# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Tenor Guitars >  Orpheum tenor guitar

## jruff

Recently acquired this beauty. I've been unable to find anything about Orpheum tenor guitars on the web.
Anyone familiar with these?

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## JEStanek

Looks cool. It also looks like you're charging it up!  
Jamie

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## MikeEdgerton

Any numbers printed inside that puppy?

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## jruff

It spent years in somebody's attic. The battery is shot... ;-)
I couldn't find any numbers on it. The Kluson tuners were made late 40s to early 50s.

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## wannabethile

oh man, oh man. its gonna be mighty hard for me to not be envious of that, haha that tenor geetar is sweet!!!

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## JeffD

That is a stunner. How does it sound.

I used to have an old Orpheum banjolin that I played for a while, but I did not know there was an Orpheum tenor guitar.

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## allenhopkins

Here's some information from Michael Wright off the Acoustic Guitar website:

*Q* I'm looking for information about Orpheum guitars. Where and when were they manufactured? Are any of the old archtops collectible?

*A* The subject of Orpheum guitars is one of those obscure corners of guitardom awaiting more research, and what has been published is vague and at times contradictory. The Orpheum brand dates back to the late 19th century and is primarily associated with William L. Lange of New York. In the late 1800s, James H. Buckbee was one of the top New York banjo makers. He supplied instruments to other companies, which marketed them under their own house brands. Buckbee sold his business to Lange and William P. Rettberg in 1897, and they introduced the well-respected Orpheum-brand banjos. In around 1921 Lange apparently took over the business and sold both Orpheum and Paramount banjos. When the guitar overtook the banjo in the 1930s, Lange added Paramount guitars to his line. He is reported to have marketed some Orpheum-brand guitars, but this is not certain and nothing is known of them.

Lange weathered the Great Depression but went out of business in 1941 or '42. In 1944 the Orpheum brand name was picked up by New York distributor Maurice Lipsky, who applied it to both guitars and banjos. Most Orpheum guitars I've encountered date from the Lipsky era. In the 1950s, Lipsky marketed Orpheum electric archtops and little Les Paulsized electric hollow-bodies, which look very much like those made by United (formerly Oscar Schmidt) in Jersey City, the source of many similar Premier guitars sold by Sorkin, Lipsky's competitor at the time. In the early 1960s, Lipsky began to use the Orpheum name on guitars imported from Japan, but the name doesn't seem to have survived beyond the big crash of 1968. In any case, be cautious when purchasing an instrument with the Orpheum brand name.

*Note:* the "Orpheum" nameplate is now on a series of imported Asian instruments marketed by Tacoma. #It's speculated that Kay built some of the later-era Orpheums (Orphea?).

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## wafflestoo

> Recently acquired this beauty. I've been unable to find anything about Orpheum tenor guitars on the web.
> Anyone familiar with these?


I am also trying to find info on my Orpheum guitar. It looks almost identical to your tenor, jruff. Mine has a pickguard which I cut (stupid me) when I was too young to know better, to accommodate a pickup. (My first acoustic, my first electric)
It has the letter M on the headstock where the truss rod cover would be. There is no serial number that I can find. I believe it may have been made by Kay guitars. There is also a line called Orpheum made by Harmony Guitar.
While it plays just fine action-wise, it is not the greatest sounding guitar...(my luthier called it a cigar box), but I love the retro archtop look and, since it was my dad's, I will never part with it. I don't know when it was made. It has been around for as long as I can remember (I'm 54). There does not seem to be much on the web about Orpheum Guitars. My guess is that they were a lower end guitar that people just didn't hang on to.

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## MikeEdgerton

These guitars were most likely made by one of the larger builders that built "for the trade". I've had Orpheum mandolins that were built by the same folks that built the Strad-O-Lin mandolins. Orpheum was a Rettberg & Lange brandname used on banjos in the early 1900's and where the brand went in later years I don't know. I've seen 6 string guitars that are similar to your tenor as well.

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## allenhopkins

> Orpheum was a Rettberg & Lange brandname used on banjos in the early 1900's and where the brand went in later years I don't know. I've seen 6 string guitars that are similar to your tenor as well.


Hate to plug my earlier (March 10) post in this thread, _but_ Michael Wright addressed some of these questions in his _Acoustic Guitar_ posting...

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## journeybear

I have a National steel Triolian tenor guitar, an absolute delight to play. For much of the 80s I was playing in a jug band, and I was looking for a way to broaden my sonic horizons, so to speak. I picked up a banjolin, which was fine for the upbeat numbers, but was rather lacking in subtlety  :Wink:  thus useless for mellower applications. I was looking for a steel mandolin - much like the one Allen Hopkins has, I expect - and on a visit to my local luthier's shop one day I saw the aforementioned Triolian. I'd never heard of a tenor guitar before, but I was able to play it because it was tuned in fifths, like a mandola. The neck is a lot longer than a mandola's and thus the fret spacing is a bit of a challenge (my fingers have adapted to mandolin-size spacing over the last forty years of playing), but it was pretty much love at first pick. 

There is something compelling about it - it keeps steering me toward playing blues or ragtime. It's as if I get transported to the 30s whenever I pick it up, it's kind of weird ... I keep playing half-tone runs. Perfect for jug band applications, I must say. You can hear a bit of it at my myspace page - http://www.myspace.com/mandolinsteve9 - on "Wild About My Lovin'" and "Overseas Stomp" - not that I'm the greatest slide player  :Whistling:  but it worked for the recording. I don't usually play it with a slide, but that's what was called for there.

I haven't figured out how to amplify it yet. Can't use a Fishman bridge, there's a metal flange over the bridge, and no room under it - well, about 3/8". I don't know if they still make the kind that sticks onto your instrument, but I never liked them anyway. I don't play it often enough to worry much, and it sure is loud enough for miking anyway, but I'd like some flexibility, as well as the fun of putting it through an amp. Suggestions?

If I ever figure out how, I'll put up a picture. Meanwhile, Allen, I'm wondering - you say you have a "Natl Triolian Dobro mando" - is that with a wooden or steel body? I thought Nationals were all steel, while Dobros are wooden with the steel resonator. I'm confused  :Confused:

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## allenhopkins

> Meanwhile, Allen, I'm wondering - you say you have a "Natl Triolian Dobro mando" - is that with a wooden or steel body? I thought Nationals were all steel, while Dobros are wooden with the steel resonator. I'm confused...


My fault, mine and the limitations of the "signature" feature; you can only use so many characters, and I was right up against the limit, so I omitted any punctuation.


I actually have a National Triolian mandolin *and* a Dobro mandolin, and the difference is exactly as you said: the National is steel-bodied, with a "biscuit" bridge and an aluminum resonator cone, and the Dobro has a plywood body, with an aluminum "spider bridge" and aluminum resonator cone.

Glad you're enjoying the National tenor guitar.  I have a Dobro tenor guitar and a Gibson, and, honestly, they don't get a lot of playing time these days.  I will have to drag one or both of them out and pick 'em a bit.

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## journeybear

> My fault, mine and the limitations of the "signature" feature; you can only use so many characters, and I was right up against the limit, so I omitted any punctuation
> 
> I actually have a National Triolian mandolin *and* a Dobro mandolin, and the difference is exactly as you said: the National is steel-bodied, with a "biscuit" bridge and an aluminum resonator cone, and the Dobro has a plywood body, with an aluminum "spider bridge" and aluminum resonator cone.


Aha! Thanks for the 'splainin'. I flashed on the "Triolian" designation - I'd never seen it before nor have I since I bought my tenor. I didn't even know National used the name for its mandolins as well. I learn stuff all the time here!

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