Any info about Odell Mandolins?

[tdnate]

Hi Folks,
I was recently given a vintage Odell Mandolin to be repaired. It looks like a fairly inexpensive mando and the headstock says Odell Quality Boston Mass. It is an A style, oval hole. I am coming up blank on any photos or info online so far. The only thing close is Thompson and Odell bowl back mandolins, and this is an A style (as I noted). I will try and post photos soon. If anyone has any idea, I'd welcome it. I like to do research on these old instruments and since I will have to replace the bridge, I'd like to see what was used originally. Thanks!

[MikeEdgerton]

Hi Folks,
I was recently given a vintage Odell Mandolin to be repaired. It looks like a fairly inexpensive mando and the headstock says Odell Quality Boston Mass. It is an A style, oval hole. I am coming up blank on any photos or info online so far. The only thing close is Thompson and Odell bowl back mandolins, and this is an A style (as I noted). I will try and post photos soon. If anyone has any idea, I'd welcome it. I like to do research on these old instruments and since I will have to replace the bridge, I'd like to see what was used originally. Thanks!

If you could post a picture it can probably be identified. The American musical instrument business was rife with companies that built "for the trade".

[tdnate]

Hi Folks,
I was recently given a vintage Odell Mandolin to be repaired. It looks like a fairly inexpensive mando and the headstock says Odell Quality Boston Mass. It is an A style, oval hole. I am coming up blank on any photos or info online so far. The only thing close is Thompson and Odell bowl back mandolins, and this is an A style (as I noted). I will try and post photos soon. If anyone has any idea, I'd welcome it. I like to do research on these old instruments and since I will have to replace the bridge, I'd like to see what was used originally. Thanks!

[MikeEdgerton]

I suspect it was built by Harmony in Chicago for the trade and that Odell was probably a retail store. Regal made a similar model in Chicago. Harmony made that same mandolin up until the day they closed in the early 70's. They are on eBay weekly. Are there any numbers stamped inside?

[MikeEdgerton]

I would suspect that it was sold by the same company that was publishing music in the Boston area that shared the name.

[NickR]

I bought a very similar mandolin for $25 a while back. It needed repair but I managed to fix a huge crack on its back and found an old bowlback bridge that fit it. Ih as the typical "frosted2 paint job on the board and I assume it is a mid-30s Supertone model. It is definitely a Harmony product. It has the lowest action of all my mandolins and has that bright birch "chirp" sound. Funnily enough it has a name inside on a brace in pencil- she should have used capital letters but I think it is Odelle or possible Adelle something! I wonder if this mandolin featured has writing on the brace inside?

[tdnate]

I looked for stamped numbers to no avail. I also used my arthroscope to look around inside. Nothing there either. I will be pulling the back off for some soundboard repair. The back is coming off anyway, so no foul there. I'll post more as I go along, but since this is not a high priority instrument, it may take a while. Thanks for all the responses. I deeply appreciate this community.

[NickR]

Back in the 30s, the best you will find is a Harmony date stamp and sometimes with a Supertone retailed instrument, the Supertone code number but code s for the model are found especially from the 40s on but rarely before this time. My mandolin has an illegible date stamp- it is in a rectangle which is rare in the 30s and was used from 1935 to 1939 along with the more usual oval stamp. Sometimes, the date stamp was made on the label and if that has fallen out then the mark is gone. I took another look inside and I think it is a name Adelle Browne but it is hard to decipher. I got lucky with my mandolin as despite that huge crack, it did not affect how the braces were glued and all I had to do once a clamped out the crack and glued it was too add a couple of cleats. I have dated it as 1936 for the photo file but the date is smudged. It is a very low frills entry level mandolin- I think Supertone sold them for as low as $2.99 in the late 30s but it has a super low action that involved plenty of fret filing as the substitute bridge is not high and it is a mere 1.4mm gap at fret 12 under the G strings. I think it makes a great learner mandolin.

[MikeEdgerton]

Supertone was a brandname owned by Sears Roebuck and retailed only in their stores and catalog. I have to assume that this Harmony built instrument was either made with no brand name (for the trade) and the label was applied by the retailer (most likely) or they bought in a large enough quantity that Harmony applied the label for them (not likely).

Many times the date code and model information did not appear inside these instruments, it was always hit and miss.

[tdnate]

It's been a few months, but I thought I would post and update for anyone interested. I ended up taking the back of the mando (it was starting to come off anyway) and found a few issues. The crack in soundboard was previously glued and looked like it was still holding just fine. It was slightly out of register though but I didn't want to waste time reopening the crack. I did put a small cleat just to make sure it wouldn't want to separate in the future. The back braces literally fell off when I took the back off. I re-attached them. The top braces were in good shape and I decided to leave them alone. Some of the kerfing had come loose so I re-glued them. The original nut was wood and I tried to recreate that out of rosewood first, then ebony, but for some reason the pieces between the double strings kept snapping no matter how careful I seemed to be. I had a piece of nut, so I ended up using that. I purchased a bridge from eBay and cut/sanded it to fit the top. It's all put back together with a bit of touchup paint using Mohawk Brown toner. This was not a project for money. Just something to increase my knowledge base, so I didn't mind the time I put into it. I was surprised the tone was very mellow. Not at all the bright ringy tone other mandolins seem to have. I used GHS "professional" Phosphor Bronze strings 10-15-24-36. I also cleaned up the fret board a bit and opted not to a lot of time into the frets. Just made sure there was no fret rocking going on.