Anyone happen to know anything about this?

[matt_harris]

Hey everyone,

First off I am new here, and it seems like a great place!

My mom was cleaning out the basement the other day and found my great-grandfather's old mandolin that she said I could have. I am away at school right now and won't be able to actually get to it until about Thanksgiving, but she emailed me two pictures earlier. I am basically just trying to find some info on the instrument like year/brand/history and whatnot.

From my (very) limited knowledge and google searches, I THINK it is a 1910-1920 mandolin/mandolute made by Weymann, but I'm not positive. There are no markings, serial numbers, or anything else that my mom could find on the instrument at all.

I am planning on getting the top fixed and getting the rest checked out for structural integrity because it would be nice to keep it in the family and I would like to learn. I'm in no way an aspiring ambitious mandolin player, so this would be plenty of an instrument for me.

92400
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[mrmando]

Not a Weymann mandolute ... body is the wrong shape and so is the pickguard. One sometimes sees pickguards of this type on Larson Bros. mandolins, although I can't find an exact match with a quick Google search. If you can find a copy of "The Larsons and Their Creations" you might flip through it.

[Jim Garber]

It looks more like a Supertone (Sears trademark) prob made in Chicago, possibly Regal. That crack looks a little severe but would be repairable. I would loosen the strings, If you want to make it playable, take it to a luthier first. There may be loose braces. Also have the neck angle checked. Might be worth fixing or possibly not.

[mrmando]

Well, here's an S. S. Stewart with some similarities, although not as fancy.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-1920s-S-S-Stewart-Flat-Back-8-String-Mandolin-Rosewood-Sides-Back-/330806047144?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d0593b1a8

[Eddie Sheehy]

My SS Stewart had the SS Stewart engraved on the back-plate and an SS Stewart Label - though it was probably made by a different company for SS Stewart...

[matt_harris]

hm.. Thanks for the replies everyone. It sure does look like an SS Stewart, but there are no engravings or anything on it at all. Same pickguard and everything though. Could it be a knock off SS Stewart?

At the same time though, I don't think it has ever been taken great care of given that nasty crack. Maybe there was no engraving on the cover plate, and the name on the headstock wore off over time?

Thanks again!

[mrmando]

S.S. Stewart, IIRC, was more of a brand than a maker. The name was applied to instruments built by other factories and "jobbers." So there isn't really any such thing as a knockoff Stewart. It could be that your mandolin and the Stewart were built in the same factory; one was sent to Stewart for branding and one wasn't. Yours might have been made for a music store or department store that would have either put it its own label or sold it without one.

[matt_harris]

Oh alright. So it could be the long lost cousin of the 1930's Sears-Roebuck nylon string Parlor guitar that I used to have haha. I don't know much about mandolins at all so it's cool to learn all of this.

Not planning on selling it, and I'm getting it repaired no matter what, but what do you think something like this is worth in a fixed (and playable) condition?

[allenhopkins]

Resembles this Supertone (http://www.elderly.com/items/90U-3886.htm) Elderly sold, other than the headstock shape. The Supertone was a bit fancier purfling-wise, might also have had a somewhat more elaborate headstock.

Another complicating factor is that the Elderly instrument was not marked "Supertone," but that brand was attributed to it -- also the theory that it was "made for Sears by Harmony." Harmony did build a bunch of Supertone and Silvertone branded instruments for Sears, but are we sure this was one?

[MikeEdgerton]

Although Sears and Harmony had a long lasting relationship that included cross ownership well after this mandolin was built, they were not the only supplier of instruments to Sears. At the turn of the century Oscar Schmidt was building for Sears and I'm sure Sears took a bite out of the apple that was Regal as well. With that said, I don't think this is a Regal.