c.1925 Stromberg-Voisinet "Galiano" Mandolin

[Jake Wildwood]

Just finished work on this for a customer... plays great, sounds tops. It has a strange feel in the hands (very comfortable, but almost concert uke-like) as it's a little shorter and wider than a typical flatback from the times... which mostly feel like a larger bowlback with a flat back... (ie, long soundboard, relatively narrow width body).

More info & photos at my blog (click here).

[Jill McAuley]

Nice! I love all the pearloid on that thing - great job (as usual!) on bringing it back to life!

Cheers,
Jill

[Gerry Cassidy]

That does look really cool! I'd love to have a character like that in the brood. I'll bet is sounds great!

[MikeEdgerton]

Obviously made "for the trade", That brand name was owned by the Oscar Schmidt Company in New Jersey.

[Jim Nollman]

Many thanks for showing the photos. My Kay is of the same period, although it shows no date. When i bought it, it had no info inside, and no name on the headstock. What was going on in those days, that so many companies were making mandolins of this same odd shape? Must have been one shop building them, with many retailers insisting on using their own name. These days you hardly ever see a new mandolin with this wave shape. I wonder why? There is a builder in Toronto, named Beardsell, who makes a gorgeous contemporary version of it.

My f hole Kay is thicker than this one, about 3 inches deep. It is also super light with a short neck. Mine does not have a big sound. i play it exclusively in my own living room.

There's no mother of pearl anywhere. Mine looks solid, although where the binding is thin, you can see its a laminate all the way around, with (maybe) spruce on top and bird's eye maple on the sides and back. When i got mine, it had the same tailpiece as yours, although i have long since installed a fancy Chinese cut brass one on mine.

[MikeEdgerton]

They were all being made by the same company. They sold them "to the trade"... other manufacturers, retailers, teachers, etc. to be relabeled or not labeled at all. I've seen this same body style with the Harmony name on it. All of the big builders did this, including Gibson.

[crazymandolinist]

Love that body shape

[MikeEdgerton]

I have just corrected my thought process. All these years I thought I'd seen one of these labeled Harmony. I just went and found the picture on the Broadway Music Harmony website. They've made a mistake. On this page they have this picture posted. This monitor has greater detail than my old monitors. It is a Kay.

[brunello97]

This is truly interesting, as it furthers the Schmidt-Galiano web as Mike and Jake indicate. The Galiano-Raphael Ciani-D'Angelico connection is ripe for speculation. I have a very curious Galiano on the way, which hopefully provokes that triad further. I had no previous idea that it was connected to Chicago, as well. I guess no real surprise given the web of American mando building in this era. One more example in the continuing saga of shaping a pickguard to work aesthetically with a curiously profiled instrument.

Nice work, as always, Jake!

Mick

[Jake Wildwood]

Thanks everyone... RE the Galiano connection... I thought the Galiano brand was simply owned by a distributor (not by OS)? I've recalled seeing the name on instruments made by Os. Schmidt, Stromberg-Voisinet, and in rare instances on Regal makes.

Also... just to reply to folks... yes this sounds fantastic. Mahogany-top mandolins sound like nothing else. They always have a sublime, almost liquid timbre.

[MikeEdgerton]

It was an OS brand name but apparently at one time there was a shop in NYC with the same name. I've heard stories over the years about a group of luthiers at Schmidt they called "the Italians". That like every other unsubstantiated story has to be researched. Frank Ford has this guitar in the Museum at www.frets.com. I'm assuming there is more about the Galiano connection in Neil Harpe's Stella book. I've been meaning to get that thing for a few years.

[brunello97]

It is the Raphael Ciani connection which most interests me. These labels are pretty well known, with either his name or R.C. initials. Not to steal Jake's thunder, but it seems a different thread in the A. Galiano trail. Yet somebody or somebodies were pulling the various strings at different times. "The Italians" might be a reference to Ciani and his crew and ultimately point towards D'Angelico.

Clearly these are my speculations about unsubstantiated stories. Mike, I think I should get a copy of Neil's book as well.

Mick

[Tavy]

Beautiful!

What else is there to say?

John.