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Vega Style B Cylinder Guitar | From the Top Shelf | Scott Freilich

June 16, 2010 Terence From the Top Shelf

Vega Style B Cyclinder Guitar | 1930′s | SN:unknown

Luthier Scott Freilich has been owner of Top Shelf Music since its inception. Scott currently authors the monthly “Oddballs” column for 20th Century Guitar magazine and is a past member of the price guide staff for “Vintage Guitar “magazine. He has contributed to such books Epiphone, The House of Stathopoulo, Washburn, 100 Years of Fine Stringed Instruments and ‘Burst 1958-’60 Sunburst Les Paul. Scott trained at Gibson’s old Kalamazoo plant, and his clients have included the Goo Goo Dolls, The Black Crows, Ani Di Franco, 10,000 Maniacs and Melissa Ethridge. He is also a member of The Buffalo Musician’s Hall Of Fame and an active bassist currently performing with the jazzabilly group The Headers.Scott is now a regular contributor to guitarbench and will be authoring a monthly column on pawn shop finds.

H i folks. Welcome to this months From the Top Shelf. Here we have a Vega Style B Cylinder Guitar. It’s hard to date it exactly, but almost every one of these that I’ve seen had a typewritten tag on the inside dating the instrument between 1932-34.

Vega originally used the cylinder design for the backs of their upper line mandolin family of instruments that included everything from standard mandolins all the way up to mando basses. The design was meant to increase the internal and acoustic volume of the instruments, and it was quite a success. The mandolin family instruments employed this design feature for the back only. The tops were a traditional bent design seen on most standard Neapolitan and non carved flat back instrument.

By 1932, Gibson and Epiphone were producing carved archtops, and Vega needed something to compete. They introduced the cylinder concept on a line of guitars. Unlike the mandolin family instruments, the guitars incorporated this feature on both the top and the back.

” Cylinder guitars are quite rare. I’ve owned 3 in the last 30 years and have maybe heard of another 2 or 3 available”

Cylinder guitars came in 4 styles that advanced in cosmetic details. Style A was the simplest, style B was moderate with minor cosmetic upgrades, Style C featured a flame maple rather than mahogany body, and the top of the line Cremona pulled out all of the stops with a highly figured flame maple body and a bound ebony fingerboard extensively inlaid with engraved mother of pearl designs. I’ve never seen a Style A and this is the first Style B I’ve seen.

I’ve owned 2 Cremonas that were somewhat different from each other. One had a round sound hole, a neck that joined the body at the 12 fret, and a 14.5” wide body, while the other had a neck that joined the body at the 14th fret, a 16” wide body, and “F” shaped sound holes located closer to the waist of the instrument than one would expect. I’m guessing that the changes in design followed the same chronology with these as was seen with Gibson and Epiphone, where smaller body styles and round sound holes preceded larger bodies with “F” holes.

The Cylinder guitars are quite rare. I’ve owned 3 in the last 30 years and have maybe heard of another 2 or 3 available. By comparison, Martin made 91 D-45 dreadnoughts prior to 1945, and I know of at least a dozen of them. By 1935, Vega gave up on following their own muse and discontinued the line in favor of the ever more popular traditional archtop.

So how does this thing work as an instrument? The 2 Vega Cremons and the Style C that I’ve owned were among the best instruments I’ve ever played. This one…..well, it’s ok. It plays well and has that archtop meets flattop sound that I love in a guitar, but I must say it pales in comparison to the maple body versions. I’m not sure if it’s the mahogany back and sides or this particular instrument. I’ve owned plenty of great mahogany archtops. I think I just may be spoiled.

That’s about all for this month’s From the Top Shelf. I welcome any questions or comments.

Errors are unintentional although we try very hard not to make them- corrections or feedback are always welcome! Guitars are property of individual owners.
Any infringement of copyright is entirely unintentional. Any copyright issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly. Guitars remain property of respective owners.

No comments Vega Style B Cyclinder Guitar | 1930's | SN:unknown

Wandre Framez Naika bass | From the Top Shelf | Scott Freilich

January 20, 2010 Terence Feature articles, From the Top Shelf, Instrument Database

Wandre Framez | Naika bass | 1960 | SN:unknown

H i folks. Welcome to this months From the Top Shelf. Actually this particular item is not something that you’d lightly find on a top shelf. It’s a little to big. It’s a 1960 Wandre Framez Naika bass. It’s number 5 of only 25 ever made, and every one of the 6 or so I’ve seen has been unique and different.

