Video

Actually, I did. Some are more faithful to 1800s designs than others. I look for body size, neck length, head stock design, etc. My WP11SNS is a very good copy of the axes Washburn was making in the 1880s - the wood hasn't turned dark like the actual antiques.

First of all, these strings were made by a piano string company, so unless they're missing or seriously rusted, you probably won't need to replace them. When I get an old instrument like that, I clean it up and tune it up before I decide whether it needs new strings. Most of them don't. To give you any specific tips, I'd need to see closeup photos of your harp, including a good photo of where the strings fasten on the end. If you send them to (withheld), I'll take a look. Also, can you measure the distance between the tuning peg and the bottom bridge for both the lowest and highest string. Most instruments in this class used strings similar to those on an OS73 type autoharp; the main difference would be the scale length and maybe bass strings that the OS73 didn't have. So a new set of "Type A" Autoharp strings MIGHT do the job. But I would want to see photographs and measurements before I made a recommendation. Hope that makes sense! - Paul

@@paulracemusic yes it does... make sense...The Strings were toast... I put a caliper on the ones they were still there.. Ill try and send pics...But I think I'm gonna have to get creative to come anywhere close to them actually working. Salvage out of a old home so we will see Thanks

@@fordjubilee I'm sure you've seen my e-mail reply by now. Best of luck!

You're welcome. I want to do one for a standard 21-chorder as well, but the first one I worked on had so many other problems, the video got too confusing. 🙂

Sadly, Samick has stopped making banjos altogether. They actually made banjos for a dozen other companies over the years, and a few were pretty good. Glad you found a solution for yours.

My early 1970s Legend has a varnish crack, but not a wood crack yet. My 12-string from the same era has separated faceplates below the bridge, but still sounds great. BTW, I do put a towel on the workbench when working on most guitars. :-) I was truly sorry to see the old line shut down. :-(

@@paulracemusic It seems that the vast majority of cracks on Ovations I have ever seen are limited to the finish and not the wood itself.. but then again I live in an ideal guitar climate, and suppose that there are many that spend their lives in not-so-ideal climates and develop wood cracks you can see light through. While the round back Lyrachord does produce great harmonic distribution, the stuff never moves with age and humidity fluctuation in synch with the rest of the guitar like an all-wood body does.. so when the side pressures rise/fall across the sound board something has to give. At least that's my take on it.

@@FromMyEyesToYours In many cases I've seen (including two Legends I bought second-hand for "beach guitars"), the varnish cracks because the wood underneath is bulging slightly. In Ohio, I'd generally blame too much humidity. This can eventually involve the wood underneath. I've seen others where the wood is cracked the length of the guitar a couple inches away from the sound hole. Most often, though, that kind of damage usually happens between the hole and the tailpiece. Ironically, it doesn't seem to affect the tone very much if at all. I also have a 12-string on which the face plates separated. This was probably because I left it in a corner that got too dry in the winter. In the summer, you can't tell, because our Ohio humidity swells the wood, but in the winter you can see the gap. Again, no effect on tone.

I have an Ovie "Long-Neck" that they supplied a wooden hardshell case for - I imagine it would have been too expensive to engineer a plastic, foam, aluminum, and fiberglass case for a "one-off." That said, I recently put my Legend in a gig bag - at my age, the combination of the traditional Ovie case and that guitar was just getting too heavy to drag around.

@@paulracemusic I’ve got two acoustic guitars that are both unique to their companies: Ovation, and a Voyage-Air folding guitar. Ovation makes hardshell cases for their bowl backs, and Voyage-Air has a backpack built to carry their instruments.

🤣I get a kick out of being able to make music with instruments that other folks would consider beneath their notice. When I post articles or videos like this, I often find readers who take "guilty pleasure" in the same thing. Or who - in some cases - can't afford better and enjoy being given "permission" to enjoy making music on whatever they have access to.

There was a tradition in Barn Dance tunes to have one line that would set up a joke, and a second line that would deliver a joke. They didn't even have to be funny, exactly, just unexpected. "Old Joe Clark he had a house, fourteen stories high, and every story of that house was filled with chicken pie!" Oh, Susanna takes it to the extreme.

Thanks, hope you found it helpful, or at least interesting. 🙂

@@paulracemusic both helpful and interesting!

