1940s Jim Paulic Brac (Tamburitza)

This tenor-guitar-looking creature is a tamburitza-family instrument called a brac. That's "brahtch." These are played in the Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, etc. part of the world in ensembles made entirely of instruments in the family. Some are mandolin-shaped and some are guitar-shaped and most are four-course instruments tuned in fourths. The standard tuning on this is EADG with a doubled high G, pitched an octave above guitar's EADG strings. There's a mandolin-sized instrument called a prim that's tuned an octave above this and is the mandolin-style counterpart to this one's mandola/tenor guitar range.

What's interesting is that there are a surprising number of these ethnic instruments that were made in the States both prewar and postwar. I've run across a lot of them (most by the maker John Bencic out of Cleveland) over the years and I really do like them a lot. They're built unlike most things we know over here, with lightly-curved tops and low bone bridges. They tend to be loud, cutting, and mandolin-like in timbre.

Because the obvious use for a non-tamburitza player is as a tenor guitar or octave mandolin, folks are often surprised by the tone when adapted for that role -- these are not warm on the low-end like a traditional flattop tenor guitar (even with a floating bridge) but work best when played mandolin-style as a lead or chop-chord instrument or played in modal or open tunings like on old Planxty recordings with Greek bouzoukis in use. I generally think "octave mandolin" pitch sounds bad on these -- it's too thin and reedy -- so the Americanized tunings I suggest are in the same range as tenor guitar or mandola pitch. CGDA works great, CGCG open as well, DGBE "Chicago" is good for chordal work but the necks are generally not suited to comfort with those chord shapes, DADF# open and CGCE open are nice non-modal open tunings... you get the idea.

This particular instrument is fascinating because the builder, one Jim Paulic of San Francisco, California, left his street address in the soundhole. Some internet sleuthing led to an obituary article about his wife, Mary Paulic. I've added a PDF file of the article to my Google Drive for posterity because I always worry about sites disappearing -- click here for that download. It's worthwhile reading and has all sorts of loving historical details.

The short of it is that Jim Paulic, born in 1911, was the son of Croatian immigrants and was born in Wisconsin and later moved to Ohio in his childhood. During the depression, his parents hosted some homeless Croatian fellas on their property and in exchange for letting them stay, they taught a young Jim how to play tamburitza instruments. Later-on he formed a band with friends and when one of these friends left the band and got work as a bass player out in San Francisco in the mid-'30s, Jim was invited out by him and moved out west.

He worked at a steel plant there with his friends and continued to play in a local tamburitza band. He met his wife Mary at this point and they married and moved to a small house at 420 Naples Street -- the same address on the label in the soundhole.

By 1952 the couple had moved to a different address so this instrument must have been made by him in the '40s. It's a tour-de-force, too, as it's pearl-encrusted, expertly-built, has excellent tuning machines with pearl-dotted, wood buttons, and is built accurately. The sound is as I've described -- poppy, loud, cutting, and clean -- and is extremely useful for punching through the sound of other instruments in the same way a mandolin does.

1-1-1-2 stringing might seem awkward at first, but I think of it as "backing on the low strings, lead on the high." In the video I'm playing CGCG open tuning and you can hear how I can get a lot of interesting tones by playing a little harder on the single strings, with less force on the high pair, and then when I want to punch-out I can dig-in on the high and almost get an "acoustic boost" for lead playing. It's fun and I can see how this style developed. The pitch on that string is really the course that's going to cut through an ensemble, anyway, so why burden the rest of the courses with extra tension just to get doubles all around?

Anyhow, work on this instrument was light. I just had to give it a glorified setup and some mild cleaning and adjustments. It's completely original except for a missing tailpiece cover, is crack-free, and plays beautifully -- though you'll have to get used to the deep, U-shaped neck profile that this family of instruments almost always has. It also has tall, rectangular-ish bar frets that, even after leveling and dressing, are a different flavor. It helps to have a lighter touch so as not to bind-up on them on slides and whatnot.

The last bit is that these all feature low bone bridges. I think the thinking on this is that you get a percussive slap from the pick when playing it over the pickguard areas, as most tamburitza instruments I've seen have significant wear in that region. This one looks like it was played mostly over the soundhole as it's so clean -- and, to be honest, my picking was sitting right there naturally, so I can see why!

Post-work it plays perfectly, fast, and is stable and good to go.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, mild cleaning, and setup work.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid flamed maple back, unknown solid sides

Bracing type: ladder

Bridge: bone

Fretboard: not sure

Neck wood: maple

Action height at 12th fret: 1/16" overall (fast)
String gauges: 32w, 22w, 14, 10x2 -- works for CGDA, EADG, CGCG, DADF#

Neck shape: medium-deep U/C

Board radius: flat

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: narrow/tall

Scale length: 21 7/8"

Nut width: 1 3/8"

Body width: 11 1/2"

Body depth: 3"

Weight: 2 lbs 14 oz

Condition notes: it's clean, all-original, and crack-free. There's minor usewear throughout but overall it's in amazing shape for its age.

It comes with: sorry, I don't have a case for it.