Howe-Orme on eBay.. "kissed by the angels"

**EdHanrahan** · Jun-19-2013, 9:43am

It does look really nice, but the knurled nuts seem to be sitting on top of the saddle! No clear picture showing what the action looks like.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/151057884685

And YIKES!! On closer inspection, those nuts seem to have screws thru them! Or am I seeing things?

**Jim Garber** · Jun-19-2013, 9:57am

Too bad... I almost went for this one which, AFAIK, has less issues and is more original. I am pretty sure that for the current one, the bridge and tailpiece are both non-original. Also, the seller says that the bridge is glued on. I highly doubt they had adjustable bridges for these. And who knows what other add-ons the prior luthiers have done to this poor little guy.

Seller's description:

There were some cracks in the top and the lower side. The top cracks were repaired some time in the past before she came to me. I had the side cracks professionally repaired. The strap peg is a replacement. The original was broken off flush with the tailpiece. There was a crack in the middle of the heel of the neck. It too was repaired before it came into my hands. There was a guitar size strap peg secured by a machine screw to the heel and was not correct so I decided to have it removed. In the removal the screw broke off flush with heel. As the crack is stable no further effort was made to remove the remainder of the screw shaft. The visual affect is very small. It's doing its job so I saw no need to disturb it. I felt to to so would very possibly make things worse so it was dressed even with the heel cap. One last issue is that at some time in the past the bridge was glued to the top.

**Jim Garber** · Jun-19-2013, 9:59am

Here is what the bridge and tailpiece should look like. That last one was a better one IMHO and it also had its original case.

**allenhopkins** · Jun-20-2013, 2:43am

Got my Howe-Orme off eBay for less than $200, from a guy in Horseheads NY who said it was a "wall hanger."

But, the restorative experts at Stutzman's did a nice little neck re-set on it, and it's eminently playable -- and I do play it, now and then. Tailpiece cover's missing, and some of the tabs broken off, so a previous owner cut "tabs" out of the tailpiece to hook up two of the strings. They work, and I'm relatively happy, especially at the price.

**Bob DeVellis** · Jun-20-2013, 8:52pm

Well, as others have already noted, the one with the "adjustable" bridge is certainly not original (bridge and tailpiece wrong) and the description is incorrect in a couple of respects (the "E H Co" logo is celluloid not MOP and the top is pressed, not carved).

The fret buzz above the 10th fret on the other one may mean that the neck has shifted and the extension isn't on the same plane as the rest of the neck. Usually, though, the higher frets aren't the ones that are the problem but it's impossible to tell much from the pictures shown. I can check the serial number tomorrow to see whether it falls into the range of the elevated or flush fingerboards. I'm guessing the former, but I'll check. If my guess is correct, the neck could need a fair amount of work. Just about all of these I've ever seen have either already had or clearly need a neck reset. The neck joint wasn't designed to hold up for more than a century.

Howe-Ormes can be made playable and they have an interesting tone with surprising volume when they're intact. One challenge is the bridges, which can easily drift fore and aft on the domed top. A small change has a fairly significant impact on the string height, so getting the bridge in the proper place for intonation is tricky. If it frets sharp, the usual remedy is to move the bridge back a bit. But that can lower the action just enough to make it fret a bit flat. Getting it just right is a challenge, more so for some reason than on other arched top instruments, it seems.

Nice to see a couple out there that I don't think I've seen before. I'll check the serial numbers tomorrow and report back if they've shown up before.

**Bob DeVellis** · Jun-21-2013, 10:33am

The plainer one Jim mentioned looks pretty much the way it should. The fretboards were no longer elevated by that serial number, as best as I can tell. The earlier one has all of the problems already noted.