Take a look at this one...
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/In...al-Mandolin.gc
Take a look at this one...
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/In...al-Mandolin.gc
"It doesn't matter how much you invest in your instrument until you invest in you and your ability..."
Kentucky KM-150
Eastman MD-404
Eastman MD-305
Morgan Monroe MFM-300 (passed on to a new player)
Rover RM-75
Strange. It only has 3 columns of keys. Wonder if everything played in 5th double stops.
When I was a child we had a keychord banjo
" Practice every time you get a chance." - Bill Monroe
Sure saves the fingertips!
Interesting discussion from 2013 on “KeyKord” instruments.
https://www.banjohangout.org/archive/273357
An excerpt from that discussion:
“KeyKords were invented by Dean M. Solenberger, president of the Simplex Piston Ring Co. of Cleveland. Solenberger contracted with Stromberg-Voisinet to put his devices on 3 instruments: tenor banjo, Venetian tenor guitar, and Spanish tenor guitar. Presumably Simplex made the KeyKord devices in Cleveland and shipped them to S-V in Chicago. S-V had nothing to do with marketing them. So far, we don't know how KeyKord sold them. The only trade press notice of them came in early 1930 and it's pretty certain they were around in 1929. Whether they made it beyond 1930 is unknown, but it wouldn't be much longer. The KeyKord scale is 20", longer than a baritone uke (19") but shorter than the tenor banjo and tenor guitar (21" or 23"). Here's where it gets funky. KeyKords are meant to be tuned like a ukulele. The tenor guitar was invented (by Regal) in 1926 and by 1928 or so people were tuning them alternatively as a tenor guitar (tenor banjo) or baritone ukulele, either re-entrant or low D, which is, of course, essentially like a guitar. KeyKords were meant to be played in ukulele tuning, or really in baritone ukulele tuning, even though the baritone uke wasn't invented until 1948. Thus, like a baritone uke or guitar: DGBE. However, the chord forms used were for soprano uke. Those forms are the same for soprano or baritone, but essentially what the KeyKord does is transpose keys from what you see in the music down to a baritone key. So, while KeyKords look like tenor banjos and tenor guitars, they really are (baritone) banjoleles/banjo-ukes and baritone ukuleles, albeit with an extra 1" in the scale. This is why they don't work if you try to play them tuned like a tenor.”
And an old listing from Folkway Music with several close-up photos.
http://www.folkwaymusic.com/museum/o...ord-1929-0213/
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Makes sense. Id hate to have to fix that 1 chord that buzzes
I would imagine you would need 24 keys, every triad in major and minor, wonder which ones they skipped.
Seems silly to skip one row of three chords, when that would complete the picture, maybe I am being OCD here. :-)
If I had to take a wild guess I would guess they skipped these:
F# major, C# major, but I can't figure the last one, maybe Cm. :-)
Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.
Way back when I was a pup, the guy that owned the store I worked at, had an “Arthur Murray ukulele chord player” very much like this, it was held on by rubber bands, if memory serves, it made eight chords. It looks like the same kind of thing. The “Arthur Murray” thing was a mail in the the show with box tops or something I think.
It was “nifty” to say the least!
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
Arthur Godfrey maybe?
Saw this one on Reverb:
https://reverb.com/item/10625045-eme...ment-50-s-60-s
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Yep! Thanks to both of you! I tripped over my teeth or fingers or whatever, Hey I’m fighting some stupid kind of spring coughing, sneezing misery!
At least I was cognizant enough to remember Arthur! Today, I can sort of remember my own name.
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
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
Now we just need one based on the Nashville numbering system that can be moved up and down the neck.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Now if someone would invent a gizmo that mounts near the bridge to do the strumming we'd be all set, just push the buttons.
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
It took me a while to find my copy of that pedal. They don't work very well for me. I prefer the BigMon pedal myself.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
It was done, all the way back in mediaeval times, the instrument is called a hurdy-gurdy.
The return of the autoharp.
the world is better off without bad ideas, good ideas are better off without the world
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