View Full Version : Any info on this old A style
Deyoung
Mar-09-2018, 11:11pm
All I know is that it was bought used somewhere between 47-49. I'm thinking it was a "catalog" mandolin. The pick guard looks to have been added later. Unfortunately the top is sunk in so it is not really playable. No labels inside
Jim Garber
Mar-10-2018, 12:05am
The shape of the headstock and the body looks like some Harmony mandolins.
Here are a few in a Polk catalog from 1937. Not exactly yours but similar design.
165773
Ah, here, on the left is one that is closer, from a 1935 Grossman catalog.
165774
allenhopkins
Mar-10-2018, 12:28pm
Harmony was my first guess too, from the body shape and the faux wood grain. The "dished" headstock profile and the scalloped tailpiece aren't typical Harmony; if Harmony made it, my guess is that it was made for a particular store or distributor -- or, as you speculate, for a catalog seller.
brunello97
Mar-10-2018, 3:18pm
...from the body shape and the faux wood grain...
Maybe it's the Texan in me coming out, but some of these mandolins remind me more of a slab of meat with grill marks than they do of a piece of wood with grain marks. This one in particular.
Mick
Jim Garber
Mar-10-2018, 3:51pm
Maybe it's the Texan in me coming out, but some of these mandolins remind me more of a slab of meat with grill marks than they do of a piece of wood with grain marks. This one in particular.
Mick
For that beefy sound!