The genius behind this unusual bass was Antonio Pioli. Born in Cavraigo, Italy in 1926, he started out his career as a mason. He reportedly received the nickname “Wandre” from his dad due to his inquisitive nature. The nickname stuck, and it became the name he signed on all of his work. An amateur musician, he was frustrated with some of the problems associated with the instruments he bought.

Bodies cracked, necks warped and broke at the headstock and heal, and neck angles changed over time rendering the instruments unplayable without major work. By the mid 1950s, this true Renaissance man set out to build his own factory to construct instruments of his own design that addressed the problems he found with the available guitars. The factory was made in the shape of a doughnut and high on a hillside to take advantage of as much natural light as possible. There work began on a series of instruments with fiberglass over plywood bodies and removable aluminum necks that ran all the way to the bridge. Each instrument featured Wandre’s Salvador Dali inspired artwork.

By 1958 Wandre had formed a relationship with the Meazzi Brothers, who since just after WWII had been producing and selling instruments under the Framez (derived from Fratelli Meazzi) name. This partnership would last until about 1961, and the Naika bass is one of the products of the relationship. (Some of my friends thought that the Framez name was some combination of Framus and Ibanez, but there is absolutely no relationship. There is an interesting coincidence that the Framus company in Germany was one of the few other manufacturers to include a cutaway and white binding on upright basses. According to my research, their design predated that of Wandre’s. Whether he was inspired by this is not known.)

“Each instrument featured Wandre’s Salvador Dali inspired artwork”

The Naika features some but not all of Wandre’s design improvements. While the neck is removable, it is made of wood and not aluminum. Wandre did make some use of aluminum on the instrument. The bridge, and the now missing original tailpiece, were both aluminum. It does feature the obvious cutaway and white binding on a fire engine red fiberglass over plywood body. This particular bass is sparsely adorned with gold leaf designs over the entire body. Others I’ve seen have smoky sunbursts, fireworks displays, impressionistic scenes of towns in Italy painted on the back, and headstocks carved to look like an old man with a long beard.

I’ve seen several photos of Wandre playing the upright basses he designed, so I assume he was at least somewhat of a bassist. Along with the Naika bass, he built 2 or 3 different aluminum necked electric uprights and a stunning thin bodied acoustic electric cutaway upright called an Ovalbasso that could be disassembled and put into a rectangular case the size of a large artists portfolio. I’d love to come across one of those in a pawnshop, but considering it took me close to 10 years to find my Naika, the prospects of locating one are not good.

That’s about all for this month’s From the Top Shelf. I welcome any questions or comments.

6 comments 1960 Wandre Framez Naika Bass. Instrument database

Stahl Mandobass | From the Top Shelf | Scott Freilich

November 6, 2009 Terence Feature articles, From the Top Shelf, Instrument Database

Stahl | Mandobass | 1912 | SN:unknown

Scott is now a regular contributor to guitarbench and will be authoring a monthly column on pawn shop finds.

Back in the day, and the day I am referring to was sometime in the early 20th Century, musical instruments were often sold by the music teachers who played them. In fact, manufacturers like Gibson would not even set you up as a dealer unless you taught the instrument you were selling. Gibson also sold their own lesson books to help teachers set up programs, and no doubt to add to their own bottom line. Different eras of the century saw the rise and fall of different classes of instruments. Right now, the guitar reigns supreme, but it wasn’t always that way.

In the earliest part of the 20th Century, the most popular instrument in the US was the mandolin. My best guess is that the European immigrants who made up the bulk of our population brought mandolins with them, as most of the mandolins made in the US in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries resembled their European counterparts. In order to keep their students motivated and create additional interest in playing instruments, motivated music teachers would set up orchestras made up of their students.

Obviously an orchestra made up exclusively of mandolinists would lack fullness, so mandolin manufacturers followed the example of violin makers and designed mandolin style instruments to cover the same range of tones as the comparable violin family instrument. After all, a mandolin is basically a violin pitched instrument with frets. Why not make a mandola to cover the viola range and a mandobass to cover the bottom end? Presto, you have a mandolin orchestra.

“a mandolin is basically a violin pitched instrument with frets”

Here we have a Stahl mandobass. Made by the Larson Bros. sometime around 1912, it was designed hold the bass position in the mandolin orchestra. With a body wider than a ¾ size upright bass and a 42.5” scale length, this thing is a monster. I can’t even imagine how big the trees needed to be to supply the spruce top.

