Antique parlor guitar

[Bluemoan]

Hi,

I recently bought a "supposed-to-be" 1930 Stella ... "probably an Oscar Schmidt made parlor guitar", the seller wrote (ebay).
I do not see either brand, or label, or serial number out or in the guitar:
- back and side > mahogany (i presume)
- on the head I can read : Paul Summers / Honolulu.
- original pickguard shape
Neil Harpe (info@stellaguitars.com) says he's sure it is not a guitar made in Jersey City by the Oscar Schmidt Company... may be an Harmony, Regal or even a Larson's brothers guitar.
I really would like to find some informations about it, but I don't succeed.
Can anybody help ?

Thanks
Gerald.



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[jedistar]

Hmmmm.

A google search for "paul summers guitar" gives a few hits for ukeleles and we find "

Harold and Paul Summers were teachers of the ukulele in Hawaii in the 30s and 40s and taught locals and tourists alike at places like the Royal Hawaiian and Moana hotels. They made (or more probably had some other manufacturer make) ukuleles for their students.

http://www.geocities.com/~ukulele/myukes.html

and

Paul F. Summers, Famous Waikiki, Trade-Mark Reg. U.S. Pat. Office, Koa Ukeleles, Steel Guitars, Made In Hawaii.

Go to http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/uke%2Dya ... search.asp and search for Paul Summers

Then "Paul Summers had a studio in both the Moana Hotel and RHH in the late 1920s-30s but he wasn't making the instruments he sold. Sam Chang, according to his daughter, made instruments for Summers; whether they were labeled Royal Hawaiian is another question. As early as 1916 the "Hawaiian Ukulele Co." advertised Royal ukuleles, though this is too early since the RHH opened in 1927.

And not all ukuleles labeled Royal Hawaiian were sold at the RHH; it's a very common name for businesses in Honolulu both then and now. Likely the largest maker of Royal Hawaiian ukuleles in Honolulu was C.Q. Yee Hop who started advertising "Royal Hawaiian Ukuleles" as early as 1929 and continuedfor several years. C.Q. was a big curio manufacturer located on King St. "

from:
http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:WX ... d=29&gl=au


So what does all this mean? It is obvious I have absolutely no idea...sorry...

[jeff mercer]

Bluemoan, that's a very interesting guitar. When the Hawaiian music "boom" died down in the very early '30's, Summers obviously had to look to the mainland for instruments to sell to his students & tourists, as many of the island manufacturers had closed up shop. It's the only non-Hawaiian made Summers i've seen, & I would agree with Neal Harpe that it's not Schmidt-built..the red & green "herringbone" binding fairly SCREAMS Regal, however, as does the pickguard shape. Nice axe, mate, and really intriguing !

[sneakypete]

that is a beauty.

[jeff mercer]

Hey, SneakyPete, it's lovely isn't it ? Bluemoan, are you out there still ? I can't quite see the guitars' nut in the pictures, but the "straight" bridge saddle is a definate indicator that it was originally meant to be a Hawaiian, or Lap-Steel guitar. I would'nt be too dissapointed that it's not an Oscar Schmidt, i'd reckon it's considerably rarer than that. Slide away on it, mate!

[Bluemoan]

Hi Jedistar, Jeff & Sneakypete,

First off, let me apologize for not getting back to you sooner. I'm very busy in that period because as a school teacher and as it is the end of the school year, there is a lot of things to be made, to be ended...

On the other hand, as my english langage is a little bit "rough" , I need a lot of time to try to find the right words ( do I succeed ???) to be comprehensible
or, at least, not to be misunderstood...

Anyway, i thank you all for your replies, your time and your help. I'm still there & i sure will want to stay in touch and I'll send more pics in the next days(ie. nut, fingerboard, neck...)

Thanks again

[jeff mercer]

Hey, Bluemoan, it's been busy my end, as well ! Would be very interested to see a photo of the nut, as you've covered everything else really well. By the way, your English is perfectly fine, and coming from an Australian you can take that as a major compliment !!

[Bluemoan]

Hey, Jeff, I am on summer holidays since yesterday and I begin taking time to make all that I could not make before.
I send some pics of the (woody?) nut and of the fingerboard. You'll see the "tremendous" action, and although the fingerboard is not really straight , such a string height makes me think that this guitar was build and used only for slide playing.
What's your opinion ?


