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Thread: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

  1. #1

    Default Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Hi
    I'm new to this forum and could use some help identifying my father's mandolin. One picture is of my dad playing his mandolin during a family jam session. The mandolin had no identifying tags stamps or other markings that would show the maker but the head has depressions between the tuners where perhaps a name tag might have been placed at one time. I have looked at all mandolins on EBay but could not find a match.
    My father passed away in 1957 and the mandolin was worn badly then so I can only assume the mandolin was made before 1950. It's barely playable.
    Any help or comments would be welcomed.

  2. #2
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by Treetrimmer12 View Post
    ...Any help or comments would be welcomed.
    Pictures would definitely be welcomed. And necessary.
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  3. #3

    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by allenhopkins View Post
    Pictures would definitely be welcomed. And necessary.
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  5. #4
    Confused... or?
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Yikes: Those are the deepest finger-wear divots I've ever seen, so someone REALLY enjoyed it! The not-real-precise headstock holes look like an attempt to inlay some decorative jewels, maybe? The disconnected f-hole ends (assuming that's a small top break on the upper treble side) suggest a Strad-O-Lin, but I'm far from expert.

    A picture of the BACK of the headstock could define the exact type of tuner used, a big clue for those with real expertise.
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by EdHanrahan View Post
    Yikes: Those are the deepest finger-wear divots I've ever seen, so someone REALLY enjoyed it! The not-real-precise headstock holes look like an attempt to inlay some decorative jewels, maybe? The disconnected f-hole ends (assuming that's a small top break on the upper treble side) suggest a Strad-O-Lin, but I'm far from expert.
    A picture of the BACK of the headstock could define the exact type of tuner used, a big clue for those with real expertise.
    Those deep finger divots are in the 1st fret. Who plays that much on first fret. Many years ago when I was without a mandolin a friend ( now deceased) loan me a mandolin that he gave 10 bucks at a yard sale. It looked very much like OP,s and I always thought it was a Stradolin. It too had no name on it anywhere but was a reasonable good sounding mandolin. I tried to double the friends price and keep it but no deal, I don't know what happened to it.

  7. #6
    Registered User Billy Packard's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    I just love the photo of the three young guys having music fun...
    and to think they have all likely gone back to our maker, from whom all music flows!!!

    Thanks for sharing, treetrimmer12
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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    I would guess that this is one of those wholesale mandolins sold by the half dozen and probably made by one of the large Chicago companies to sell to retailers to put their store names on. Regal, Kay, Harmony and Lyon & Healy are possible but the headstock doesn’t ring any bells.

    What is more interesting is that Bakelite Spanish Rickenbacker guitar in the photo. Where is that? Those are pretty rare with a round neck.
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Garber View Post

    What is more interesting is that Bakelite Spanish Rickenbacker guitar in the photo. Where is that? Those are pretty rare with a round neck.
    You noticed that too, huh? Those are rare.

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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by Mandoplumb View Post
    Those deep finger divots are in the 1st fret. Who plays that much on first fret. .
    Anyone that plays in F/Dm, Bb/Gm, Eb/Cm, etc.

    Like me, and the player of the instrument in question.

    However, note how deep the indents are on frets 2-5.

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    My guess would be Harmony made wholesale mandolin. Here is one sort of similar from a 1935 Grossman (distributor catalog). The split f-holes have little commas on them similar to the OP's. I lightened the OP's original image form so you can sort of see that. You can also see that the treble f-hole is broken.

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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    That tailpiece was a regular on Regal mandolins but the shape is off for Harmony, Kay, and all.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    This is all very interesting:

    At a first quick glace, the mandolin looks almost like it has a scalloped fretbord - kind of like what some of the guitar heroes of the 1990's were using. The interesting thing about these 'divots' is that they seem to run much wider than the areas directly under the strings - almost as of the player did a lot of string bending, or just had some massive and strong fingers . . . like the thing once belonged to Andre The Giant!

    I could be mistaken, but this may also be the first time I have ever seen a picture of somebody playing the old Rickenbacher like a guitar, rather than a lap steel. (Fellow Ric aficionados will notice that I used the correct original spelling.)

