#1
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What Have I Got Here
The other day, a neighbor approached me to tell me about a weird instrument she saw at a auction warehouse where she volunteers. People donate things that are auctioned or sold for charity.
This thing isn't in very good shape and I wouldn't know where to get strings for it, but I'm going to clamp the body together where it's separated and turn it into a piece of wall art. The little metal tool is obviously for tuning and the long wooden rod has some horsehair attached at one end, so presumably it was a bow. It doesn't seem to have an attachment point for the other end of the bowstrings, so I might not be able to fix it. Here's the label. I'm about to look on the web and see if I can find some history on it.
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#2
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What Have I Got Here
Kind of looks like an Autoharp. Interesting find.
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#3
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Probably a low cost version of a bowed psaltry.
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#4
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It's called a violin-uke and was apparently made in the 30s by Marxchrome in Michigan. Oscar Schmidt was once involved with the company. With a sticker price of $28.50, this was apparently once of the expensive ones.
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#5
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You could use a micrometer to determine the string sizes and probably get them as individuals. As to the bow, use a pick until something comes along.
Brad
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Guild F212: 1964 (Hoboken), Guild Mark V: 1975 (Westerly), Guild Artist Award: 1975 (Westerly), Guild F50: 1976 (Westerly), Guild F512: 2010 (New Hartford), Pawless Mesquite Special: 2012, 90s Epi HR Custom (Samick), 2014 Guild OOO 12-fret Orpheum (New Hartford), 2013 12 fret Orpheum Dread (New Hartford), Guild BT258E, 8 string baritone, 1994 Guild D55, Westerly, 2023 Cordoba GK Negra Pro. |
#6
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I really don't want to play it. I'd like to remove the strings to clean it up and clamp the body back together, then replace some strings so it looks complete while I hang it on the wall or lay it on a shelf somewhere.
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#7
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Cool. How long is it? 10 inches or so?
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#8
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It's 21" long...
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#9
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There are a lot of these stored away in attics. They were sold door to door on an installment plan, with the promise that anyone could play music. The melody is played with the bow on the outer course of strings and chords can be strummed on the inner strings. In reality--difficult to keep in tune and difficult to make a decent sound with a cheap bow--so most ended up housing mice in attics across the country.
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#10
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Quote:
As HHP pointed out, this one is a type of bowed psaltery. But there were even more that looked like autoharps without the chord bars. whm |
#11
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Haha, YES, few of them got any serious use because they were impossible to play!
There is no good reason to restore any of them. They are amusing wall hangers. Growing up we did have a ukelin which was in good enough condition to TRY to play, but it was never a serious instrument. Finding one with the bow is rare. -r |