I try to keep this clear and short...... "Frank Nordberg" <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb:> Martina Rosenberger wrote:
> Well, the fact that he started in 1898 is hardly surprising. It's > printed inside all his instruments after all. > But do I understand you correctly when you say he built his special > Waldzither right from the start? I always thought he made regular > mandolins at first and later switched to the Waldzither. He definetely got legal protection for his registered 'Waldzither' in 1897!! > Do you know when he started building the smaller 8-string Walddoline? If > that was before 1916 it may well have been the first flattop mandolin ever! 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 . > Do you know how long the B=F6hm company lasted? I know somebody still > built "original B=F6hm Waldzithers" as late as 1960. That is formally correct. Hermann Christoph Christian B=F6hm died in 1935, his widow sold the business to the later GEWA before 1938. GEWA fled after 1945 from Markneukirchen to Mittenwald and continued its business from then on. They stopped producing the original B=F6hm about 1960. Around that time the GDR stopped producing the Hamburgian Mechanic and all tools were destroyed until now. There are GEWA-B=F6hm Waldzithern with Embergher tuning machines from that time in lack of the former tuning machines. The factory-house in Hamburg still exists. It was sold in 1956. There is no heir of the B=F6hm family. > > including an original portuguese tuning machine. > > So there's conclusive evidence B=F6hm got the Preston tuners via Portugal > then. That's definitely an important fact. > > > B=F6hm from then on simplified the mechanik step by step. > > I just wish he had kept the thumbscrews. Tuning keys for B=F6hm > instruments are fiendishly hard to find these days. In the end I had to > get a friend to *make* one for me. The reason for the simplification may lie in marketing. C.H. B=F6hm founded a great walking club, referring to the "Wandervogel"-fashion, youngsters from educated city families exploring the woods, playing scout games and making music. I think, the name "Wald-Zither" and "Wald"-doline were slyly chosen to attract customers with that background. But to think about the portuguese screws in backpacks......you would get stuck, sneaking through the bushes. 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. They are not elegant, but serve the purpose. I put them in a small leather-bag around the neck of the instrument in question to have it at hand and to hinder scratches coming from a rope-dangling key) have to rush off to work... Martina > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html > > --