    THANKS for sharing!

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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    If the OP could post a picture of the back, preferably showing the neck heel I might have some insight.

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeZito View Post
    At a first quick glace, the mandolin looks almost like it has a scalloped fretbord - kind of like what some of the guitar heroes of the 1990's were using. The interesting thing about these 'divots' is that they seem to run much wider than the areas directly under the strings - almost as of the player did a lot of string bending, or just had some massive and strong fingers . . . like the thing once belonged to Andre The Giant!
    I think I have Andre's mandolin sitting here. It was owned by one of my relatives and I think he got thrown out of every bar in Portland, Oregon in the years he owned and played it. The fingerboard divots are pretty much the same but I attribute that to the soft wood used on the fretboard and honest play wear, nothing else. Apparently he was really partial to the 5th fret position.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidKOS View Post
    Anyone that plays in F/Dm, Bb/Gm, Eb/Cm, etc.
    Like me, and the player of the instrument in question
    However, note how deep the indents are on frets 2-5.
    I play in each of those keys as well but not enough to wear divots like those. For every one I'd play in F I'd play probably 50 or more in G. I think most pickers would. Not saying anything about you just don't think a lot of mandolin players would wear fingerboard in first fret.

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    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by MikeZito View Post
    I could be mistaken, but this may also be the first time I have ever seen a picture of somebody playing the old Rickenbacher like a guitar, rather than a lap steel. (Fellow Ric aficionados will notice that I used the correct original spelling.)
    Yes, see my and David’s comments starting on post #7.

    Rickenbacher (no matter what the spelling at the time—they did change it at one time) did make a Spanish or round neck which was meant to be played as the man in that photo is doing.

    From the Rickenbacker site:
    Despite the popularity of arch tops, the 1935 Bakelite Model B Spanish guitar made the most history for Rickenbacker. Though not entirely solid (it had thick plastic walls and a detachable Spanish neck), it achieved the desired result-virtual elimination of the acoustic feedback that plagued big-box electrics of the day. It set the stage for all solid body guitars to follow, even though it was difficult to play sitting down on the bandstand. (A Bakelite Spanish the size most guitarists were accustomed to would have been as heavy, literally, as a sack of bowling balls.) A variation of the Bakelite Spanish invented by Doc Kauffman (who would later become Leo Fender's first partner) was the Vibrola Spanish Guitar, an ungainly thing equipped with a motorized vibrato tailpiece. So heavy, it required a stand to hold it up.
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    Last edited by Jim Garber; Jun-19-2018 at 10:55pm.
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    As for the divots, I am sure that the fretboard is pearwood or even maybe balsa and that the original player played his minor mazurkas with chainmail gloves on.
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    Registered User slimt's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Pretty cool. picture of the three folks Playing .... I remember days gone by like that with my dad and a few of his friends.. They made do with what they could afford.. I can appreciate pictures like that..

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    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    I associate the comma-shaped ends of the "f"-holes with Kay, but Mike E says several firms made instruments with those holes.

    Those "fingerboard divots" sorta bother me; they're so uniform, they don't seem like they just result from wear. Could there have been some attempt to consciously alter the fretboard (my brother had the fretboard of his Les Paul "scalloped," intentionally), or am I seeing things? On the other hand, wouldn't a purposeful fretboard alteration been on all four string courses?

    Concur with the consensus, I guess: inexpensive "trade" Chicago-built mandolin, long and lovingly played.
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    The divots are the same as the ones on mine. They don't look as uniform up close and personal. I'm going to guess the player didn't generally get a manicure.
    "It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
    --M. Stillion

    "Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Default Re: Unlabeled Mandolin Help

    Quote Originally Posted by slimt View Post
    Pretty cool. picture of the three folks Playing .... I remember days gone by like that with my dad and a few of his friends.. They made do with what they could afford.. I can appreciate pictures like that..
    I too love pictures like that.

    The easiest way to be in a fifty year old picture playing music with family and friends is to play music with family and friends and take a picture of it.
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