Feb-19-2018, 11:49am
Think the next mandolin I get will have a slotted head similar to that. :)

You will then combine the bother of the tailpiece, with the bother of threading strings through the headstock slots. Seems masochistic, but what do I know?

Dave Martin
Feb-19-2018, 12:00pm
A Gibsen, Eperphone, Colin's, Eastmen, Southfield, Breadlove, etc.

Beanzy
Feb-19-2018, 12:27pm
Maybe they couldn’t find where they buried the lute?
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DavidKOS
Feb-19-2018, 12:28pm
Whatever kind the pirates would steal from the ships they plundered.

https://www.quora.com/What-musical-instruments-are-most-associated-with-pirates-and-other-seafarers

"In the movies, I would say the squeeze box. Historically speaking, the braginho or machete, a small, 4 string, Portuguese guitar comes to mind. Portuguese sailors brought these small guitars with them to pass the time aboard ships on long journeys."

"Daniel Baker, Author of two pirate novels, various articles and short stories
Answered Apr 10, 2016 · Author has 1.6k answers and 2.6m answer views
Fiddles, hautboys (oboes), and drums are mentioned in contemporary sources. Captain Bartholomew Roberts' fiddlers were captives, forced to play by the pirates six days a week."

http://pyracy.com/index.php?/topic/10905-pirate-instruments/

"Not concertina, nor any of the accordion family. They didn't come around until the 1830s or 40s. There's a thread about that from a year or so around here somewhere.

For period instruments, there's really just the basics- fiddles, fifes and whistles, drums. And probably not in their current forms either. Hopefully a real expert will see this thread in the next few days. I know they're out there..."

"A thing to note musicians were often commandeered aboard pirates vessel for their musical skill. Pirate like to part and you can't party without music! I haven't verified it yet but there is a report of a man accused of piracy who was let off because his crewmate verified he was only a fiddler and didn 't commit acts of piracy.

Fiddles were a staple aboard ships and in the British navy fiddle music was used instead of shanties. I've seen wonderful illustrations of fiddlers standing on a capstans playing while men turn the capstan. So I don't think the sea air will harm your fiddle."

" there are several remarks of pirates attacking with blaring trumpets and beating drums to demoralize their enemy and encourage their own men."

"One other instrument that I haven't yet seen mentioned but which can definitely be placed on a GAoP era ship is the hautbois, or oboe. Woodes Rogers had them on his circumnavigation and his musicians used them to entertain some Portuguese monks with a rendition of the English dance tune Hey Boys, Up Go We."

"Slightly early, but interestnig nonetheless, the stores for Drake's last voyage (1595) included "sundry instruments of music for 8 musicians and 9 trumpeters" and 13 drums. The instruments are described elsewhere as a lute, "hobboyes sagbutes, Cornettes & orpharions bandora & suche like"."

http://www.cindyvallar.com/music.html

" Aboard Davis’ Royal Jane, quartermaster John Taylor gave one pirate a cittern, a pear-shaped stringed instrument similar to a mandolin, which he played while his fellow pirates sang. Captain William Snelgrave, who later published an account as a captive of pirates, wrote of his last night aboard Captain Davis’ ship.

Supper was brought up about eight o’clock in the evening, and the music was ordered to play, amongst which was a trumpeter that had been forced to enter out of one of the prizes. (Pringle, 259)

What other instruments were popular? Fiddles, bagpipes, drums, concertinas, lyres, and penny whistles. Roberts’ band included an oboe. While music entertained pirates, it also bolstered their courage before an attack and while fighting hand-to-hand aboard the enemy ship, while the combination of music and vaporing terrified their prey.5 Aboard one ship, a captive said the pirates practiced using their weapons “while their musicians play divers airs so that the days pass agreeably.” (Sanders, 118) One of their means of torture also employed music. When pirates captured a captain, they sometimes made him run around a mast while they jeered and prodded him with the tips of their swords and knives, and a fiddler played lively music. This torment was known as sweating, which continued until either the inflictors became bored or the exhausted captain collapsed.

While the historical record is fragmentary, we do know music played a role in the lives of pirates. How much it do so, however, remains a matter of conjecture."

So there I found it - "quartermaster John Taylor gave one pirate a cittern, a pear-shaped stringed instrument similar to a mandolin, which he played while his fellow pirates sang"

the old cittern:

http://www.cincinnatiearlymusic.com/cittern/cittern_4course_red.jpg

http://www.skinnerinc.com/auctions/2544B/lots/184

English Cittern, c. 1750

https://skinnerinc-res.cloudinary.com/images//v1446186031/895365/english-cittern-c-1750.jpg

brunello97
Feb-19-2018, 2:50pm
Maybe they couldn’t find where they buried the lute?
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That has to tie the record for the worst / best pun ever on here. :crying:

Mick

David Lewis
Feb-19-2018, 10:38pm
A Gibsen, Eperphone, Colin's, Eastmen, Southfield, Breadlove, etc.

