c.1920 Maurer / Larson Mandolin
No serial #. This Larson-built, Maurer-branded bent-top mandolin was built for S. Ernest Philpitt -- a distributor with outlets in Washington DC, Miami and Jacksonville. It's a fairly simple instrument with a spruce top, stained maple back and sides, white celluloid body, fingerboard, and soundhole bindings, inlaid pickguard and multi-layered bindings and rosette. Ebony fingerboard with pearl dot inlays, ebony bridge, clamshell tailpiece, Waverly tuning machines.
The instrument was lovingly set-up in our shop and plays beautifully. Its neck angle and original fretwork are very good, and its top is perfect. The back has been repaired (looks like very old work), there's a section of replaced maple that's nicely blended in. If the wood grain were a better match the repair would be tricky to quickly detect. As it is, it's not terribly unsightly, and is easy to forget. The instrument's finish is original everywhere but over the replaced back wood. Original tuners, nut, frets, bridge and tailpiece.
Round neck, 13" scale, body joins at the 10th fret, 1-1/8" nut width.
Richly colored tone with sweetness and overtones. Sustain, and prettiness. It's very much not a bluegrass mandolin!
With chipboard case
The instrument was lovingly set-up in our shop and plays beautifully. Its neck angle and original fretwork are very good, and its top is perfect. The back has been repaired (looks like very old work), there's a section of replaced maple that's nicely blended in. If the wood grain were a better match the repair would be tricky to quickly detect. As it is, it's not terribly unsightly, and is easy to forget. The instrument's finish is original everywhere but over the replaced back wood. Original tuners, nut, frets, bridge and tailpiece.
Round neck, 13" scale, body joins at the 10th fret, 1-1/8" nut width.
Richly colored tone with sweetness and overtones. Sustain, and prettiness. It's very much not a bluegrass mandolin!
With chipboard case