Sovereign Resonator Mandolin Harmony 1940

[NickR]

Harmony bought the Stella, La Scala and Sovereign names from the new owners of Oscar Schmidt in 1939. I ran into this in the sold section of eBay- it had sold recently for not a lot of money. Anyway, there were some hybrid guitars sold by Harmony which used Oscar Schmidt parts for a while but this mandolin has a Harmony neck- albeit with recessed tuners and a plate like a 1920s build. I wonder if someone decided to use old parts? It is possible the body was made by Regal- I know virtually nothing about resonators but Regal made bodies for various makers. Anyway, the headstock decoration is pretty much the same as what Harmony used until the early 70s when it revamped its top-of-the range Sovereigns. It is a genuine resonator- not a fauxbro and has the new upper crust Harmony brand name. It's a bit different- and while trying to find another I found a Sovereign Resonator guitar from Harmony with National Dobro Corp. on the metalwork and the design is the same as on the mandolin- the holes.

[mrmando]

I had a National Rosita mandolin with the same body.

[Sue Rieter]

That looks pretty dang cool, Nick. If I saw that for not a lot of money, I'd go for it and worry later about the repercussions. Look at that plate on the back of the headstock, that's beautiful! And the sound holes! Wow.

[NickR]

Sue, I only saw it as I wanted to check what a Harmony Batwing had sold for- and this mandolin was there in the sold section- $110. I think it was a BIN too! I imagine it may have only been up for a very short while before someone bought it.

[Sue Rieter]

Yeah, I get it. $110! Next one that comes up won't be at that price, more likely than not.

[NickR]

Sue, I have searched this model and have not found another, so I doubt another will show up and most sellers would know a decent resonator mandolin would be worth a lot more than that price. I only ran into it by accident in the sold listing.