Martina Rosenberger wrote: .. > There is also legal protection found for the brand 'Walddoline', an inventive word from Wald (forest) and Mandoline in 1905 and 1909. If there are no other examples of flattop-Mandolins elsewhere, yes, I can proof the existence in Hamburg with excerpts from the registered brand-list .
The origin of the flattop mandolin has been discussed a few times at the frettedfriends mail list where we gave a couple of good experts on mandolin history. The earliest confirmed occurence of flattops they've come up with, is the C. F. Martin model introduced in 1914. So it seems that in addition to modernising the Waldzither Böhm can also claim another innovation that's of a far more widespread importance today. (Hmmm... There are still plenty of people today reluctant to give the Germans credit for any innovations - they're not gonna be happy about this. ;-) The dating of Böhm's Walddoline can be of some interest to organologists. One of the main arguments against classifying the modern "European" mandolin as a cittern is that there isn't any historical connection. Now it seems such a connection does actually does exist. Two reservations though: there's still a chance even earlier flattop mandolins may pop up and there's also the question where the archtop mando fits into this. > That is formally correct. Hermann Christoph Christian Böhm died in 1935, his widow sold the business to the later GEWA before 1938. .. They stopped producing the original Böhm about 1960. .. There are GEWA-Böhm Waldzithern with Embergher tuning machines from that time in lack of the former tuning machines. GEWA's 1960 catalogue includes six different Waldzither-models. Two "Original BÖHM Waldzithern", three "Thüringer Waldzithern" (two basically Böhms with Embergher heads and one significantly different but still showing some Böhm influence) and one "Hamburger Waldzither" (similar to the Böhm but cheaper). Interestingly, the Böhm label includes the text "Von Nachahmungen wird gewarnt!" - a bit strange considering that GEWA themselves sold one of those copies they were warning against. If GEWA still sells Waldzithers today (not sure if they do, it's pictured on their website but I don't think it's in their current catalogue), it's that generic brand assymetric head model with very few Böhm-like features. > The reason for the simplification may lie in marketing. I've already noticed that Böhm must have been a great marketer! > A solution for the keys nowadays is to find where Preston came from: in every watchmaker shop you can order various sized keys for the great clocks. Great idea if you can find a watchmaker dealing with anything non-digital these days. Fortunately I found another solution. A friend of mine who is a genius at simple practical solutions took a short piece of copper tube, hammered the tip to the right shape and size, soldered a piece of newsilver around the tip for strength and drove an old, discarded violin peg into the other end of the tube for grip. Looks horrible but it works perfectly and didn't cost me a cent. Frank Nordberg http://www.musicaviva.com http://www.tablatvre.com http://www.mandolin-player.com To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
