Results 1 to 18 of 18

Thread: Metal-Clad Fretboard

  1. #1

    Default Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Anyone know anything about a bowlback mando with a formed metal fretboard? I can’t find any info on the internet. This is clearly a vintage mando, with two-colored staves that are made to look double by etching a line. Appreciate any guidance to find out about its origins.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Click image for larger version. 

Name:	13CDF21E-7A8A-4BE1-AE00-09E917224991.jpeg 
Views:	158 
Size:	237.1 KB 
ID:	181385   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	DE9FB273-4EE3-4790-A623-0714733EE1A6.jpeg 
Views:	194 
Size:	97.3 KB 
ID:	181381   Click image for larger version. 

Name:	BF3BA617-06D9-4E7B-B7BF-1990426404E2.jpg 
Views:	156 
Size:	517.5 KB 
ID:	181382  

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	7B5FDD16-97D6-4FF7-B1D5-593E439FF4A2.jpg 
Views:	164 
Size:	545.9 KB 
ID:	181383  
    Last edited by Graciela; Nov-23-2019 at 4:16pm.

  2. #2
    Registered User nmiller's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Rocky Hill, CT
    Posts
    339

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    I'm guessing it's from Wolfram, a company that made mandolins and guitars with aluminum fretboards in the 1890s and 1900s.
    www.OldFrets.com: the obscure side of vintage instruments.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Thanks! I’ll continue my search.

  4. #4
    Registered User Tavy's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2007
    Location
    Tavistock UK
    Posts
    4,438

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Are you sure it's metal? Do you own it?

    Looks like MOP to me.

  5. #5
    Registered User mandolinstew's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Warwick,New York
    Posts
    637

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    clean it and find out

  6. #6

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Yep. It’s mine. I finely sanded it, and it’s aluminum. NMiller helped me find out a bit more. Wolfram made these darn things. Interestingly, aluminum was brand new, and he patented the aluminum fretboard in 1893. Anyone has more info, I would appreciate it. I’m doing what I can to restore it to playability. This one has me fascinated. I “replaced” the broken piece around the sound hole, just for aesthetics.

    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	740FAA39-B6CA-468D-985B-2B3DDA15CAF0.jpg 
Views:	140 
Size:	422.0 KB 
ID:	181483
    Last edited by Graciela; Nov-28-2019 at 12:49pm.

  7. #7
    Mando accumulator allenhopkins's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2006
    Location
    Rochester NY 14610
    Posts
    17,378

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    As I understand it (and I'm relying on a bunch of unrelated old remembered stuff) the advent of available electric power in the late 19th century made it commercially possible to smelt aluminum from bauxite. The availability of this "new " light, strong metal led to a bunch of experiments in its use, including in musical instruments. the aluminum fingerboards on Wolfram mandolins are matched by the aluminum bowl bodies on Merrill mandolins, and there are the spun or pressed aluminum resonator cones on National and Dobro instruments, just a few examples. I own an aluminum bass fiddle, unmarked but possibly a Pfretzschner, and of course Gibson tried aluminum bridge saddles on its mandolins in the 1920's. I also have a Muse 5-string banjo, made by Ode in CO, with a cast aluminum shell.

    I have been told that, before those smelting techniques were available, aluminum was a very rare metal, and considered almost a "precious metal." The story I heard was that in the French court, the royals and highest ranking nobility got aluminum table services; lesser diners had to settle for gold or silver. True or tall tale, a good story.
    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

  8. #8

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Aluminum was an extremely expensive metal for many years and Napoleon III had some exotic regalia made from it. I think he also gave a banquet where the top echelon guests received gifts made from aluminum while the next tier down got 24 carat gold! New processes brought the price down massively but you see mandolins from the 1890s for a while with aluminum pickguards- and presumably this covering on the fingerboard because one assumes it still had that cachet of being a highly expensive item. You just wonder about the cleaning of the regalia- a bit of a chore, I would imagine!

  9. #9
    Registered User mandolinstew's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2011
    Location
    Warwick,New York
    Posts
    637

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    I had a uncle who was a machinest at Alcoa and made lots of crazy things.(1950’s)Wasn’t there a guitar maker in the 70’s making aluminum guitars?

