I had a MayBell with that very decal on it ages ago. It wasn't a terrible guitar.

Sent the pix to my friend; he has 3 of them, each slightly different.

Peter

If he's in California, I may have met him a while ago - this one doesn't have a serial number, and needs its tuners, knobs, and cord restored. The big plus is that it has a good neck angle.

DeKalb, IL.

Peter

I've got two and there's a guy in Southern California with three, so I guess they clump together.

Well, if you're that rare, you want numbers for safety, I guess......  

Peter

I've had a theory for a while, that whatever it is that causes those of us to collect whatever wedge of collected items we do, also causes them to gather in small geographical pockets. At one time, I had a huge collection of Kalamazoo instruments... one of the Gibson "house brands". I had one or two of everything, banjos, guitars, tenor and plectrum, even a Hawaiian, and mandolins. I came within a 6-pack of buying a Kalamazoo mando-bass one time, and chickened-out because it needed work I wasn't sure I could do. I sold the last of them to help fund my first Alembic.

Here's that BR9 lap steel. I've had it for 25 years. It was a gift, along with a Supro tube amp that doesn't work anymore but probably could. I don't think the chrome nut is correct. I replaced the crumbled tuner knobs many years ago. I'd actually like to take another swing at this... these look too new. I can do better now. The plates are bone stock though.

I'd love to get my hands on a mandobass. The giants of the mando family are always fun.

I love the color schemes on '59s Gibson lap steels — the pastels are always so cool.

Late '40s or early '50s Supro Comet I found in the one pawn shop in Zaneville, OH, in the mid '70s for $25; never figured out how to work it*, so I gave to my buddy Bob for his 30th b-day.  That would have been '81 or '82 (not everything from those days has been fully retained), and he's still gigging it.  It doesn't show in the pic, but the finish is mother-of-toilet-seat pearloid.

*Though one day in '79 I sat in the basement/jam room/room my formerly-a-closet bedroom opened onto of the sort-of-commune where I was crashing while looking for another gig, higher than a kite; plugged into my Gibson BR-1 (same pawn shop, same time frame, same price) through an MXR delay.  Started tapping the bar at various points on the string, adjusting the delay, got a rhythm going, and had a fine old time for a good while.  Finally went upstairs & one of the girls living there gushed "I love your music!"  At that point in time, I knew about 4 chords & part of a pentatonic scale on Spanish guitar, and (as stated above) nothing on the Hawai'ian.  Got a kick out of that........

Peter

Quote from: cozmik_cowboy on May 22, 2026, 09:37:23 PMFinally went upstairs & one of the girls living there gushed "I love your music!"  At that point in time, I knew about 4 chords & part of a pentatonic scale on Spanish guitar, and (as stated above) nothing on the Hawai'ian.  Got a kick out of that........

Peter

And a monster was born. 

Quote from: edwardofhuncote on May 22, 2026, 02:47:03 PMI came within a 6-pack of buying a Kalamazoo mando-bass one time, and chickened-out because it needed work I wasn't sure I could do. I sold the last of them to help fund my first Alembic.

It's not Gibson (or a mandobass), but since we were talking Chicago earlier, here's a fun Mandocello:

Good stuff, David. Lyon & Healy? I like the inlaid pickguard style. Never had an honest-to-goodness mandocello but did a converted archtop guitar one time.

I do have a Boston, Mass. made Vega mandolute. It's made kind of the same shape as the storied cylinder-back, but without the points, and mine is mahogany and flat. When I got it, it had been crushed. I took the back off to repair the top, and as an experiment I made a secondary soundboard, like the Virzi "tone producer" and fit to it. I was young and curious. 😆

Those inlaid pickguards though... how'd G they do that?! That would be a giant pita even now.

That's a cool mandolute — Vega did some pretty interesting things during that period (somewhere I have a really fabulous cylinder top guitar with its neck off, because a luthier I hired never finished its neck set).

The Mandocello is a Stahl by the Larson Brothers — I really wish more people did inlaid pickguards. They're gorgeous. I'm going to have to do some digging now to find pictures of a fun New York-made guitar from the early '20s, that has a perfect inlaid pickguard on it.

Quote from: Nova Constellatio on May 24, 2026, 10:34:09 AMThat's a cool mandolute — Vega did some pretty interesting things during that period (somewhere I have a really fabulous cylinder top guitar with its neck off, because a luthier I hired never finished its neck set).

The Mandocello is a Stahl by the Larson Brothers — I really wish more people did inlaid pickguards. They're gorgeous. I'm going to have to do some digging now to find pictures of a fun New York-made guitar from the early '20s, that has a perfect inlaid pickguard on it.

Any chance of a Howe-Orme? 

(forgot all about Larson Bros. Yep, another Chicago shop) 

The thing about those inlaid pickguards... the relief cut. How'd they get them so uniform? The outline isn't the issue, though some are kinda' tedious, but how did they chisel the spruce out so perfectly flat? I guess you can always flush up the celluloid or whatever material by careful scraping and sanding, but even that is tricky. I gotta' try it sometime. 

I had a tiny Howe-Orme cylinder top with an adjustable neck for a while, but I ended up using it as partial trade on the 1936 000-18S that I posted last week. It was a cool instrument, but was thin sounding.

Here's the other inlaid pickguard guitar I mentioned earlier (obviously, I didn't take these pictures). It's a Galiano by Ciani, similar to Nick Lucas's, and virtually identical to the one play by Pops Stoneman.

These were made after Ciani handed over the shop to D'Angelico, and this one hung in D'Angelico's shop until he died. My guess is that it's the earliest identifiable guitar that he built.