Don't forget a Lore, or a 'Law-less' (the budget model')

Jess L.
Feb-20-2018, 5:03am
Regardless of whether or not geared tuners are appropriate for the pirate timeline, I want to know:

Why are there no buttons on the tuners? :disbelief: See zoomed-in pic below. There are only round shafts or maybe some sort of cylindrical wood or leather covering, :confused: but it doesn't look like anything the fingers could grip onto very well. At first I thought someone had lined up all the buttons to face the same direction, but upon closer inspection it looks like they're actually cylindrical, and small diameter. Was the button-less cylinder-shaped geared tuner an actual historical design at one time? (I'm thinking, "Not.") Or is it just an example of Hollywood goofing up on details when building the movie props? Click pic a few times to enlarge:

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Maybe we're supposed to assume that the instrument was so derelict that all the buttons had fallen off or rotted away. Still, the small cylindrical tuner handles don't seem very practical - did Mr. Pirate use pliers when tuning up? :confused:

Bertram Henze
Feb-20-2018, 5:52am
Was the button-less cylinder-shaped geared tuner an actual historical design at one time? (I'm thinking, "Not.") Or is it just an example of Hollywood goofing up on details when building the movie props?

A session player I know has these on his 12-string guitar. I don't know what this is supposed to achieve, but I can ask him (probably see him tonight). But he's probably not a pirate...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KIbWFhLyL.jpg

Jess L.
Feb-20-2018, 7:12am
A session player I know has these on his 12-string guitar. I don't know what this is supposed to achieve, but I can ask him (probably see him tonight). But he's probably not a pirate...

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41KIbWFhLyL.jpg

I suppose with super-smooth high-quality high-ratio gears, it might be alright... and that diameter looks better for getting a grip on, compared to the pirate tuners.

Bertram Henze
Feb-20-2018, 7:18am
I guess that pirate tuned his mandolin once and for all, then filed away the tuner buttons so the devil wouldn't be able to re-tune it ever again... :whistling:

Jess L.
Feb-20-2018, 7:19am
I guess that pirate tuned his mandolin once and for all, then filed away the tuner buttons so the devil wouldn't be able to re-tune it ever again... :whistling:

Lol! :mandosmiley: Good one. :)

DavidKOS
Feb-20-2018, 9:54am
Regardless of whether or not geared tuners are appropriate for the pirate timeline, I want to know:

Why are there no buttons on the tuners? :disbelief: See zoomed-in pic below. There are only round shafts or maybe some sort of cylindrical wood or leather covering, :confused: but it doesn't look like anything the fingers could grip onto very well. At first I thought someone had lined up all the buttons to face the same direction, but upon closer inspection it looks like they're actually cylindrical, and small diameter. Was the button-less cylinder-shaped geared tuner an actual historical design at one time? (I'm thinking, "Not.") Or is it just an example of Hollywood goofing up on details when building the movie props? Click pic a few times to enlarge:

165188

Maybe we're supposed to assume that the instrument was so derelict that all the buttons had fallen off or rotted away. Still, the small cylindrical tuner handles don't seem very practical - did Mr. Pirate use pliers when tuning up? :confused:

When I was working for a wholesale music dealer, we furnished a number of instruments to be used as props for a music scene for one of the Disney pirate movies.

They could care less about accuracy, period, playability, all they cared about was if it looked cool and the various directors liked it.

In the OP's pic, the prop mando has no high E course, either

Shelagh Moore
Feb-20-2018, 10:55am
Old Wave?

DavidKOS
Feb-20-2018, 11:23am
We've missed the obvious.

What sort of mandolin would a pirate play?

A Rogue, of course.

Nathan Kellstadt
Feb-20-2018, 12:46pm
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derbex
Feb-20-2018, 12:47pm
We've missed the obvious.

What sort of mandolin would a pirate play?

A Rogue, of course.

He might have more than one, then he'd have a 'Parcel of Rogues'

Only Kidding

Jim Garber
Feb-20-2018, 12:57pm
Those tuners are fine because he used only a few strings and probably did not tune them anyway.

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colorado_al
Feb-20-2018, 1:03pm
Regardless of whether or not geared tuners are appropriate for the pirate timeline, I want to know:

Why are there no buttons on the tuners? :disbelief: See zoomed-in pic below. There are only round shafts or maybe some sort of cylindrical wood or leather covering, :confused: but it doesn't look like anything the fingers could grip onto very well. At first I thought someone had lined up all the buttons to face the same direction, but upon closer inspection it looks like they're actually cylindrical, and small diameter. Was the button-less cylinder-shaped geared tuner an actual historical design at one time? (I'm thinking, "Not.") Or is it just an example of Hollywood goofing up on details when building the movie props? Click pic a few times to enlarge:

165188

Maybe we're supposed to assume that the instrument was so derelict that all the buttons had fallen off or rotted away. Still, the small cylindrical tuner handles don't seem very practical - did Mr. Pirate use pliers when tuning up? :confused:

Surely those were the original Waverly tuners. The only ones a true seafarer would use.