I understand. Sometimes a shop vac over one of the holes will work wonders. If that doesn't work, maybe get a tube to fit over the end of the vacuum nozzle that would fit inside and you could work it around? Sorry, there's no one proven approach. :-)

Waverly used to make hardware like banjo tailpieces and mandolin tuners. I can't find that they ever made banjos or mandolins, but many companies used their parts, and it's possible that Waverly is the only brand name on some of those. Here's a quote from a banjo forum: "Virtually all the metal parts for nearly all the East coast banjo makers were supplied by one company -- Waverly Music Products of New York, NY, in business from before the turn of the century until the 1970s when they were acquired by Stewart-MacDonald of Athens, OH. I interviewed Waverly's then owner, a Mr. Lomb -- son and grandson of the founders, early in 1970 when he had put the company up for sale. He told me that Waverly, for whom he had worked since his pre-teens, had provided most of the metal parts and accessories to the banjo makers. In his workshop he showed me many patterns, cutters, tools, and dies used in making the nuts for Vega, Gibson, Bacon, Paramount and all the standard nuts we associate with the large makers. Waverly also made many, varied, stretcher bands, the simple brass hoops used for tone rings on the less expensive instruments, and some of the components that went into the more sophisticated tone rings. They also made the various shoes and hooks, from the Cobra hooks used on early Fairbanks to the modern flat and round hooks. Most of the tailpieces and many of the tuners also came from Waverly. That there were others making some hardware is indisputed, but Waverly made most of it. I don't know if they made the Whyte Laydie and Tubaphone assemblies or if some of the parts were made locally and then assembled at Vega -- the most likely scenario." Hope this helps!

@@paulracemusic thanks Paul. It was kind of rough when I got it but it's as nice as it can be after some work. Matched the bridge, leveled the frets and new tuners. The intonation isn't perfect but it plays ok. I just got an old Epiphone Mando that's much nicer and plays better. I just couldn't figure out why it had a tag inside that said Waverly....l love your humor btw. Some of things you say crack me up...like the story about the one in the attic that you left....a had to laugh 😂😂😂 thanks again....I love your videos!

I have also acquired a mid-century "Domeback" that has a deeper back than a type A but a wider format than a venetian-style roundback. It looks like a little lute and is a lot of fun to play.

@@paulracemusic is there a video on it? Sounds cool....

@@markgrafstrom1704, sorry, not yet!

@@paulracemusic Ok I'll keep an eye out for it in case you post something on it.

Thanks!

Good luck with it. Does it have a crack in the face yet? Also are the electronics still good? The wires in my 1617 have broken from age. 😞

Maybe I can just shim the left side of the saddle up so it compensates for the buzzing on the last two strings. I’ll give it a shot before I take it into the music store.

Is there a chance you could sand one of the shims you removed at an angle and slide it back in with the "fat" part on the end that buzzes? Okay, that may sound like a "kludge," but area "luthiers" that most people respect have done worse kludges on my guitars. Another reason I do most of the work myself these days.

I ended up cutting the two shims I had left over to about 3/4 of an inch and putting them on left side under saddle. No buzzing on E and B strings. It works like a charm and the electronics are good. Kludge worked lol.

Glad to hear it! Enjoy!

Juan, It could be, but I've seen similar instruments from the US, so I won't make any claims.

@@paulracemusic No, es solo un comentario. Yo tengo una mandolina fabricada en Checoslovaquia (país que ya no existe, ahora es República Checa y Eslovaquia) y es muy parecida a la que se muestra con adornos de flores blancas y fondo negro. Yo tengo 40 años con ella, pero es de más antigüedad. Saludos.

Dex, Thanks for the photos. I have sent you the information you needed directly.

Try Magma GAT-D Strings for D Standard tuning next. 6 String Banjos usually have a little bit deeper body to help the low notes speak more clearly

That would bring it more in the tonal range of a tenor banjo, which is fine for situations where you want it to sound more appropriate for, say, Dixieland, and you would rather avoid deep tones. Is that your approach? Thanks for the feedback.

If I remember correctly, he played mostly on the low strings, hitting the bass notes of the chords. Do you know what tuning he used?

@@paulracemusic Regular E Standard

The last one I"m holding is the most common Type A Autoharp. Notice the sharp corners, and the wire bridge near the tuning pegs. Type B Autoharps have more rounded corners and no bridge near the tuning pegs. I don't profile ANY type B autoharps in this video. There's more information here: creekdontrise.com/acoustic/autoharp/value/autoharp_type_a_or_b.htm

Thanks for the notes on your Squire. Another fellow played it in worship last month and got good sound and - apparently - playability out of it.

