Guernsey Guitar Auction: Joseph Bohmann's Tool Box!

[mrmando]

Here's the catalog for the upcoming Guernsey auction:
https://www.guernseys.com/v2/images/...7_v2-8_low.pdf

Just four mandolins that i saw, but No. 300 is a completely wacky 1899 Joseph Bohmann creation, with sympathetic strings and a body style I've never seen before. And No. 265 is a tool box containing some of Bohmann's own lutherie tools!

If you've seen Bohmann's instrument labels, you know he thought of himself as pretty much God's gift to mandolin building. Hardly a man is now alive who would share that opinion, but still, I'm sure there are a number of luthiers who would geek out over those tools.

[MikeEdgerton]

Well, he was the worlds greatest musical instrument builder.

[Simon DS]

Nice... so how can we get them all safely into a museum? I guess Mr Tarrantino will be there bidding.
One thing did surprise me though, was without doubt the rarest object in the collection, a guitar signed by the Sex Pistols.

[mrmando]

Proof that the Sex Pistols knew how to write their names, and there's one object they didn't destroy?

I wouldn't let Quentin Tarantino anywhere near that auction...

[Andrew B. Carlson]

Pretty cool to see some Bohmann stuff. #264 Joseph Bohmann parlour guitar is the closest I've seen to my JB parlour, save for the headstock. Mines a slothead.

[David L]

I don't see any sympathetic strings on that mandolin. What am I missing?

[Jim Garber]

Here are the mandolin-related lots:

265. c. 1850 Tool Chest with the Tools of Luthier Joseph Bohmann
300. c.1899 Joseph Bohmann Flatback Mandolin with Sympathetic Strings
412. c. 1893 Joseph Bohmann Bowlback Mandolin
432. 1908 Dyer Symphony Harp Mandolin, Style 20
469. c. 1890-1900 American Conservatory Bowlback Mandolin

This Bohmann mandolin Number 300 looks just like the one mentioned in this post on an old Bohmann thread from 2009.

Here's the Guernsey one:

[Graham McDonald]

They didn't have sympathetic strings, rather four 1/16" metal rods (of different metals) inside the body, with tension adjusted by small nuts at the tail. The different metal supposedly made then resonate at different pitches. They do actually add something to the sound, a bit like an odd, soft 'woinging' noise. I suspect a little later than 1899 as Bohmann didn't patent the idea until 1915.

It would be interesting to know what was in the toolbox!

[j. condino]

Should I bid on one of the D'Angelicos, the D'Aquisto, or Eddie Van Halen's yellow and black strat?

j.
www.condino.com

[goaty76]

I don't think it is THE yellow and black Van Halen guitar. That one is buried with Dimebag Darrell Abbott.

Phil

[barney 59]

So,what's in the toolbox?