Re: Louis Sutz of Cincinatti?
I have lived in the Cincinnati area for around 37 years and as a result I have heard the name mentioned.
My understanding is he was building guitars and violins in the early decades of the 1900's in the area of Cincinnati known as Over the Rhine because of its mostly German population -- today it is a low income/high crime area.
But 30 years ago you could occasionally still find one of his instruments in the pawn shops.
In around 1989 I found a classical guitar in one of those shops and bought it for (as I recall) $50 -- its pretty nicely made and sounds good -- I believe it was built by one of his later apprentices by the name of Daniyyel L. Howard jr. (yes that is the right spelling -- it seems like a woman's name? but I don't now any woman that uses "junior" .
Rumor is Sutz had many students but none stayed very long because he was so demanding that most did not want to work in his shop.
But I do know a gentleman, a luthier/repairman who knows "just about everything" about insturments and musicians in this area -- next time I see him I'll ask -- never discussed this topic before.
In fact, I have no proof of any of my information on Sutz other than what I overheard years ago in the comments by a musician who had been playing folk music in this area for a long time and before that her father was playing. It was related in a story she was telling another musican and I happened to be standing there and heard it too.
I sure did not know that he made any mandolins -- can I ask how you came across that tibit of information? -- that is very interesting to me! Do you know if they were flat backs or bowl backs?
Bernie
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Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.
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