While the body looks like rosewood, it actually is maple with a faux finish made to look like rosewood. This was not uncommon on instruments made in the early part of the 20th Century, and was very common on Stahl labeled Larson instruments..

While mandolins, mandolas, and mandocellos work quite well, I have yet to find any mandobass that lives up to my expectations. The Stahl is no exception. One would think that an instrument of this size would produce bass notes that would drown out every other instrument in the orchestra.

But that is not the case. No matter how hard it is plucked, the volume is unimpressive and the tone lacks bass response. Not at all a great instruments, but an interesting piece of history and definitely a great pawnshop find.

That’s about all for this month’s Pawn Shop Find. I welcome any questions or comments.

No comments Stahl | Mandobass | 1912 | SN:unknown

Bruno Mandocello | From the Top Shelf | Scott Freilich

October 2, 2009 Terence Feature articles, From the Top Shelf, Instrument Database

Bruno | Mandocello | SN:unknown

Carl and August Larson were an odd couple of luthiers. They toiled away in anonymity for their entire careers, never once applying their names to an instrument constructed in their shop. Much of their production was sold under the Maurer, Euphenon, Dyre, and Prairie State names, though it was well know that they produced some instruments under other monikers including Stahl, and Stetson. This creates some problems in definitively identifying who actually made some of these instruments, as not all of them were made by the Larsons.

Bob Hartman, a grandson of Carl Larson, has done extensive research and written 3 books on the instruments. Each successive book corrects misinformation found in the previous addition and adds additional information and intrigue to the legacy left by one of the most creative manufacturers of stringed instruments in the early 20th Century.

“a mandolin is basically a violin pitched instrument with frets”

Here we have a Bruno labeled mandocello. According to the latest edition of “The Larson’s Creations, Guitars and Mandolins in America”, Hartman has deduced through research that the Larsons produced some Bruno instruments. Bruno was a name used on instruments sold by C. Bruno and Son, a large distributor of all kinds of musical instruments and related products.

According to Hartman, this is the only mandocello of it’s kind to ever surface, and it compliments perfectly 3 similar Bruno labeled instruments that recently surfaced; 2 mandolins and a mandola. While it shares some construction features with other Larson made instruments that I’ve owned over the years, in many ways it is very different. Since it may be the only one of it’s type, I guess that is not unusual. It was well know that the Larsons produced quite a few custom instruments, including 1 for Les Paul that had no sound holes.

Everything about this mandocello is unusual. While it is similar in size and shape to a Gibson K-4 mandocello, in terms of materials, construction, and tone it might as well be from a different planet.

The Larsons perfected a construction technique they termed “built under tension”. All of their instruments featured this type of construction. All Larson instruments have slightly arched tops and backs. Unlike Gibson’s carved or other companies’ steam bent tops and backs, the arch was created by forcing the tops and backs to be glued against curved braces.

This created an instrument that held up much better against the tension produced by steel strings. In fact, Larson flat tops were among the first to be issued for use with steel strings. This mandocello has a built under tension spruce top, beautiful Brazilian rosewood sides, and a built under tension rosewood back. By comparison, a Gibson K-4 had a carved maple or birch back, birch sides, and a carved spruce top. Sonically, they are nothing alike. The Bruno has a soft, warm, woody tone, while a K-4 has the loud lower midrange bark of an archtop guitar.

Bruno sourced items for distribution from many manufacturers. It has been widely rumored, but often refuted, that Martin made some instruments for them. I have owned several Bruno labeled instruments that were made by Oscar Schmidt, some of which had Bruno labels pasted directly over the original Stella / Oscar Schmidt labels. Bruno must have turned to the Larsons for their higher end items, as all of the Bruno labeled instruments that appear in Hartman’s book are high quality instruments. All in all a great instrument, and an amazing pawnshop find.

That’s about all for this month’s Pawn Shop Find. I welcome any questions or comments.

Scott Freilich guitars@topshelfmusic.com
©2009

Errors are unintentional although we try very hard not to make them- corrections or feedback are always welcome! Guitars are property of individual owners.
Any infringement of copyright is entirely unintentional. Any copyright issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly. Guitars remain property of respective owners.

3 comments Bruno | Mandocello | SN:unknown

“Why can’t I keep this darn thing in tune?!” | Scott Freilich

July 29, 2009 Terence Feature articles, From the Top Shelf

As a guitar repairman, this is probably the most common question I’m asked. Keeping a guitar in tune is different than having a guitar play in tune relative to itself and other instruments. While the topics are related, they are not the same. For today, we’ll stick to methods for keeping your guitar from drifting out of tune while your playing it.