I have NEVER bought an instrument that was properly set up. It wouldn't occur to me to review an instrument based on how it came from the factory. During my one year at a music store, we set up every instrument that came in. Unfortunately, dealers today never bother, which probably contributes to a lot of kids who wanted to try guitar, banjo, bass, etc, giving up because they received an unplayable instrument that JUST needed adjustment.

@@paulracemusic I like this comment. I have a Squiere Jass Bass for a 7 years or more and it never has been set up.

Is it playable? I got my first 6-string banjo for $100 because the fellow that bought it from a music store gave up on it. Set it up properly and used it until I upgraded to a basket-case Deering D6 that I restored.

@@paulracemusic yes it is playable.

Are you saying it plays fine as is? If not, you might try adjusting the neck as I did.

HA!

Thanks, I need to practice more, though. I'm really a tenor player. . . .

@@paulracemusic Me too, actually! I sound good on tenor, but all my favorite classical pieces kinda need my alto to work right, so I'm trying to get used to it again

To me "professional means "state-of-the-art" engineering, top-quality materials, and precision assembly. A horn whose components won't sag out of shape with normal handling, whose pads fit tightly, whose response is very fast, and whose tone brings you to tears of joy. For many people, the Selmer Mark VI was the epitome of that, but top-of-the-line Yamahas, Yanagisawas, and possibly Keilwerth are more available and likely more affordable. Most student horns come out of China today, and even the best of them are far more likely to have quality control issues or use cheaper materials. May I ask what you're playing today? Though I have one Selmer, I love playing "vintage" horns that were professional in their day, though I have them adjusted as necessary. To me, a major issue is durability. My 40-t0-60-year-old Buescher Aristocrats are all more solid and - with the right mouthpiece - will offer better tone and long-term playability than 90% of the horns coming out of China today.

@@paulracemusic Hi, I have two tenor saxophones, one Selmer Mark VI from 1962 and one Conn-Selmer Prelude TS 711 from 2018. My Mark VI I found in 2018 on a loft of a friend of mine, where it had been stored almost unused for 55 years. I bought it and had it totally overhauled. It’s a fantastic instrument. But I’m so afraid of getting a dent, so I’m using my Conn Selmer on gigs. By playing, I can’t tell what is what except that the Conn Selmer is a little heavier. The sound is the same, the key layout is the same. When comparing side by side, the Conn Selmer seems more sturdy. I wonder what you get when buying the Selmer Supreme at 14,000 USD? A Conn Selmer with engravings?

@@hansmathiasthjomoe4817 I wouldn't worry about upgrading either of those horns unless I was making obscene money from my sax playing. At best the difference would be a few percentage points IMHO. I have a Selmer Mark VII alto that I never play "out," and it has a substantially better tone than my Aristocrats, BUT I could get better tone out of my Aristocrats if I just practiced more, so I don't blame the horns. 🙂 Plus, most of the places I play sax don't justify dragging a horn worth more than my car to.

Can you send me the serial #, just replacing the last two digits with 99? I don't know that model but the serial number will help me track it down.'

@@paulracemusic Hello and sorry for the delay . Its is a Buscher 400 Bari serial 464759. I found between 1965 and 1970 after buscher purchased by selmer USA. Thanks!

@@cavitia1 Does it look like this one? www.saxophone.org/museum/saxophones/specimen/706 If so, it's the best baritone Buescher ever made, and that's saying something. Buescher 400 tenors are still in demand among vintage sax lovers, going for $600-1500 depending on condition. Buescher 400 baris are amost unknown. Your horn was made before Yamaha/Vito saxophones forced everyone else to start using more ergonomic fingering (imitating Selmer's Balanced Action horns). But if your fingers can reach the keys, and it's set up properly, you'd have trouble matching the tone and volume with any under-$4000 bari today.

@@paulracemusic Thanks Paul, It is great to know, means mine is even older than the one on the museum. 😃

It's not MY favorite. It's "The Favorite." That's what Dolge and Phonoharp printed right on the standard 5-chorder after it became their best seller. You can see that on the 1-minute mark.

That is distinction with a difference! I misheard you, for sure and in context “The” makes a lot more sense than “my”. I assume you’d tune your favorite auto harp!

Thanks!

Robert, thanks, I've used that as well. For furniture, mostly. I have a number of REAL basket cases, so I go with the "hard stuff." It only takes a little so the one bottle will last me a long time.

Robert, sorry I just saw this. I wouldn't use this again on this sort of project, but the products I was used to using have been discontinued, and I thought I'd try it. The leather dye is a good suggestion.