1900s Howe-Orme Cylinder-Top Mandola

Howe-Orme instruments -- especially these cylinder top/back mandolin-family instruments -- are very rare. I see the mandolin/mandolinetttos now and then but I have never come across a mandola except on obscure corners of the internet. This is a local customer's instrument and it was brought to me by Naive Melody, a consignment music shop up in Montpelier VT, to get some repairs done. These are beautiful-sounding instruments and a delight to hold and play as they tend to have a ton of volume and an outsized, clean, refined voice.

It arrived in a bad state, with big open cracks on the sides, a very shallow neck angle, worn frets, and a headstock that had been broken and repaired with two big brass plates, a lot of excess glue, and bolts to tighten it all up. That last repair was ugly but effective -- the headstock remained in place right through until now, so who's to argue?

Suffice to say, I came-up with a better solution for the headstock break -- two pieces of wood that replace the area that the bolted, brass plates used to cover. It's not a beautifully-sculpted job, but the goal was to make it sturdy and keep the costs from spiraling, so it's a perfectly-adequate job and reinforces the headstock area a lot more than it was before.

The rest was as-normal -- the cracks in the sides got glued-up, the frets got a level/dress, I cut and fit a new, compensated, adjustable bridge, and reset the neck which, like a lot of Boston instruments, uses a very shallow tenon joint. During the reset this also got a hidden, internal bolt which attaches through the neckblock and into the heel. I don't trust these tenon joints without one.

Of note on these is that they have a long ~17" scale length and, like most period bowlback mandolas, they are not at all intended for the strings one normally puts on a Gibson mandola with their shorter scale lengths. These should be used with heavy mandolin strings (with a plain 2nd course) in gauges 40w-11 or 42w-12 or similar. Original examples of most mandolas other than Gibsons that I've had that actually show-up with a compensated bridge have compensation for mandolin-style 2-wound, 2-plain courses. This instrument would shrivel up and die with the super-heavy gauges modern makers use on mandolas.

I also missed describing the "best parts" too, huh?! It's got a press-arched, solid spruce top over solid, Brazilian rosewood back and sides -- with a press-arch in the rear, too. The neck is mahogany and the board and bridge are ebony. It has engraved pearl inlay in the fretboard which is very similar to Vega instruments from the time -- also made in Boston.