Author: Charles Robinson

c.1929 HARMONY ‘Supertone’ Bradley Kincaid Houn’ Dog Guitar

Posted on by Charles Robinson

This is another guitar I’ve been wanting to do a post on for quite sometime.

c.1929 SUPERTONE Bradley Kincaid Houn’ Dog Guitar decal.

If you are an up and coming luthier and looking for a small guitar to test your restoration skills, you’d be hard pressed to find a better guitar to start with.

c.1929 ‘Supertone’ Bradley Kincaid Houn’ Dog Guitar

This guitar is the holder of a couple of ‘firsts’.  From the beginning of 1930 to the early 1940’s, Western themed decorated guitars, along with Hawaiian themed guitars, were hugely popular, dominating much of the budget guitar market.  This is recognized as the first ‘Cowboy Guitar’. This guitar is also recognized as one of, if not the first, ‘endorsement’ guitars.

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c.1940 KAY SMALL GUITAR with floral decoration

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Sometimes you just luck out!

I bought this small guitar quite a few years ago now, and it had been sitting ever since in an old guitar case.  I bought it because it cost very little and I do like small guitars. It is made by the Kay Musical Instrument Company in Chicago. It had 2 horizontal braces on the top between the bridge and the base of the guitar (end pin end). A tell-tale trait of Kay’s, as is the style of bridge.
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c.1928 WEYMANN Style 650 ‘Junior’ Size Guitar

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Owner – Tom Bode

c.1928 Weymann Style 650 ‘Junior’ size

There are two Style 650 guitars that appear in Weymann catalogues.  The one in the c.1924 catalogue has rosewood back and sides and a curly figured maple 2-piece neck.  It is the ‘junior model of the Style 854 guitar.

This guitar appears in bother the c.1928 and c.1930 catalogues and has mahogany back and sides with a mahogany 2-piece neck.
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c.1900 WEYMANN ‘Highest Quality’ Beautiful Guitar- Source: Deluca Music

Posted on by Charles Robinson

This guitar shows the workmanship of the H.A. Weymann & Son company – Quality at it’s absolute best!

I’ve been sitting on photos of this guitar for about 4 years, it’s time to share them with permission from Deluca Music store in Hatboro, Pennsylvania and the photographer David Humphreys.

So far this guitar has the lowest serial number (#1310) of all the 450+ Weymann instruments I have registered, although I have eleven instruments with no serial numbers which will be older than this guitar.  There is no Style number either, as Weymann did not introduce those until about 1913. It is not so easy to accurately calculate the manufacture date during this period as there has not been a ‘Rosetta Stone’ instrument turn up yet with a serial number that can be dated definitively to a particular date around that time.

So I date this beautiful guitar to c.1900, plus or minus 2 or possibly 3 years:

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c.1931 WEYMANN Style 749 All Koa Guitar

Posted on by Charles Robinson

With the Hawaiian craze in music and musical instruments starting in the mid 19teens Koa wood started to be used for guitar construction.

By the 1920’s many manufacturers made Koa models, including Martin.

This guitar Style 749 was Weymann’s homage to this beautiful Hawaiian tonewood. As far as I know this model was H.A. Weymann & Son’s only Koa model. I have photos of 2 examples:

1. WEYMANN Koa Guitar Style 749: Owner Keith Walker.

WEYMANN All Koa-wood Guitar 1931 Style 749, Owner Keith Walker

A beautiful example of this model.  Serial number dates it to ca.1931. Surprisingly this example has the Style number omitted from the top of the headstock, but there is little doubt it is a Style 749.

Extract from Weymann’s c.1930 catalogue describing the all Koa Style 749 guitar (there was no drawing accompanying the description).

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CANCER – Do Natural Therapies Work?

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“People with cancer are easy targets for naturopathic scams because they can be desperate for hope and extensively research their treatment options.

‘Natural’ treatments with few side effects appear irresistible when compared to surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. But it is almost impossible for most people to know beforehand that these natural remedies won’t do anything for their cancer. If the cancer returns, they are more likely to blame the cancer rather than the ineffective natural remedies they received.” Source: By Suneel D. Kamath August 29, 2017 

People who have read some of my blog will know that I have been dealing with advanced prostate cancer now for very close to 20 years.  Initially I started off self-treating with the help of a naturopath with diet and alternative medicines and lots of exercise.

However, early on I had some good advice: “Cancer is an aggressive beast, and requires aggressive treatment, this can only be achieved by Western medicine”.  Natural therapies can play a useful, supportive role even if only to enable management of one’s overall health pro-actively going forward.

This is the route I’ve taken during my 20 years of treatment and it has stood me in good stead.

Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the surface of single cancer cells – prostate cancer cell on the left and breast cancer cell on the right. These cells have surface projections which are characteristic of highly mobile cells and enable them to spread (metastasis) rapidly round the body, and invade other organs and tissues. Cancer cells divide rapidly and chaotically and may clump to form malignant tumors. Source: Science Photo Library.

Most cancer cells are nasty!

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WEYMANN ‘f’ Sound-hole Guitars – Styles 24, 30, 648, 748 and 848

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(Related Posts: Johnny Depp’s Weymann Guitar – Style 748) and 1917 Weymann Style 24 ‘f’ Sound-hole Guitar)

H.A. Weymann & Son made at least five styles of ‘f’ sound-hole guitars.  Once their manufacturing ceased in about 1933 they also commissioned ‘f’ hole guitars along with other instruments from manufacturers such as Harmony.  Here I am only talking about the guitars Weymann manufactured themselves.

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HUMILITY IS NOT A WEAKNESS

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It is a quality in developing love of God

In many cultures and religions washing someone’s else’s feet is a sign of humility.

Today our children are taught, directly and indirectly, that humility is something that does not get you far in this world. They are told they are “special” – better than others – and that the world owes them.

But for one who is trying to develop love for God, ideas of ‘specialness’ or self-importance go against all spiritual concepts:
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DEALING WITH ONGOING CANCER

Posted on by Charles Robinson
Cartoon by Navie

Those who have read some of this site know that I have been dealing with advanced prostate cancer for a long time, 19 years in fact! (see this post My Cancer Story Summarized).

My prostate cancer is termed ‘advanced’ because from when I was diagnosed it was outside the prostate capsule, therefore it had metastasized somewhere else in the body.

For quite a few years now I have been on X-Tandi (Enzalutamide), but 8 months ago the prostate cancer biomarker, the PSA blood test, began to rise again.  This meant that the cancer was again growing somewhere in my body.

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