Guitar
Maker
Harmony Company
Maker
Albert Burton Shutt
Date1913
Place MadeTopeka, Kansas, United States, North America
Place MadeChicago, Illinois, United States, North America
ModelStyle B11 / Style B No. 1 Professional Model
Serial No.3004
SignedPrinted on glossy paper label, with photograph portrait of Albert Shutt enclosed in oval on left side: Shutt Professional Instrument / Fully Guaranteed / Made During Month of [line drawn in pencil] 19["13" written in pencil] / Model ["B11" written in pencil] No. ["3004" written in pencil] / THE SHUTT MANDOLIN-GUITAR CO. / Topeka, Kansas, U. S. A. / Patented March 8, 1910 Sept. 19, 1911 / Other Patents PendingNeck block stamped in purple ink: MANUFACTURED BY / THE HARMONY CO. / CHICAGO, ILL. / U.S.A. / B11
DescriptionShutt's models were the first archtop guitars and mandolins with f-shaped soundholes made in the US, pre-dating Gibson's introduction of the F-5 and L-5 mandolin and guitar models by at least 14 years.
One of only two Shutt guitars known to survive.
Stringing: six steel strings
Soundboard: arched, two-piece, quarter-cut spruce: fine-to-medium grain
Back: slightly arched, two-piece, quarter-cut sycamore
Ribs: two-piece, quarter-cut sycamore bent sides; upper ribs carved from single piece of sycamore, integral with top block; separate 8 mm piece at joint between upper rib and top
Head and neck: Spanish cedar or mahogany with brown-dyed hardwood center strip; head veneered in black-dyed hardwood or ebony
Heel cap: rosewood
Binding: ivoroid on top only
Fingerboard: red-brown-stained hardwood bound in ivoroid; 19 nickel-silver T-frets under lower three strings, 21 nickel-silver frets under upper three strings; mother-of-pearl dots behind 5th, 7th, 10th, 15th, and 17th frets; three mother-of-pearl dots behind 12th fret, the outer two smaller; brass side dots behind 5th, 7th, 10th, and 12th frets; fingerboard floats over top after 16th fret
Nut: bone; later
Bridge: uncompensated ebony
Tailpiece: nckel-plated sheet brass, covered on face with arched ebony with bevels at each end, secured to lower rib with three nickel-plated steel domed, slot head screws
Tuners: nickel-plated steel six-gear worm-gear machine head with brass rollers and ivoroid heads
Endpin: ebony with mother-of-pearl eye
Soundholes: f-holes without binding
Pick guard: black celluloid with circular cutout over upper f-hole eye, mounted on guitar with ebony bracket and nickel-plated steel screw
Lacquer: black with cracquelure on top; medium orange-brown on back and sides with slight sunburst
Linings: kerfed light hardwood
Neck block: integral with upper ribs; sycamore
End block: light hardwood
Top bracing: two spruce longitudinal braces between f-holes, fanned slightly from upper to lower bouts
DimensionsTotal guitar length: 959 mm (37-3/4″)
Back length (end of heel to center of lower back): 441 mm (17-3/8″)
Upper bout width: 303 mm (11-15/16″)
Waist width: 230 mm (9-1/16″)
Lower bout width: 357 mm (14-1/16″)
Rib height (including edging) at heel: 57 mm (2-1/4″)
Rib height, at waist: 56 mm (2-3/16″)
Rib height, at end block: 56 mm (2-3/16″)
Head length: 163 mm (6-13/32″)
Head width, top: 71 mm (2-13/16″)
Head width, bottom: 62 mm (2-7/16″)
Neck length (nut to ribs): 353 mm (13-29/32″)
Neck width, nut: 45 mm (1-25/32″)
Neck width, heel: 55 mm (2-5/32″)
Soundhole length: 122 mm (4-13/16″)
Vibrating string length (nut to bridge edge): 630 mm (24-13/16″)
ProvenanceSkinner Auction Online 3406T, Lot #1026, ending on 7/14/2020.
Purchase funds gift of Sue and Larry Sheets, St. Paul, MN, 2020.
Published Referenceshttps://www.harpguitars.net/history/shutt/shutt.htm
Credit LinePurchase funds gift of Sue and Larry Sheets, 2020
Object number15570
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