This showed up in Pittsburgh craigslist. I remember seeing the article on the model that Roger Siminoff made. Wonder who made this one?
https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ms...245363021.html
This showed up in Pittsburgh craigslist. I remember seeing the article on the model that Roger Siminoff made. Wonder who made this one?
https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ms...245363021.html
Old Hometown, Cabin Fever String Band
"Made by a Luther"... LOL
It looks interesting, but I'll bet it's a beast to play! Probably too heavy to play for very long standing up, and too oddly shapen to be comfortable playing seated.
Keep that skillet good and greasy all the time!
Wow.
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
______________________
'05 Cuisinart Toaster
'93 Chuck Taylor lowtops
'12 Stetson Open Road
'06 Bialetti expresso maker
'14 Irish Linen Ramon Puig
You could play it on your lap like a dulcimer.
I'm still laughing at the case . . . and, can you imagine walking into a jam session with that thing?
Luther Perkins? Luther Vandross? Luther Burbank?...
"The paths of experimentation twist and turn through mountains of miscalculations, and often lose themselves in error and darkness!"
--Leslie Daniel, "The Brain That Wouldn't Die."
Some tunes: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa1...SV2qtug/videos
Lex Luthor? ...
Well, one could do some quick re-shaping with a common powertool...
Jokes aside, I almost kind of like the instrument. It looks like it belongs in a sci-fi TV show, played by aliens of some sort.
Yeah it could be fun. At least one wouldn't get the "oh no, not another guitar player" thing.
I'm amazed and impressed by the amount of work involved in re-creating Orville G's "lyre mandolin." The $1.8K that the seller's asking is an incredibly low price for the instrument, if you look at what went into it. On the other hand, it ends up more being an art object than a musician's instrument, and the comments above reflect the perspective most mandolinists would have: "for show, not for dough," as they say.
That image shows up on early Gibson labels -- my 3-point F-2 has the "lyre label" -- as the expression of Gibson's finest design and crafts-person-ship. Going to all the trouble to replicate the design is a real labor of love, since I wonder, overall, what the market would ever be for such an instrument.
Allen Hopkins
Gibsn: '54 F5 3pt F2 A-N Custm K1 m'cello
Natl Triolian Dobro mando
Victoria b-back Merrill alumnm b-back
H-O mandolinetto
Stradolin Vega banjolin
Sobell'dola Washburn b-back'dola
Eastmn: 615'dola 805 m'cello
Flatiron 3K OM
Luther. Lex Luther.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
I said it first, 6 posts up in this thread. (Hm, great minds think alike?)
Yeah! Photoshop opportunity there, anyone want to give it a whirl?
Being one that has actually laid eyes on the original(one of them) and having some good people around back then, excellent pictures were taken, lots of measurements were taken as well, it was pretty much unplayable at that time. But, to actually see a guy walk in with the thing in a pillow case(I'm NOT kidding) was pretty amazing for me at age 18!
This "homage" made by Luther Billis or whomever, has taken a lot of time to get things pretty close. And for man hours involved I agree with Allen, it's not a bad deal for someone.
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Talk about scroll envy.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Agreed, Jim! I've been thinking that the copy looses "elegance" points on several counts:
- "snakehead" shape of the headstock that doesn't "organically flow along with" the curved horns, as on the originals;
- straight lines in the middle of the "horns", where the originals are just slightly curved;
- thick & square-ish end plates where the originals are thin & clearly rectangular; and,
- (especially) lower endplates that don't parallel the adjacent surface of the body, as the originals do.
These may seem like minor differences but, given the amount of effort involved at all, it could have far more graceful with just a bit of added attention to alignment.
- Ed
"Then one day we weren't as young as before
Our mistakes weren't quite so easy to undo
But by all those roads, my friend, we've travelled down
I'm a better man for just the knowin' of you."
- Ian Tyson
But isn't it kind of like comparing Monteleones to Gibsons (broad stroke there) they share some attributes but, not necessarily copies of each other.(Master luthiers both, we don't know much about Luther)
I understand the feeling of "Gee, why didn't he do it right?" But, I still see it as an homage. It took a lot of effort to do it, he didn't really have a lot of plans or much data aside of old labels, it's still a boatload of work for not a ton of money. Just an opinion.
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Ooh, Ooh, bitter dregs. . . bitter dregs. . .
f-d
ˇpapá gordo ain’t no madre flaca!
'20 A3, '30 L-1, '97 914, 2012 Cohen A5, 2012 Muth A5, '14 OM28A
I wonder what it sounded and played like when (and if?) it was made playable. Not much of a soundbox there and Orville's work never seemed to be as elegant as the later factory-made instruments we know and love. That is great that you got to see and hold of those lyres.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
What made it unplayable. Its condition? Or its shape?
I mean I don't see a reason a mandolin looking like that could not be very playable. And I don't know enough about the luthiery arts to rule out it sounding great too!
If the neck is straight and the intonation is good, and there is a decent tone and volume, wow, it would be fun to tear up the pea patch with an instrument like that. Or soloing with that at a gig.
Ah... JeffD: let us know when you that craigslist one arrives at your house.
Read Roger Siminoff's account of the Gibson Lyre Mandolins.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
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