Vintage guitar-shaped archtop mandola

[Martin Jonas]

This is just a quick cross-link to the thread in the pictures forum discussing my vintage German archtop. When I started that thread, I thought it was a long-scale mandolin, but I have now decided it works much better as a short-scale mandola, so it has become relevant to the CBOM forum.

Link (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=15;t=47061) to the thread.

Link (http://www.martin.jonas.dsl.pipex.com/Death_Valley_Waltz_mandola.mp3) to a ahort MP3 clip.

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/uploads/post-15-85826-archtop1.jpg

Martin

[allenhopkins]

Nice, Martin. Framus, or related?

[Martin Jonas]

No idea, really. There is no maker's label, just a headstock decal from a music shop in a small town in the Black Forest. They may have made it themselves, or commissioned it from a local luthier. It's certainly German, and probably from the late 1940s or early 1950s. At that time, there were lots of makers of guitar-shaped mandolins in Germany, for some unfathomable reason, including Framus, Hofner, Otwin and Hoyer. However, most of them used exclusively cat's eyes soundholes, not proper f-holes as on mine, with the notable exception of Hoyer. Therefore, after I had bought it and before I had in in my hands, I speculated it might be a Hoyer. Hoyer's 1948 catalogue has a very similar instrument in it. However, I have since seen photos of that Hoyer model and it looks quite different from mine. More garish, to my eyes. I now think that mine was made by a small luthier shop, possibly a violin maker. It looks hand-made rather than a production model.

Martin