“The most common cause of tuning instability is unstreched strings”

The most common cause of tuning instability is unstretched strings. Most players give their strings a little stretch after installation. A little stretch after installation. In this case, a little is not enough. If you want your guitar to stay in tune, you need to stretch the strings until they don’t go out of tune when you stretch them. This may involve stretching them up several half steps several times to get them to stabilize. When you can’t get the strings to go out of tune no matter how hard you stretch them, they won’t go out of tune under normal playing conditions.

If after stretching you find that your guitar still drifts out of tune while playing, then the cause is most likely a mechanical problem. Many of my customers come in and ask me to change a perfectly good set of tuning gears because their guitar goes out of tune. Nine out of 10 times, the gears are not at fault. Often the string installation procedure is the culprit. If your guitar is not equipped with locking tuners or a locking nut, the strings need to be locked onto the tuners. Locking the string can be achieved in the following manner:

1. Turn the tuner so that the hole in the tuner is perpendicular to the neck.

2. Pull the string through the hole in the tuner from the inside of the headstock towards the outside of the headstock. Leave about 1.5″ of slack string on the inside of the headstock.

3.Take the free end of the string and go around the back of the gear and underneath the portion of the string going through the hole in the tuner.Bend the free end of the string up and over the the portion of the string where it meets the hole in the gear.

4. Now tighten the tuner, allowing the string to wrap in a neat row down towards the bottom of the headstock so that the porting of the string going towards the bridge exits the gear as close to the bottom of the tuner as possible.

If you install your strings using this method, you should eliminate the majority of the mechanical problems involved in keeping the guitar in tune.

The next most common mechanical cause of tuning instability is a poorly cut nut. The nut is the spacer at the top of the neck near the tuning gears. It is important to have the slots in the nut cut accurately; too tight and the strings get caught in the slots, too loose and shift position in the slot. Unless you have experience and a set of fret files, leave this adjustment to your repairman. It is also important to have a nut made out of good material. Some of the budget guitars I see have nut material that is soft enough to have the string dig into them. These should be changed to a material like graphite, bone, micarta, or corian.

Keeping a guitar with a vibrato unit in tune involves a whole new set of mechanical problems. First and foremost, you need to use the vibrato within the limits of it’s design. A Bigsby style vibrato or the units found on most vintage Fenders will not do dive bombs and stay in tune. A Bigsby requires a roller bridge or one that rocks in back and forth when the unit is used. A Fender Stratocaster or similar vibrato requires careful adjustment of the spring tension and mounting screws to have it return to pitch. Many of these also have a “tremsetter” stabilized installed with the springs which also requires adjustment. These are best left to the experienced repairman.

A locking vibrato can also cause mechanically related tuning problems. In addition to requiring adjustments similar to that of a vintage Fender, a loose or worn lock nut will cause the strings to slip out of tune. Check the attachment between the lock nut and the neck to make sure that it is solid. Also look at the locking plates to make sure that they don’t have grooves worn into them from repeated use. If so, the lock nut will need to be replaced.

While acoustic guitars may share the nut and string installation problems, they have their own set of mechanical maladies. Most of these involve the bridge. From repeated use, bridge pins and bridge pin holes become warn. Contrary to popular belief, it’s not really the pins that hold the strings on the guitar. the pins are installed to wedge the ball ends of the strings forward and onto a bridgeplate fastened to the underside of the top of the guitar.

If the ball ends are not firmly seated against this plate, or if the plate is worn, the guitar will not stay in tune. Bridge pins that are too tight will not allow the ball ends to seat properly, and those that are too lose or warn will not push the ball ends forward onto the bridge plate. Pins are easy to replace and come in a multitude of styles. A worn bridgeplate requires repair or replacement.

That’s about all for keeping your guitar in tune. I welcome any questions or comments.

Errors are unintentional although we try very hard not to make them- corrections or feedback are always welcome! Guitars are property of individual owners. Guest articles: The statements and opinions expressed in these posts are solely those of the individual guest writer and are not those of guitarbench and its administrators, moderators, agents and other voluntary staff, its supporters, financial or otherwise, or its members, guests or other contributors. Any infringement of copyright is entirely unintentional. Any copyright issues should be address to: writers@guitarbench.com. We will attempt to resolve these issues quickly. Guitars remain property of respective owners.