mandolins

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Mandolin

Republic

Frank Helsley founded Republic Guitars in 2007 as an affordable modern resonator brand, in the town of Rowlett just outside of Dallas Texas. In 2009 Helsley came up with the Highway 61, a travel-sized guitar with a single cut-away. The Republic range covers both classic single-cone and tri-cone models. In August 2013 Republic Guitars relocated to Austin. To keep prices affordable Republic Guitars are imported.

Source: Republic Guitars website (24 June 2019)

Scott Walker

Scott Walker studied at the Roberto Venn school of lutherie before working at the Santa Cruz Guitar Company alongside luthier Richard Hoover, where he hand carved necks. Custom neck carving became his specialty but he took on other responsibilities as the Shop Foreman including: guitar finishing with Nitrocellulose, wood management and tool maintenance. During this time he began developing a new electric guitar design and five years later in 2005 he opened his own workshop and offered his guitars to the public. Walker makes electric guitars, lap steel guitars and a 5-string electric mandolin model.

Source: Scott Walker Guitars website (5 June 2019)

RedLine

Redline Acoustics builds custom resophonic guitars, mandolins, guitars, and electric mini banjos in Hendersonville just outside Nashville, Tennessee. They have been making parts for Luthiers since 1998 and carry a line of stock parts for Mandolins, Banjos, Dobros, and Guitars. They also specialize in custom work.

Source: RedLine Acoustics website (5 June 2019)

Maegen Wells

Maegen Wells makes acoustic guitars, archtops, and mandolins by hand in Forestville, California. She started building in 2006 and has since worked in repair shops, electric guitar manufacturers, acoustic and archtop guitar shops, before starting her own shop.

Source: Maegen Wells Guitars & Mandolins website (21 May 2019)

Clareen

Tom Cussen established Clareen Banjos in 1976 and made the first Clareen banjo in 1979. Cussen was the tenor banjo player in Irish trad group Shaskeen in the 1970s and 1980s. Tom was joined in the business by his son Fintan who became head of production in 2018.

Source: Clareen Banjos website (4 April 2019)

Phoenix (Mandolins)

Phoenix Mandolins was founded by Rolfe Gerhardt who started building mandolins in the early 1970s. He was self taught and started by using some plans from Benny Cain, and observations of a local Gibson Loar F-5 to make two reproductions of a 1920s Gibson F-5 mandolin. He then began experimenting with mandolin design and this was the start of Unicorn mandolins. Rolfe made 149 mandolins before selling Unicorn to Dave Sinko in 1980 who eventually moved Unicorn to Nashville. Although Rolfe had agreed not to make mandolins for ten years as part of the sale agreement of Unicorn, he didn't last that long and was building mandolins again in the late 1980s using the Phoenix brand name. His new design had a fixed graphite-epoxy neck stiffener which eliminated the need for an adjustable truss rod. He also refined the body shape using a two-pointed cut-away design, and incorporated a radiused fingerboard and finger-rest.

Phillips (R.E.)

Ron E. Phillips has be making metal and wood bodied resonator instruments since 1992. His line up includes round neck guitars, ukuleles, square necked lap steels, mandolins and tenor guitars: all hand made using similar materials and construction to the guitars of the 1920’s but with original designs inspiredby the Art Deco period.

Source: R.E. Phillips metal guitars website (5 February 2019)

Phantom Guitars

Phantom Guitars and basses was a brand name owned by Island Musical Supplies (Staten Island, New York) in the 1980s. Phantom instruments were made in Korea and included a complete range of electric, acoustic and bass guitars as well as mandolins and banjos.

Source: Phantom Guitars catalogs (1985 - 1987)

Perretta

Perretta acoustic guitars are hand-made by luthier John Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald also makes mandolin family instruments and is well known in the Dallas area for his repair and restoration work on stringed instruments.

Source: Perretta Guitar Company website (24 January 2019)

Perl Gold

Perl Gold was a brand name of German musical instrument distributor Kurt Gropp. Kurt Gropp opened his mail order business in 1922 in Siebenbrunn near Markneukirchen, and then moved it to Breitenfeld in 1925. Kurt Gropp's two sons: Gerhard Gropp (1931 - 1999) and Armin Gropp were both master luthiers. Kurt Gropp traded as a private company until April 1972 when it was forcibly nationalized and became part of the VEB group trading under the name VEB Perl Gold until 1975 and then VEB Sinfonia Markneukirchen. In 1979 Kurt Gropp died at the age of 78 years. Armin Gropp and his son Mario Gropp restarted the Gropp business as a private company after the reunification of Germany in 1990.

Source: Schlaggitarren.de (23 January 2019)

Penzel

Walter Penzel (1896 - 1963) came from a family of cabinet makers in Wernitzgrün, Markneukirchen, Germany. Following World War II Penzel was detained as a captive of the Americans until July 1948 in Kornwestheim near Ludwigsburg. Upon his release he went to work as an instrument maker at the Helasi company in Rot am See. Helasi was dissolved in 1953 and Walter Penzel became self-employed. He set up a room in his apartment as a workshop and had no other employees, save for his wife Hildegard who helped paint the instruments. On finishing a batch of guitars and mandolins, he would set off across Germany in his car selling directly to music shops. Penzel's standard model was an acoustic guitar with two sound holes in cat eye shape and a round middle sound hole. These are beautifully decorated guitars that stand out from other mass produced West German guitars of the period.

