mandolins

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Mandolin

Tahara

Tahara was a Japanese company founded by Ryohei Tahara best known for making Jumbo branded acoustic guitars and mandolins in the 1970s. Tahara also made instruments for other companies including Maya and El Maya guitars for Rokkoman. The company was bought by Saga in 1979 but Tahara continued as a mandolin maker in Maruko, Nagano.

Louis Sutz

Louis Sutz made and dealt in violins, mandolins, zithers and guitars at 1616 Vine Street, Cincinnatti, Ohio. He was born in 1862 in Baden, Germany but emigrated to the USA in 1880 at the age of 19. He started his musical instrument business around 1883. In later years was helped in the business by his sons John (who later became a minister in Hannibal, Ohio), William (who died young) and Louis (who later became an organist at the Third Protestant Memorial Church). Louis Sutz retired in 1931 and died some years later in 1942 aged 79.

Source: Louis Sutz obituary. The Cincinnati Enquirer. Cincinnati, Ohio. 04 Mar 1942

Stratton

Stephen Stratton has been making instruments since 1998 when he attended the Roberto-Venn school of Lutherie. After graduating from Roberto-Venn he went to work with Charles Fox at CFox guitars in Healdsburg, California. For three years Stephen built the acoustic boxes that were to become CFox guitars. When CFox guitars closed in 2001, Stephen began working with Todd Taggart at Allied Lutherie as shop manager where he was responsible for processing and grading tonewoods and selecting woods for major guitar companies. In 2003, Stephen moved to Portland, Oregon where he began producing his own guitars as well as having had the good fortune to work closely with Portland luthier Saul Koll on Saul’s fine electric and archtop guitars. Stephen and family have now moved to Tucson, Arizona.

DW Stevens

Dennis “Denny” Wayne Stevens was born in Walla Walla, Washington in 1943. After he graduated from high school, he was employed at Sundstrand Aviation and  became a manager in Production Control. He worked there for nearly ten years. He had been making guitars in his own time since the age of 16 but in 1970 he left Sundstrand to pursue a guitar making career. In total there are 198 “D W Stevens” instruments. He made 130 flat tops (6 standard models and 2 experimental tulip designs) 33 arch tops (3 models and 4 styles), 15 classical, 10 mandolins (2 reverse curls), 1 acoustic bass, 1 tenor ukulele, 1 tenor guitar, 2 electric guitars, 2 lutes, 2 guitjos and 1 banjo. In 2009 he was diagnosed with ALS and sadly died only 7 months later. Denny was a versatile builder and each instrument is a masterpiece.

Source: DW Stevens website (19 November 2020)

George Stevens

George Stevens is an English maker of fine quality hand-crafted early musical instruments of the medieval, renaissance and baroque periods. He has been making lutes, harps and other plucked instruments since 1989 when he enrolled at the London College of Furniture (he graduated in 1994). After some time spent in the West Country he set up a permanent workshop in Kent in 1998, where he has made over 250 instruments. Althoug his specialism is early instrument making he also makes classical guitars and members of the mandolin family and does stringed instrument repairs.

Source: George Stevens website (17 November 2020)

Stella

Stella was a brand name of the Oscar Schmidt Company of New Jersey - they used it for acoustic guitars and other stringed instruments from around 1899 onwards. The Harmony Company of Chicago bought the Stella brand in 1939 - the Stella brand would have been discontinued around 1975 when Harmony stopped production in the USA.

S.S. Maxwell

The S.S. Maxwell brand was owned by the Targ & Dinner Music Company of Chicago and lasted from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. S.S. Maxwell instruments were made by Regal and Harmony - who built standard flat-top acoustics & ukuleles, but Kay also made S.S. Maxwell acoustic guitars with f-holes and resonator guitars.

Source: Guitar Stories: The Histories of Cool Guitars. Michael Wright. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1 Jan 2000

Sovereign

Sovereign was an Oscar Schidt brand name used for banjos, mandolins and guitars used from 1879 until the late 1930s when Harmony bought the rights to the name. Harmony used "Sovereign" as a model name.

A. Lawrence Smart

Lawrence Smart worked as a special education teacher before taking a leave of absence to study guitar building with George Morris in Vermont. He began making mandolins and guitars full time in 1986. He initially worked in McCall, Idaho before moving his shop to Hailey, Idaho. His guitars and mandolins are now played by some of the most recognizable names in acoustic music.

Source: A. Lawrence Smart website (17 September 2020)

Roy Smeck

Leroy "Roy" Smeck (1900 - 1994) was an American musician, famous for his skill on the banjo, guitar, and ukulele. His name appeared on ukuleles, mandolins & banjos made by Harmony and guitars made by Gibson.

Sekova

Sekova was a brand name of U.S. Musical Merchandise Corp of New York who sold Sekova acoustic guitars. electric guitars, basses, folk instruments, amplifiers, effects and accessories in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Source: 1967 - 1973 Sekova catalogs

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