I'm putting my vintage instrument collection on the web

[nmiller]

I've made a hobby of collecting obscure and interesting old guitars, mandolins and other instruments. I appreciate them both as playable noisemakers and as pieces of musical history, and I finally decided to show them for public viewing. I've created (well, started to create) a website called Old Frets where I show hi-res pics of my gear and provide a thorough description of each. There are notes about each piece's construction and interesting features, but the main thrust of each page is to give some historical context to their design and explain their importance in the evolution of the guitar/mandolin/etc.

I have seventeen pieces up so far, including mandolins, guitars and lap steels. There are no amps up at the moment, and I haven't decided if I'm going to put them up yet. If I do, it will be after I'm done with everything else. This will be a long-term, never-ending project since I will put up new instruments as I acquire them. I've gotten a lot of great info from this forum regarding vintage mandolins, and I welcome any additional info or corrections you might have.


In the meantime, I invite you to check out what's currently shown on Old Frets. Enjoy!

[Michael Weaver]

I really enjoyed your website. I enjoyed that Guild even more. You have some really nice, cool instruments. Thanks for sharing.

[vegas]

Nice website and interesting collection. I learned many new things and have it bookmarked. Thank you!

[Jordan Mong]

Very nice website, very informative. I found it particularly interesting that the Slingerland 401 predates what was considered "the first solid body electrics", but also carries many other innovations, as well. The site is very nicely arranged, looks good, and is very interesting. I'll have to get back into reading it later, but what I've read thus far has been very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

[Backlineman]

Very cool. Nice job.

[FL Dawg]

I love the Larson mandola. Very distinctive pickguard and inlays.

http://www.oldfrets.com/Mandola.html

Also dig the EM-200, you have one of the nicer ones I've seen and that is a great instrument. Interesting that it lacks a serial number, I have always wondered if that's how the early ones were made?

http://www.oldfrets.com/Florentine.html

[Anglocelt]

Thanks for letting us know about your new website. I appreciate the work that you have put into the historical accounts and the instrument descriptions. Your website is nice and uncluttered too, making it a pleasure to browse. The photos are also well done but can I put in a plea for some sideways photos to provide a more rounded account of the instruments and to show neck set angle and so on?

I was interested to see your Larson mandola from the 1930s. I have some English made mandos from the early 20th century which are very similar in construction and appearance. In particular John Dallas of London made some fine quality mandolin family instruments from about 1900 to 1920 which are almost identical to the Larson you show. I think I recall seeing an old USA catalogue which showed some similar mandolins described as 'English' models. There may have been some transatlantic learning going on.

Kevin

[nmiller]

Also dig the EM-200, you have one of the nicer ones I've seen and that is a great instrument. Interesting that it lacks a serial number, I have always wondered if that's how the early ones were made?

I believe it's common for the early ones not to have serial numbers. The same is true of the early Les Paul solid guitars. A disputed rumor has it that the folks at the Gibson factory didn't know where to stick the labels in solid instruments, so they didn't carry serials, but it seems more likely that they just hadn't come up with an alternative yet.

The photos are also well done but can I put in a plea for some sideways photos to provide a more rounded account of the instruments and to show neck set angle and so on?

...

There may have been some transatlantic learning going on.

That's a great suggestion about the photos; I'll take some quarter shots from now on.

The Larsons were Swedish immigrants, so it wouldn't surprise me if they were influenced by European designs.

[hank]

You've put together a really nice collection and website Noah. You're interesting twist to collecting the more obscure unheard of brands and builders make your your new site all the more interesting in your commentary and research. My only observed negative is as Kevin mentioned to add photos of the side or at least slightly turned views(like the illustration at the top of the page) to reveal that aspect of each instruments geometry. I also hope you plan to include audio examples eventually. Whenever I get my mandolins out for those interested in acoustic instruments I usually try to play bits and pieces for them to hear the radical difference in sustain, projection and tone between them. On this subject an example might be an audio comparison of your resonator's volume to a more conventional acoustic instrument of the era, etc.. This is one of the biggest short comings to me when I visit museums of old instruments and there are no audio examples of the sound that particular instrument is capable of. It always seemed strange to me that these things were made to be heard primarily and admired visually as a secondary feature but we always reverse these two aspects when they are collected and cataloged into museums. I'm hoping this changes in these new binary museums like yours.

[Ron McMillan]

I enjoyed your website, Noah. Thanks for sharing it here.

ron

[pfox14]

Very cool website. Lots of very interesting instruments. Especially like the National Resonator tenor guitar

[FL Dawg]

I believe it's common for the early ones not to have serial numbers. The same is true of the early Les Paul solid guitars. A disputed rumor has it that the folks at the Gibson factory didn't know where to stick the labels in solid instruments, so they didn't carry serials, but it seems more likely that they just hadn't come up with an alternative yet.

1939 acoustic guitar. Serial numers had been stamped on the back (and edge) of the peghead for a long time.

We may never know the real reason why some early versions of solidbodies didn't get stamped.

[bratsche]

That Larson mandola looks great to me, too. (lusting)

bratsche

[Bernie Daniel]

Thanks for all the historical information on the Gibson EM-200 and Florentine. I have a '64 EM-150 which also P-90's pickups of course. I was not aware of the fact that some magnets were made of better materials (Alnico V versus Alnico III) -- did Gibson eventually switch over to the better magnet on all P-90s at some point?

[nmiller]

I also hope you plan to include audio examples eventually. Whenever I get my mandolins out for those interested in acoustic instruments I usually try to play bits and pieces for them to hear the radical difference in sustain, projection and tone between them. On this subject an example might be an audio comparison of your resonator's volume to a more conventional acoustic instrument of the era, etc.

Audio samples are quite a bit harder than pics to do well. This applies more to the electric instruments, where amplifiers complicate things, but it also applies somewhat to acoustics. Listenable audio samples require normalization and usually a little compression; even without that, it's nearly impossible to accurately compare the volume of acoustic instruments in recordings. I'd have to standardize my recordings - microphone distance and angle, preamp settings, audio interface settings, computer software - to a degree which isn't practical. I could try and make each instrument sound its best (which is what I normally do when I record demos) but that's very different than an objective comparison.

I hope one day to take a bunch of my instruments into the studio with a few players who are better than I am and record a slew of demos. I don't think my amateur living room setup is up to the task.

I was not aware of the fact that some magnets were made of better materials (Alnico V versus Alnico III) -- did Gibson eventually switch over to the better magnet on all P-90s at some point?

I wouldn't call one alnico better or worse than another, just different; it depends on what sound you want to get out of your pickup. My information says that Gibson switched from III to V in 1957, but I've also read that they used a random assortment of magnets in the '60s and you never know what you're going to find. My Florentine is the only post-War Gibson electric I've ever owned, so I have no personal experience with other vintage P-90s.

[Russ Donahue]

Sites like your incite mass attacks of MAS. You should be ashamed of contributing to such an insidious disease.
(Wanna sell the Mandola?)

Really cool site. Thanks for putting it up.

[mrbook]

Nice site.