New, old Oahu on the way!

[Andy Volk]

Saw some old friends in Minneapolis this weekend and made a stop at Willie's American Guitars in St. Paul, a super friendly and knowledgeable vintage shop. I had no intention of buying anything but my dear wife said "This one sounds really good. You should buy it." Never one to contradict my better half, this sweet-sounding square neck Ohahu shows up tomorrow. BTW, the had a few very nice vintage steels: Gretsch, Gibson, Oahu, Fender Champ/matching amp and an early 50s Ric double 6 with horseshoes at typical vintage store prices. Not my most flattering pic but it shows the guitar well.

[Glenn Wilde]

Congratulations, I like those, I've had a few over the years. My friend Steve likes to hop them up with a pickup and plays gigs with them. I just got a similar one badged Orpheus, haven't set it up yet, might go B11 on it.

[D Schubert]

Yes, mine sounds a bit thin in an acoustic setting, but it's great with a sound hole pickup (Fishman Rare Earth Humbucker at the moment). Be a little cautious about string gages and tuning. Mine does fine with med gage 13-56 guitar strings in D or lo-bass G, anything higher the body starts to belly up from the tension.

[Andy Volk]

Thanks. I'm going to keep it in D. It doesn't replace my Weissenborns but it has it's own funky vibe and it was cheap.

[Andy Volk]

Btw …. Any way to date these guitars other than 1930’s? They are in the ‘38 and ‘39 Oahu catalogs.

[Glenn Wilde]

I've seen Oahu branded guitars by most of the big manufacturers like Oscar Schmidt, Harmony, Regal and Stromberg Voicenet/Kay, if you have a Harmony built one it may have the standard Harmony date stamp in it, otherwise it will be hard to date, you will have to look at individual features to narrow it down, and to figure out who built it.

[Andy Volk]

Thanks, Glenn, Probably not enough to definitively ID the maker. I did discover that the sound hole is a fraction too small to install my LR Baggs M1 pickup myself. A shop could probably get it in.

[Jeff Bell]

That looks a lot like my 1940 Harmony Sovereign. Same shape, painted binding and nut. The fret board looks similar too. Mine has a solid birch back and laminated top and sides. Congrats. I love mine. Mine has a resonator.

[John Drury]

Andy,

Congrats on the purchase! Nice axe! they are such sweet sounding guitars!

Great advice from SWMBO! Her taste in instruments is impeccable!

I had one just like it, always wondered what the DOM was.

Kept mine tuned to D Vestapol as well, treated it to a set of Golden Age Resto
tuners and a piezo pickup of my own design played it through a BOSS Acoustic
Singer Pro, sounded great!

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[Glenn Wilde]

This one I just got, while not badged as an Oahu, is exactly the same as some that I've had that were, appears to be Harmony made but it's date stamp is smudged. I'm left with the tuners and bridge to date it by, so I can only say it's prewar

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[Jack Hanson]

Saw some old friends in Minneapolis this weekend and made a stop at Willie's American Guitars in St. Paul, a super friendly and knowledgeable vintage shop.

A great store for decades. Nate's the man!