What IS this thing?

[EdHanrahan]

8 strings, uke shaped, oval hole, 10 frets clear, bowlback-style inlaid pickguard (tortoise?), bowlback-style bridge & tailpiece. The back & sides sort of look like oak, as from an old school desk.

http://cgi.ebay.com/antique-8-string...3D10%26ps%3D63

Whadda ya think?

[JEStanek]

Looks like an old Mandolinetto that has seen better days. It looks like something Jake Wildwood would restore to great condition though.

Jamie

[EdHanrahan]

Thanks, Jamie! From your link:

<The "Lyra Brand" mandolinetto pictured has "Vernon" on the peghead. ... And (a photo of) one that says "Lyra" on the peghead.>

The one on eBay, that says "The Vernon" on the inside sticker, may have 2 holes at the top of the headstock where a badge (Lyra?) had been. Its oval sound hole looks similar to the Lyra pictured. But... the body is a bit different and peghead shape is very different.

Hmmm...

[allenhopkins]

"The Vernon" is a brand name associated with Charles Bruno & Son, the big music distributor founded in the 1830's. Bruno, to my knowledge, didn't manufacture anything themselves, but bought and distributed instruments from a variety of manufacturers. I believe they're still in business, possibly affiliated with Kaman.

Here's a link to a very similar instrument (scroll down to see it). Year is shown as "1902," which is probably the date of the Bruno catalog that lists it.

[EdHanrahan]

Yes! The image from the Bruno catalog can be blown up enough to show the oval headstock badge saying "The Vernon".

http://www.pictures-clipart-graphics...02-10-b-bg.jpg

Thanks, guys!

So the question becomes: It it something that I can restore to great, or at least reasonable, condition? Uhmmm...

[allenhopkins]

Think you should settle for "reasonable." Bruno wasn't known as a source of top-flight instruments. Without having a competent repairperson take a look at it, who knows? Check out the neck-body joint; the Howe-Orme mandolinetto I own required a neck re-set. These mandolinettos are usually quite lightly built, but they still have to hold the tension of eight strings, and the tops and the neck joints often suffer from it.

[Bill Snyder]

You know that when these were built and marketed the term mandolinetto was not used. They were called mandolins. The Howe Orme instruments predated the carved top Gibsons. In Howe's patent application they were called mandolins.

[EdHanrahan]

Think you should settle for "reasonable."

Agreed, but probably not at $150! Closer look reveals that the neck is pulled up a fair amount (even if the joint does look okay from here), the tortoise-shell pickguard is gone, and the surface finish, to paraphrase Jamie, has seen WAY better days. Hmmm, the shell imprint looks almost burned into the surface - maybe decades of sunlight??

Anyway, it'd still make a cute wall hanging - for way less $!

[Skip Kelley]

I would try to get it for alot less! Needs too much work for that price!

[Jim Garber]

Big difference between this and Howe-Orme instruments. This is like a little guitar with flat top and back whereas the H-Os has cylinder top and backs.

[Bob DeVellis]

Actually, Howe-Ormes have flat backs but definitely arched tops. The Elias Howe Company also marketed less-expensive guitar-shaped mandolins with flat tops and backs but they weren't branded as Howe-Ormes. The Howe-Ormes were definitely professional-grade instruments in their day. They almost all need a neck reset at some point but they're worth the effort, in my judgment. This Vernon, as others have pointed out, was never a top-grade mandolin and probably was marketed to capitalize on the Howe-Ormes' popularity in the early days of the 20th century.

[Jake Wildwood]

I'd like to weigh in here: thanks for the kudos, Jamie!

Also... I have this on my watch list, too!

Since the fretboard looks really straight all the way up to the last fret it's probably suffered the fate of a lot of other instruments strung up with heavier strings than desirable. I've worked on a lot of instruments where the neck block has actually shifted with the rest of the body rather than the neck pulling loose from the block (as in this case) and "warping" as a lot of folks call it. It happens A LOT on older Harmony and Regals c.1920s where, as noted before, the super-light construction worked backwards on it as tension got higher.

My solution for this instrument would be to strip and refinish the top (the pickguard is fine under all that bubbly) and make a substitute bridge (or cut down this one as it seems tall enough) that brings the action down. And then string it with 030w / 022w / 012 / 009 at max.

If you don't want to refinish the top, all that yuck will really clean up. There's a lot of grime, watermarks, and gore on it besides the alligator. It'd still look fairly respectable.

And the oak is excellent on the b/s. I love the tone of oak on instruments. The 2nd best bowlback I've ever played had an oak neck and bowl.