1920s Harmony Roy Smeck Vita
While musicians were endorsing
instruments prior to the 20th century, the idea of developing new
models specifically for musicians really took off in the late 1920s. It’s likely
that no musician’s name appears on more instrument models than Roy Smeck, “The
Wizard of the Strings”, who could play just about anything with dazzling
virtuosity. Smeck’s name appeared on guitars, mandolins, ukuleles and banjos by
Gibson, Bacon, Harmony, sometimes under external brand names (such as the
Gibson-built Recording King instruments he endorsed for Montgomery Ward).
Smeck’s name appeared on headstocks well into the 1960s,
but his first signature instruments were produced by Harmony in mid-1927. The
year before, he was approached by the president of Harmony to create a series of
models specifically for him. The result was the Vita series of instruments, so
named by Harmony to capitalize on the popular new Vitaphone sound-on-disc system
that Warner Brothers had introduced (WB refused to license the Vitaphone name,
so Harmony made do with a shortened version). The Vita instruments were unique
partially due to their pear-shaped bodies (which recalled tenor lutes by a few
manufacturers) and partially due to their seal-shaped soundholes. At first there
was a ukulele and a 6-string, tenor and plectrum guitar, but a Vita mandolin
soon appeared in catalogs bearing a
similar body to the ukulele.
While Harmony is principally remembered today for
churning out myriad cheap guitars, they (along with fellow Chicago-based
mass-producers Regal and Stromberg-Voisinet) were also capable of producing
excellent, professional-grade instruments when it suited them. The Vita series
were all mid-priced instruments featuring spruce tops and flamed mahogany backs;
the guitars featured an airplane-shaped “Aero-Bridge” that capitalized on the
popularity of Charles Lindburgh at the time. Unusually for a flat-topped model,
the Vita-Mandolin had a long 14” scale. It initially sold for $15.00, changing
to $18.00 by 1930, plus $5.00 for a leatherette case.
While a large number of the Vita-Ukes survive (they were
by far the most popular of the series) and the guitars and tenor guitars pop up
occasionally, the Vita-Mandolin is probably the rarest of the bunch. It’s not
likely that many were built since the mandolin’s fortunes were ebbing quickly by
the end of the 1920s and players were increasingly favoring archtop models. This
mandolin’s sound is rather unusual as well; the small body doesn’t produce a ton
of volume, but it has a clear and sweet sound with excellent balance across the
strings. Not surprisingly, it tends to favor the treble frequencies. The tone is
not as tubby as most flat-top mandolins, probably because the seal-shaped
soundholes are closer to f-holes than a round hole.