Nashville

Nashville acoustic guitars were distributed in the UK by Strings and Things in the late 1970s.

Source: Nashville acoustic guitars advert. Guitar magazine, December 1978.

Pacific

Pacific was an Australian company established in the 1940s by Hec McLennan, a mandolin and banjo player. McLennan initially sold instruments under his own name before settling on the Pacific brand. Pacific instruments included guitars and banjo-mandolins. Pacific instruments were inexpensively made, and often had stencilled artwork of tropical or cowboy scenes.

Source: Collection of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences, Sydney. Pacific guitar

Otwin

Otwin was established in 1886 in Shilbach, Germany by Franz Otto Windisch (born in 1866). Franz Otto Windisch had previously apprenticed as a violin maker and worked in Markneukirchen for Gläsel & Herwig. In 1903 Windisch opened another Otwin factory in Schöneck. This branch quickly became the main factory, with up to 120 employees making stringed and plucked instruments. Franz Otto died in 1935 but his son Johannes took over the company, and his cousin Friedrich Paul Windish joined him as a partner in 1937. Otwin also used other brand names including: OW, Owi and Owophone. The company carried on until 1973 when it was taken over by VEB Musima. In 1984 the Schöneck Otwin factory was closed, and Musima itself filed for bankruptcy in 2004.

Source: Schlag Gitarren - Otwin (31 October 2018).

Osborne

Richard Osborne has been making instruments since 1997, when he completed a classical guitar under the tuition of Stephen Hill. He then rented a bench in Hill's workshop and worked with Hill doing repairs and restorations. He went full time in 2003, opening his own workshop in the Star Brewery in Lewes where he made and repaired acoustic guitars. In 2006 he moved to bigger premises and also started teaching guitar making. 2015 saw another move to mid Wales where he continues making instruments and teaching instrument making courses.

Source: Osborne Guitars and Mandolins website (30 October 2018)

SammO (SammoS)

SammO and SammoS were brand names of the Samuel C. Osborn Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois. Samuel Osborn opened a music tuition and instrument distribution company around 1900. By 1906 he had shops in Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as music teaching conservatories around the country. His music schools needed a lot of instruments and in 1916 he started his own manufacturing company in Chicago. The company made acoustic guitars, mandolins and banjo-ukes often using koa. In 1919 he opened an ambitious new factory using production line techiques to make pianos - this led to cash flow problems for Osborn who was forced to restructure his company. In 1922 Osborn died of complications following an appendectomy operation, aged just 47, and his company finally ceased trading.

Source: Samuel Osborn catalog 1920

Ortega

Ortega was established in 1994 by the German musical instrument distributor Roland Meinl (Meinl Cymbals & Percussion). At the beginning Ortega Guitars was a classical guitar company with a range of 6 classical guitar models all made in Spain using traditional methods. By 2018 their product line had expanded considerably and included acoustic & classical guitars, acoustic basses, mandolins, ukuleles and banjos as well as accessories and effects for acoustic instruments. By this time most Ortega instruments were made in China although there was still some Spanish manufacture.

Source: Ortega Guitars website (25 October 2018)

Orpheum

The Orpheum brand started in the late 19th century as American banjo company. In the 1930s Orpheum added acoustic guitars and other instruments to their line up, but the brand was discontinued during World War II. From the late 1940s to 1960s the Orpheum brand was owned by Maurice Lipsky Music Company Incorporated of New York who sold Orpheum electric and acoustic guitars as well as mandolins and banjos. At the start of the 1960s Orpheum ceased manufacture of American instruments and production was moved to Italy where Wandré made Orpheum branded Tri-Lam, Rock Oval and other guitars. From 1963 manufacture switched to Egmond, then from 1967-1968 Welson made a violin shaped Orpheum model.

Ellis (Tom)

Tom Ellis of Ellis Mandolins, builds one of a kind, hand made mandolins in Austin, Texas. Ellis has been making mandolins since 1977, when he opened a workshop in Austin. Business was boosted in 1981 when Dave Grisman listed Ellis in the top 5 mandolin makers in an interview for Frets Magazine. Ricky Scaggs was also an early endoser of Ellis mandolins. In the 1990s Tom Ellis branched out into making pearl inlays for the guitar industry using CNC when he founded Precision Pearl Inc. Tom has also used this CNC technology to help in the rough cutting of mandolin parts since 2004 (these pieces are then hand finished and assembled by hand).

Source: Ellis mandolins website (13 October 2018)

Old Wave

Old Wave mandolins are hand made by William (Bill) Bussmann. Bussmann has been making mandlins since 1990, and apprenticed with a violin maker from 1992 to 1993. The mainstay of Bussman's business is in mandolins and mandolas, which he produces in about a dozen different shapes and sizes. Typically built to custom order and often for overseas customers.Bussman also makes some highly unsual mandolins, guitars and basses: including an upright bass made from a Pontiac gas tank and watermelon shape mandolins.

Source: Old Wave website (9 October 2018)

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