Unusual auditorium
guitar with Aero bridge and Cuban mahogany body
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© 2015 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
Played by
a Philadelphia man for 65 years
Recently restored
for concert performance _________________________________
© 2015 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
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PIX: KL Tom Crandall, New York City luthier, with c. 1935 Roy Smeck Professional. |
This Roy Smeck Professional, made by Harmony Co. of Chicago in the late 1930s, recently came into my life and hands. It is a rare model (H1251) that was owned and played for 65 years by one man — Gilbert A. Rand (1925 – 2005) of Philadelphia.
The instrument was made with quality woods, including flamed Cuban mahogany on the back and sides, mahogany neck and tight-grained spruce top with 15-inch lower-bout width. It has a rosewood fingerboard with 14 frets to the body and 25-inch scale, maple bridge and firestripe pickguard that mimics a Gibson L-00 guard from the same era. The entire guitar glows with a red-brown sunburst finish across the top, sides and back.
The guitar has its original bridge and plastic bridge pins, but its pot-metal tuners long ago disintegrated. They’ve been replaced with new units. Gilbert Rand apparently used a metal nut extension for Hawaiian-style play for quite some time. Still, today the neck’s 1-11/16-in. nut width and ever-so-slight V shape feel comfortable for standard play.
Two prominent elements on this guitar are an Aero bridge and an endorser's headstock. Both of these features were used by Sears Roebuck Co., Harmony’s owner, to attract customer interest and generate sales.
Set atop some 6-string, tenor and uke models in the late 1920s and 1930s, the Aeros were fully functioning bridges meant to honor a man once called America’s greatest hero — aviation ace Charles Lindbergh. Oddly, the Aero bridges were replaced by straight bridges by 1940 at about the time Lindbergh fell from favor.
Likewise, emblazoned on the headstock is the guitar's model name: "Roy Smeck Professional." The letters are engraved and painted on a pearloid
peghead overlay.This element verified in the public's mind that this guitar was designed by the famous instrument virtuoso. It also honored Roy Smeck — a living musical legend and Harmony endorser for 40 years — from 1927 to 1967. More about Roy Smeck later.
One special instrument
All told, the large size, Cuban mahogany body, Aero bridge, endorser nameplate, handsome finish and other details mean this guitar was designed to be one special instrument — unlike most guitars Harmony built during the Depression.
In the 1930s the majority of the firm's units were mass-produced, budget affairs. They were standard-sized guitars with ladder-braced tops and all-birch or birch-and-spruce bodies. They were sold by the thousands through Sears mail-order catalogs and by wholesale jobbers to music stores.
To bolster sales during the Depression years, Harmony also gussied up the design of their low-brow instruments. They added custom appliqués, decorative decals, cowboy themes, rustic, romantic and Hawaiian scenes, and painted marquetry.
Some of its most attractive sellers were starter kits for novice guitar players. These included a guitar and canvas case. Occasionally, a silk cord, extension nut, slide bar and picks were added as well. In 1937 Harmony flattop starters ranged from $6.45 to $10.75. Its archtop starters cost a little more: $8.75 to $28.65.
Kay Music Co. of Chicago, Harmony's biggest competitor, offered similar starter kits through Montgomery Ward stores and its mail-order catalogs. Flattop kits started at $4.98 and topped out at $11.98 for a Del-Oro auditorium guitar — reduced from $17.50 in time for Christmas. Kay archtop kits ranged from $9.98 ("Regular $12.98 value! Suitable for Hawaiian or Spanish style playing!") to $19.95 for an Old Kraftsman archtop with "genuine curly maple."
Top with two X braces
Gilbert Rand's Roy Smeck Professional stands well above Harmony's decorative and starter models in several ways. Besides its Aero bridge and star-enhanced endorsement, it is graced with an unusual X-braced top and Cuban mahogany back and sides.
The top, in fact, has two X braces. One is beneath the sound hole in the traditional location. A second X was placed near the tail block between the lower struts of the main X brace.
Here’s how the Roy Smeck Professional is described in a 1935 catalog from Metropolitan
Music Co., a New York City jobber that shipped guitars for Sears: Roy Smeck (“Wizard of the Strings”) Extra Auditorium
Professional Guitar, improved model with famous
Aero bridge. Beautifully figured mahogany back and
sides, dark shaded finish. Fine close grained shaded
spruce top, inlaid and nicely toned to match. Heavy
celluloid trimmed edge. Steel reinforced mahogany
neck. White pearlette head piece is hand engraved.