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[Bugs]

[jeff mercer]

Hey, Bluemoan, yes that is definately a Guitar intended for Hawaiian lap-style playing, and the fact that the nut is made of wood is another indicator that it is probably made by Regal in the late '20s/early '30s ( I have a Regal "tiple"- which is a sort of 10 string ukulele family instrument-with nearly identical red & green binding and a wooden nut..quite odd how they'd do all the intricate marquetry, and then stick a nut on that would be guaranteed to wear out within about six months. Have you been playing it ? How does it sound? If it wasn't what you were looking for,do please let me know,maybe we could work something out..all the best,Jeff.

[sneakypete]

couple of my Yamaha Dynamics from the 50s have the wooden nut, still going strong...they also have the zero fret.

[jeff mercer]

Hey, Sneakypete, as you no doubt know, on a Guitar w/ a zero fret, the nut material ceases to be of any consequence..it just acts as a string spacer..just always found it odd that Regal would often do great looking binding & cosmetic detailing, and then cut corners where it really counted-using wooden nuts on steel-string instrument, and bits of fretwire for bridge saddles etc..still, their high-end stuff- like Bluemoans' Hawaiian-are really nice instruments..you still out there, Bluemoan?

[sneakypete]

yeah my point was the wooden nuts on my Yamaha Dynamics are still in excellent condition 50 years on, they haven`t worn out. These were not cheap guitars in their hay day so I`m not certain the wooden nut was a cost cutting feature for Yamaha.

[Bluemoan]

Hi from France,
I'm still there, not as often as I would like but...
I read your replies with interest and a real pleasure. I am happy that you found it is an interesting & nice guitar and happy to benefit from your precious help too.

Bugs:
> "...if you suspect that Harmony had a hand in the making of it check with these guys, they will be able to tell you as far as Harmony goes, I hope this helps: http://216.219.212.85/cgi-bin/forums/ikonboard.cgi...

Thanks for your help and the link. I've tried to enter their forum but never succeeded: it would seem that my @ address is considered to be the adress of a spammer.

> "...I am pretty sure that you can rule out Stella and Regal, I breifly checked them and didn't see any matches."

In one of his posts, Jeff told me about a Regal tiple he owns, whose binding is nearly identical: red & green and which has a wooden nut as well. I searched from my own and found some pics which show numerous "common points" (straight saddle, wooden nut, intricate colored binding) between a 1920's Regal tiple and my guitar : http://www.frets.com/FretsPages/Museum/ ... tiple.html.
I also recently asked Chuck Fayne : http://www.fleamarketmusic.com/uke%2Dya ... search.asp if he knew if Regal had made any guitars for Paul Summers and am waiting for a possible answer.
However, I believe that the 2 binding works are too similar to have been made by 2 different brands.With these informations, it seems to me that it is effectively an old Regal made guitar.
Thanks again.

Jeff :

> " Have you been playing it ? "

- Yes, and it is a "régal" to play it (c'est un régal = french idiom which means : humm, it's delicious! ).The first thing which really surprises is the weight of this guitar : ultra light, balsa wood ! Several times I re-opened the case to verify it was indeed inside. Tuners works fine, guitar stays tuned, no effort for the picking hand, the intonation is correct up to the third fret (when fingering with left hand is still possible) but beyond, the action is too high for fingers but nice for slide .

> "How does it sound? "

- The guitar sounds nice ...the player has some practice to do !! Seriously, it sounds very sweet but can be very powerful when you play harder, or strum it. I find it has a nice balance between bass, medium and high strings and the last ones are never "covered" by the others. The sound would be better with a new set of strings, it seems these ones are as old at least as the guitar!
I mostly play with the guitar tuned DADF#AD or DGDGBD. I avoid GBDGBD because I'm afraid of an excessive tension on the neck.
It is very difficult to "describe" the sound of an instrument only with words, especially when it is not our own language. I can try to send you an mp3 file some day but ...please listen the guitar, not the player. I'm only playing slide since a year and a half.

> "If it wasn't what you were looking for,do please let me know,maybe we could work something out..."

-So far, I keep it because it's a really good sounding and nice guitar to play and it looks beautiful, but if ..., one day...,who knows..., I promise that you will be the first person i'll make the deal with!

all the best
Gerald

[jeff mercer]

Hi, Gerald. You might be interested to Google "guitarandbanjo", which should get you on to Intermountain Guitar & Banjo..In their Resonators, Steels & Hawaiians section (click on 'Inventory') you will find a Paul Summers koa Hawaiian guitar, really nice island-made acoustic lap steel. I've seen only 4 of these (a quite badly cracked one turned up at a repair shop here in Sydney, Australia just recently). You'll see that it's quite a different axe to the one you've found..you have a lovely & rare guitar, Bluemoan..enjoy it !!