Greetings,why does some Strads. have their build date on the inside back plate and some do not have a date at all and how would you be able to date them? Kirk
Good question. If someone wanted to do a serious Stradolin Archive--but I don't think anyone does-- they would collect all the dates found in all the dated Strads. My impression is that they were getting stamped at the factory (wherever that was) for a while in the late 1930s. So the earliest ones show no dates, and neither do the later ones. Anyone have any info on this? For the undated Strads, the best way of dating them is probably to match them up with pictures in catalogues or ads that can be dated. BC
This would take some serious work. One of the problems is that many people assume that their Strad's are from a certain date. Besides the date stamp in the mandolins that have them we'd need to be able to document some sales receipts, etc. I've been able to date a few I've had by the funky tuners that Gibson used in the same time period, but again that's still just a guess. Kind of wide open without any serial numbers or records.
Did they use Waverly tuners? Did some have a fully cut out F-hole. I am trying to identify an old, unlabeled mando. I have looked at pictures of Strads and there are many similarities in construction but mine has a different peghead shape. Mine is solid wood throughout, old brown painted finish. It is in pieces and needs to be put back together, glue failure from age and poor storage.
I have never seen but one. with fully open "f" holes it was for sale in the Cafe classifieds some years ago but there was several different peg heads and hardware also a large body short neck and a small body long neck. Kirk
Thanks for that info. I want to get it back together and find out how it sounds.
Post a picture of the pieces and we should be able to identify it. I've never seen a real Strad-O-Lin that didn't have one of the two segmented F hole types.
Yeah,well that's the only one I've ever seen.It had a high arch, more so than any others and looked to be in very good condition,five hundred dollar price,this was several years ago and at the time I thought it was a bit too much,I guess the ' f ' holes could have been modified Kirk
I was in a shop yesterday with four Strads on the wall. (Rufus Guitars here in Vancouver.) They all seemed to be from the early period (1935-40?), and all with laminated tops. But I noticed that the one with the fingerboard extension had the "comma" f-holes, the other three had a straight cut at the end of the fingerboard, and the "dot" f-holes. Looking at photos here on the site, it looks like these features go together (even with differences in tailpiece, pickguard, etc.). Does anyone know if this is a genuine pattern? If so, I wonder if it relates to date, or if the extension-comma instruments were just the fancier models.
In the catalogue photos Mike has just posted in our gallery I notice that all the Strads of this date (1950s ?) have the short neck, the wider, pointy headstock, the squared-off fingerboard, and the "dot" f-holes. Like David's photo. (Mike's fancy Strad has most of these features, but we haven't seen its head.) So this combination relates to the date, not the level of the model in the line. The Strads I mentioned above all have the rounded head design seen in my mando and Peter LaMorte's, as well as the same style of shading and finish. So I take it these are signs of early (prewar?) Strads. Question remains whether in the late thirties they were making long and short necks, square and extended fingerboards, comma and dot f-holes, simultaneously (so that they relate to different price levels), or if there was a change affecting the whole line at some point (different dates).