Long scale, ovalled rosewood fingerboard, celluloid
bound with neat inlaid position dots. Hand rubbed
polished finish. Carefully adjusted and regulated for
ease of playing and full tone quality. Individual unit
tuning keys. Each $30.00.
The $30 price didn't change during the five years the guitar was sold. However, the cost of furnishing a 15-inch, black hardshell case with plush interior for the guitar rose from $5.19 in 1937 to $7.35 by 1941.
"Beautifully figured mahogany"
Back in the day the figured mahogany on this guitar was called Cuban mahogany and may have come from Regal Musical Instrument Co. of Chicago, said one vintage guitar source. In the 1930s Regal operated a secondary enterprise importing and selling wood supplies to other instrument makers and furniture firms. So it’s not uncommon to see instruments from this era made by Harmony, Washburn and Regal with the same curly Cuban mahogany.
Cuban mahogany has not been commercially available since the 1950s due to extensive logging. Produced prior to that era, guitars like this Roy Smeck Professional are rare and special because they may reveal a close, fine grain and exhibit a curl, quilt or wavy-grain figure. Said to be denser than Honduran mahogany, such Cuban mahogany offers rosewood-like tone qualities, with a well-developed midrange and bass.
Roy Smeck —
longtime prolific endorser
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| Shown with electric lap steel guitar, musician Roy Smeck endorsed for both Harmony and Gibson. |
From his days in vaudeville in the early 1920s until the mid-1960s, he made more than 500 recordings for Victor, Decca, Edison, Columbia, Crown, RCA and other labels. In the 1950s and 1960s he was a frequent guest on TV variety shows for Ed Sullivan, Steve Allen and Jack Paar.
Today, the "Wizard of the Strings" is better known as the endorser of the Stage Deluxe (1934 – 1942) and Radio Grande (1934 – 1939), Hawaiian guitars with 2-inch-wide necks from Gibson of Kalamazoo, MI. Though many have had their necks thinned when converted to standard-style for modern players, they still have a higher collector value than their Harmony counterparts, according to Harmony expert François Demont and other vintage dealers.
25¢ weekly installments
Born August 12, 1925, Gilbert Rand was a teenager when he bought his Roy Smeck Professional sometime before 1940. To get the guitar, he made weekly installments of 25¢ for nearly nine months and paid a total of $39.60 to Dortch Studios of Music and Arts on North Fifteenth Street in Philadelphia.
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| Gilbert Rand's receipt booklet shows he paid $39.60 in weekly payments to Dortch Studios over nine months to pay for his guitar. |
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Article and photo in
Nov 1978 Reading Eagle identified Gilbert Rand (2nd from left) as member of Ind't Order of Odd Fellows |
Other than residing at several homes in Northeast Philly during his adult life, little else is known of the man. Only time will tell if we learn more about this special person and his fine guitar. Other than his 65-year stewardship of the Roy Smeck Professional, little else is known about Gilbert Rand’s adult life or family. An article in the Nov, 1978 issue of Reading Eagle and an 1978 IRS Form 990 for nonprofit taxpayers revealed he was a Grand Master in the Philadelphia chapter of Independent Order of Odd Fellows, a fraternal service organization.
Playability is now superb
Today, this acoustic guitar’s playability is superb. The vintage sound is appealing for its bass and mid-range warmth. It throbs smoothly when fingerpicked (crisp, round and soft, with quick-decay on the treble). And it thrums cleanly when strummed or flat picked — crisp, vibrant and even, but not strident. Yes, using words to describe sounds is vain.
In April, 2013 New York City luthier Tom Crandall restored the guitar with the following work:
• reset the neck
• replaced crumbled tuners with Grover Sta-Tites
• planed (12-inch radius) and refretted fingerboard
• installed Popsicle brace under tongue of fingerboard
• filled and recut the saddle slot, then intonated bone saddle
• installed maple pad on bridge plate for secure bridge pin contact.
"These guitars don’t come up for sale often,” said Alex Whitman, Crandall’s business partner. “And they almost never get the repair work they deserve.”
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Resources
antebelluminstruments.blogspot.com
harmony.demont.net
theunofficialmartinguitarforum.yuku.com
trcrandall.com
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©
2015 — Kenneth Lelen — All Rights Reserved