  10. #10
    Registered User Steve 2E's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2019
    Location
    PA
    Posts
    406

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Travis Bean built electric guitars with an aluminum neck that ran through the body. The bodies and fretboards were wood, but the pickups were mounted into the aluminum creating a unique tone. Jerry Garcia played a Bean for a while in the 70’s.

  11. #11
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Mar 2003
    Location
    Columbus, GA
    Posts
    1,360

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    The point atop the Washington monument is also aluminum. As noted earlier, aluminum was worth more than gold when the monument was completed.

    Another aside: wolfram is an older name for tungsten, hence, the periodic table shows W for tungsten. It's derived from Swedish for "heavy rock."
    David Hopkins

    2001 Gibson F-5L mandolin
    Breedlove Legacy FF mandolin; Breedlove Quartz FF mandolin
    Gibson F-4 mandolin (1916); Blevins f-style Octave mandolin, 2018
    McCormick Oval Sound Hole "Reinhardt" Mandolin
    McCormick Solid Body F-Style Electric Mandolin; Slingerland Songster Guitar (c. 1939)

    The older I get, the less tolerant I am of political correctness, incompetence and stupidity.

  12. #12

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Now that I’m a little more educated, found this:

    Sep-09-2013, 7:37pm #2
    JEStanek
    Moderator
    Blog Entries

    Default Re: Wolfram 5378
    Wolfram Guitar Company was from Columbus, Ohio from 1891-1910 (Mugwumps)

    According to this site (19thCenturyGuitar)
    The Wolfram Guitar Company, which was formed in Columbus, Ohio around 1891, made instruments marketed under the Triumph brand. The company is best known today among guitar collectors and historians for introducing the aluminum fretboard, which Theodore Wolfram patented in 1893. Aluminum was a novel material at the time. It was discovered in 1808, but it took until 1886 to develop a commercially viable process for producing the metal. It was an interesting experiment, but hardly a huge commercial success. According to guitar historian Michael Holmes, the company announced the making of their 10,000th instrument in February 1901, but was declared insolvent before the end of the year. Apparently, Theodore Wolfram continued in business operating as the Wolfram Guitar & Mandolin Company until 1910.

    Theodore Wolfram made guitars with aluminum necks, but Neil Merrill went a step further. Merrill began experimenting with building musical instruments from aluminum in about 1886. Between 1894 and 1898 Merrill's Aluminum Musical Instrument Company sold, under the Merrill brand, guitars, mandolins, fiddles, banjos and zithers with bodies made of aluminum with wooden tops and necks.
    BTW, Wolfram is the Swedish word for heavy stone, we know it as Tungsten (atomic symbol W).

  13. #13

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    How cool is THIS?!
    Click image for larger version. 

Name:	B31FECEA-9815-48C5-BF82-CC07525AB39F.jpeg 
Views:	135 
Size:	328.4 KB 
ID:	181558

  14. #14

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Well "tungsten" literally means heavy rock in swedish.

  15. #15
    Registered User tonydxn's Avatar
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Mansfield UK
    Posts
    345

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Mandolins: Bandolim by Antonio Pereira Cabral
    German flatback mandola by unknown maker converted from a descant Waldzither

  16. #16

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    That’s nuts! Wonder if it actually can be played. Or more specifically, does it have any tone.

  17. #17

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    I've got a couple of Wolfram guitars but no mandolin sadly. I've seen a mandolin going on ebay recently but its a flat top one rather than a bowl back.

  18. #18

    Default Re: Metal-Clad Fretboard

    Quote Originally Posted by DoubleE View Post
    Travis Bean built electric guitars with an aluminum neck that ran through the body. The bodies and fretboards were wood, but the pickups were mounted into the aluminum creating a unique tone. Jerry Garcia played a Bean for a while in the 70’s.
    Veleno made aluminium guitars in the 60s before bean and there was another make in the 60s called Burke (I think) who also dabbled with aluminium.

Bookmarks

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •