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  #1  
Old 01-05-2022, 03:34 PM
onaclearday onaclearday is offline
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Default Paramount Archtops

Hello,

I am considering buying a Paramount Style B archtop. Does anybody have any information on them? Or where I could find some catalogues? I have been able to find that the Paramount company specialized in banjos and built guitars in the 30s and early 40s but I cant find any more info. Has anybody by any chance ever played one? The ones I could hear on yt sounded pretty good but I would love to hear someone s first hand account.

Thank you for your time!
Phill
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  #2  
Old 01-05-2022, 07:22 PM
RLetson RLetson is offline
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The brand seems to have originated with the Lange Banjo Company, but eventually it passed to Gretsch. Hard to say which outfit might have built a particular specimen.

See this (old) thread on the UMGF, inspired by a particular Paramount archtop:

https://umgf.com/paramount-supreme-archtop-t156087.html

And this from a Gretsch site:

http://gretschpages.com/forum/vintag...n/46882/page1/

One poster quoted this but did not cite the source:

"1921-1942 The William L. Lange Company began selling Paramount banjos, guitar banjos and mandolin banjos in the early 1920s, and added archtop guitars in '34. The guitars were made by Martin and possibly others. Lange went out of business by '42; Gretsch picked up the Paramount name and used it on acoustics and electrics for a time in the late '40s."
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Old 01-06-2022, 09:40 AM
kayakman kayakman is offline
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Default Paramount

Kind of a really low end archtop, don`t think you would be happy with the sound,muddy & cheap..
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  #4  
Old 01-07-2022, 02:54 PM
onaclearday onaclearday is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RLetson View Post
The brand seems to have originated with the Lange Banjo Company, but eventually it passed to Gretsch. Hard to say which outfit might have built a particular specimen.

See this (old) thread on the UMGF, inspired by a particular Paramount archtop:

https://umgf.com/paramount-supreme-archtop-t156087.html

And this from a Gretsch site:

http://gretschpages.com/forum/vintag...n/46882/page1/

One poster quoted this but did not cite the source:

"1921-1942 The William L. Lange Company began selling Paramount banjos, guitar banjos and mandolin banjos in the early 1920s, and added archtop guitars in '34. The guitars were made by Martin and possibly others. Lange went out of business by '42; Gretsch picked up the Paramount name and used it on acoustics and electrics for a time in the late '40s."
Thank you for your answer! I did learn some more from those threads.
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  #5  
Old 01-07-2022, 02:59 PM
onaclearday onaclearday is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kayakman View Post
Kind of a really low end archtop, don`t think you would be happy with the sound,muddy & cheap..
Have you played one? I am referring to the 30s ones, the ones made by a banjo company. These archtops have a weird neck adjusting system.

I know there were some other Paramount guitars made in the 50s or so by Gretsch which were supposedly were bad, I am not talking about those.

This is the Paramount model I am referring to:

https://images.reverb.com/image/uplo...rls7thl0hz.jpg
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