THE omnIvorouS rEAdEr
music to our Ears A trio of defi nitive works on the lost and beloved stringed instruments of America
By sTePHen e. sMITH
It’s a familiar story: A
Southern boy growing up in the 1920s or 30s hears Big Bill Broonzy or Charley Patton on the radio and decides to take up the guitar or mandolin. He flips through the Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogues or visits the local music or dry goods store and picks out an instrument, hands over the $20 he earned working in tobacco, and the rest is, as they say, a sizable chunk of American musical history.
The fretted instruments purchased by the majority of Americans during the last century weren’t crafted by Martin or Gibson, both high-end producers, but by Lyon and Healy, Regal, Kay, Harmony, all of Chicago, or by Oscar Schmidt of New Jersey. These large manufacturers supplied mail order companies and mom-and-pop stores with instruments that were sold under the distributors’ trademarks — Supertone, Concertone, Tonk Brothers, Wurlitzer, etc. (American Fretted Musical Instrument Makers lists 1,800 such trademarks that existed between the Civil War and World War II.) Reference works on Martin and Gibson abound — Philip F. Gura’s C.F. Martin and His Guitars, Dick Boaks’ Martin’s Masterpieces and Spann’s Guide to Gibson 1902-1941 are worth a careful read — but there’s always been a dearth of information concerning the manufacturers whose medium- and low-end instruments were ubiquitous in America — and especially in the South — during the last century. Centerstream Publications (Centerstream-usa.com) now offers detailed histories of at least two of the larger Chicago manufacturers — Lyon and Healy (better known as Washburn) and Regal. Available in hard- and paperback, each volume draws upon period trade magazines, distributor catalogs and, when available, oral histories — and each edition contains a generous number of color photographs that document examples of the manufacturers’ finest work. Hubert Pleijsier’s Washburn Prewar Instrument Styles: Guitars, Mandolins, Banjos, and Ukuleles 1883-1940 is the history of Lyon and Healy, the music company that produced the majority of American stringed instruments in the early part of the 20th century. Given Lyon and Healy’s production figures from 1887 to 1940, one in every 60 Americans (the population of the United States was 79 million in 1900) purchased an instrument from the company or one of its distributors. Before World War I, the firm prospered and expanded its offerings, and with the onset of the Jazz Age the demand for stringed instruments soared, establishing Lyon and Healy as the dominant American manufacturer. Its products sold well because they were reasonably priced — $10 to $40 — but the instruments weren’t cheaply manufactured. Assembly-line guitars and mandolins were
constructed of Brazilian rosewood, mahogany and ebony, all pricey, quality materials, and the workmanship was often of the highest quality. But most of these cheaper instruments received heavy use, and the company often stretched its resources by constructing lighter instruments that tended to crack or warp with wear and age. Most surviving Lyon and Healy guitars and mandolins contain a written, stamped or branded trademark and/or serial number that identifies the style, the year of production and the retail price, but the company’s files have long been lost. The rumor, which Pleijsier refutes, is that the records were destroyed in a fire, and for many years collectors were unable to date their instruments. By examining thousands of surviving Lyon and Healy guitars and mandolins, Pleijsier has deciphered the serial numbers, providing a service to collectors and establishing approximate production numbers for each style of instrument. During the Great Depression, the company fell on hard times and the Washburn trademark was taken over by other manufacturers. By the onset of World War II, production of stringed instruments had shifted to smaller, quality shops or to mass-production manufacturers who offered cheap, poorly made instruments. Lyon and Healy exists today as a retailer of harps and autoharps, and the Washburn name has been appropriated by an American-based company that does the majority of its manufacturing in China and Indonesia. Bob Carlin’s Regal Musical Instruments 1895-1955 is the definitive reference work on the establishment and evolution of Regal, an Indianapolis manufacturer of stringed instruments that moved its operation to Chicago in the early 1900s. Regal and Lyon and Healy were at times in their separate histories the same or cooperating entities. In 1904, Lyon and Healy purchased the assets of the Regal Co. and sold them off to dealers, but by 1905, Lyon and Healy was producing guitars and mandolins under the Regal trademark. The mark was transferred back to the Regal Musical Instrument Co. in 1924, and many of Lyon and Healy’s better craftsmen went with the re-established Regal company. What sets Carlin’s research apart from that of Pleijsier’s is a lengthy and revealing oral history by a knowledgeable Regal employee, Joseph A. Phetteplace,
PineStraw : The Art & Soul of the Sandhills P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P P June 2012
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