O. Apitius
Feb-20-2018, 1:03pm
Wow. So few serious answers to this pressing question, I can't believe my buccaneers! :disbelief:

MontanaMatt
Feb-20-2018, 1:12pm
An arrrr-ia matey

allenhopkins
Feb-20-2018, 2:16pm
...Why are there no buttons on the tuners?...is it just an example of Hollywood goofing up on details when building the movie props?

Because it's a prop. Someone was probably sent to a music store in search of an instrument that could be loaned/rented to the production company, only to be displayed, but never played. The music dealer grabbed a discarded instrument from the junk pile, that looked vaguely "period," and provided it. Note also that the instrument has some strings, but they're not in the proper nut (or, presumably, bridge) slots, and that the actor's fingering the famous "look like you're playing it, even though you have no idea how to do that" chord.

I have loaned instruments to amateur (and professional) theatrical companies for onstage use. I try to avoid anything that I would really hate to have lost or damaged. although I'm sure the people had good intentions and would try to compensate me if something happened. I know how props sometimes get treated backstage -- and sometimes in front of the camera, as in the notorious "smashed vintage Martin" movie incident.

Don Grieser
Feb-20-2018, 8:51pm
165216 One with an aaaaarrrrrrhhh on the headstock.

Phil Goodson
Feb-20-2018, 10:17pm
On the OP's picture there appears to be a piece of leather woven through the strings near the nut to prevent unwanted string sounds during filming.

James Miller
Feb-20-2018, 10:43pm
Good find!

Mike Scott
Feb-23-2018, 3:54pm
How about this?

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dhergert
Feb-23-2018, 7:46pm
...
Historically speaking, the braginho or machete, a small, 4 string, Portuguese guitar comes to mind. Portuguese sailors brought these small guitars with them to pass the time aboard ships on long journeys.
...


I've read that these were the original source of the ukelele, brought to the Hawaiian islands by Portuguese cowboys.

DavidKOS
Feb-24-2018, 12:13pm
That seems to be the case:

http://www.ukulelemag.com/stories/the-birth-of-the-ukulele

"Among the more than 25,000 Madeirans who came to Hawaii in the late 1800s, there were three woodworkers from Funchal: 40-year-old Manuel Nunes, 37-year-old Augusto Dias, and 28-year-old Jose do Espirito Santo. ....No sooner had they docked, when one of the passengers, an accomplished musician named Joao Fernandes, launched into a joyous song and dance to celebrate the ship’s safe arrival. Fernandes, a talented player who could reel off any song he’d heard only once, performed on a machête borrowed from a fellow passenger. ....Within a year, Nunes had opened his own shop just three blocks away and both Diaz and Nunes were advertising their businesses in the local newspapers. Dias described himself as a “maker of guitars, machêtes, and all stringed instruments.” Nunes announced his business as a “cabinetmaker’s shop of stringed instruments, guitars and machêtes.”"

http://pearlhar.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2017/7/28/66973783/Ukulele%20-%20History%20of%20Ukulele.pdf

http://www.laguitarra-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/a-new-history-of-origins-and-development-of-the-ukelele-1838-1915.pdf

Frankdolin
Feb-25-2018, 6:49am
I'm surprised this thread still has leg.:))

G7MOF
Feb-25-2018, 11:21am
An Arrrrria

pops1
Feb-25-2018, 11:44am
Slide mando, with his hook.

Russ Donahue
Mar-03-2018, 11:15am
If a squidolin isn't handy, this would be the next best thing!

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ColdBeerGoCubs
Mar-03-2018, 1:05pm
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JRG
Mar-03-2018, 3:10pm
Them ain't tuners mates, they's parrot perches.

Dave Hanson
Mar-04-2018, 3:45am
Seen this photo of this pirate named Scrum (http://pirates.wikia.com/wiki/Scrum) holding an interesting looking mandolin and sort of made me wonder, what mandolin is that??

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That would be a style Arr Jim lad.

Dave H

Jess L.
Mar-04-2018, 4:29am
If a squidolin isn't handy, this would be the next best thing!

165539

Yikes, that's on the front! :disbelief: I see the bridge there. At first glance (before enlarging the pic) I thought it was a resonator/back view.

Mandolin Cafe
Mar-22-2018, 1:12pm
Why, this (https://cartervintage.com/products/giacomel-custom). Of course.

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Dacraw54
Mar-22-2018, 1:18pm
Something to repel boarders...

MoreThanQuinn
Mar-22-2018, 1:20pm
NFI

https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/122442#122442
https://imgur.com/a/hcy2q

Br1ck
Mar-22-2018, 8:02pm
Pirates don't have time for such nonsense. They just find a wench who plays one.