Classic Mode

Music Trade Review

Issue: 1931 Vol. 90 N. 10

Page 36 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
MUSICAL MERCHANDISE
MUSICIAN-INVENTOR OF TENNESSEE
PERFECTS VIOLIN BOW WITH FIBRE STRINGS
ANDERSON-SOWARD C O .
ORGANIZED OVER* 100 BANDS
In an article in the September REVIEW
referring to the activities of the Anderson-
HE development of the violin from rude suit of these experiments, he believes, is Soward Co. of Dayton, Ohio, in the or-
beginnings to its present perfection may something new under the musical sun.
ganization of amateur bands, it was stated
According to Mr. Kratochwill, the new that the company had organized 19 bands in
be traced by very regular steps to final
refinement of detail under the skill of the bow strings have all the advantages of
the last fourteen years. As a matter of fact,
horsehair without the disadvantages of the that number of bands was organized last
Amati, the Guarneri, the Stradivari and
natural fibre. He makes the following com- year alone and during the fourteen years
other renowned makers of Cremona and
Brescia, culminating in the work of An- ments: "Horsehair quickly becomes brittle over 100 bands have been formed.
tonio Stradivari in the 17th century. The and will then break easily. This is not true
In view of the success of the Anderson-
violin bow of the present day is the inven- of the synthetic fibre. The minute pro- Soward Co. in this work it b only fair that
tion of the Frenchman, Tourte, about 1780. tuberances on horsehair necessitate constant they should receive full credit.
Only the place and the time of the first ap- application of resin. This shortens the life
Because of the smoother
plication of the bow to the stringed instru- of the strings.
surface of the synthetic fibre it is necessary
ment is still unknown.
C. D. GREENLEAF SEES
to resin the new bow only occasionally. The
The violin itself has remained unaltered
man-made fibre is said by number of musi- SOME TRADE IMPROVEMENT
for several centuries. So also has the bow. cians who have tried the bow to give a
C. D. Greenleaf, president of C. G.
However, a recent announcement of patents sweeter tone.
Conn., Ltd., Elkhart, Ind., reports that the
issued on a violin bow strung with man-
business of his company has shown some
made fibre instead of horsehair has set
improvement with the coming of Fall,
musicians to wondering whether it will con- MILTON G. WOLF MARKS
although it is a bit too early to say how
tinue to remain unaltered.
complete the recovery will be. Although
The new bow hair is made of Bemberg, THIRD ANNIVERSARY
business for the first nine months was con-
The Vega Co., of Boston, had a sort of a
a multi-filament synthetic fibre made of the
cellulose of cotton linters by a cupram- field day, which resulted in extensive ad- siderably below last year, August showed
monium stretch spinning process. The man vertising and good-will for its line of gui- an increase over 1930, as did September.
tars, banjos, trumpets, etc., in Chicago on
There appears to be a much better feel-
who conceived the idea of stringing violin
September 24. This was due to the energy
ing among dealers, particularly in the East,
bows with Bemberg instead of horsehair, and
and popularity of their capable agent here, which apparently felt the spirit of depres-
who patiently perfected the processing of
the fibre necessary to this use, is R. A. Milton G. Wolf, who kept open house to sion before the West and is likewise be-
Kratochwill, musician-inventor of Greene- celebrate the third anniversary of his start- ginning to work out of it first.
ing the Milton G. Wolf Music Shop in
ville, Tenn.
"Providing general business conditions
improve, OT at least do not become any
Mr. Kratochwill is highly enthusiastic Kimball Hall.
worse," said Mr. Greenleaf, "we anticipate
Joe Termini, radio performer on national
about the new bow, and believes it has far-
reaching possibilities in the world of music. hook-ups, who uses Vega instruments ex- a fairly satisfactory business from now un-
clusively and played in Chicago that week, til January 1. We believe retailers' stocks
He used Bemberg fibre, he says, because it
was the guest of honor and the Wolf Shop are at a minimum and any substantial
combines extraordinary fineness with very
was visited by hundreds of teachers, per- buying must be reflected in increased activ-
high tensile strength. Patient experiment
ity at the source of supply."
formers and students.
over a period of years preceded perfection
of his invention. Now, having "proven" the
new bow to his own satisfaction, he is eager-
ly waiting its reception by his fellow musi-
cians.
The fibre in either single or two to three-
ply ISO denier 5 turn strands is used in the
form in which it emerges from the spinner-
Your continued success as a retailer depends on your retaining the
ette, twisted and treated with a solution to
give it the abrasive resistance and durability
confidence of your customers, and this depends entirely on the
essential to bow strings.
kind of instruments you sell them.
,
The idea occurred to him, Mr. Kratochwill
says, as a result of his study of Chinese
Insure yourself against loss of confidence and good-will by offering
music. According to the Chinese, he ex-
plains, he found recognition of eight dif-
them instruments so built as to guarantee more than ordinary
ferent natural musical sounds—the sound
satisfaction. Sell instruments that will make each purchaser an
of skin, stone, metal, baked earth, silk, wood,
enthusiastic booster for your store and more sales.
bamboo and gourd.
Seven Chinese instru-
ments he discovered to be entirely strung
with silk, because in these instruments the
Sell them the line that discriminating and particular professional
sound of silk attained greatest perfection.
players all over the world proclaim to be the world's finest.
He found also that one, Wu Fong, in 1675,
had used silk instead of horsehair to string
Sell them MARTIN "HANDCRAFT."
a bow, but that he had abandoned the ex-
periment "for many reasons," including the
high cost of silk.
With the introduction of Bemberg in this
country in 1927, Mr. Kratochwill decided
Elkhart, Indiana
the time had come to do a little experiment-
ing along the lines of Wu Fong. The re-
T
Confidence
Martin Band Instrument Company
36
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
O c t o b e r , 1931

Page 37 Text:

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
October,
37
1931
FINDS LIVELY DEMAND FOR
MARTIN BAND INSTRUMENTS
SYDNEY J. WINFIELD
RETURNS FROM EUROPE
M. HOHNER, INC., N O W
SETTLED IN NEW QUARTERS
Among the Chicago visitors in the last
week of September was Fred A. Holtz, vice-
president of the Martin Band Instrument
Co., Elkhart, Ind., makers of the famous
Martin Handcraft line. He cheerfully vol-
unteered the information that business is very
good, indeed. As he put it:
"September orders for Martin band in-
struments have, up to this time, far ex-
ceedied our best expectations, and if they keep
coming in as they have been, the depression
is entirely over as far as we are concerned.
Our export sales are holding up very well
indeed, also. In fact, summer business with
us has been more than we expected and
justifies our belief that the quality instru-
ment, after all, makes the best showing in
sales in what are generally called dull times.
In fact, it seems to me that then the people
pay more attention to their purchases as in-
vestments in satisfaction than when their
money is plentiful. In other words, they
want better values for their money, and in-
struments which will give the highest musi-
cal satisfaction."
Sydney J. Winfield, of M. Hohner, Inc., re-
turned recently from an extended tour of
Europe in the course of which he visited the
Hohner factories in Germany and also spent
some time in England, France and Switzer-
land. It was Mr. Winfield's first trip abroad
and he was accompanied by Mrs. Winfield
and their daughter.
In commenting on his trip, Mr. Winfield
declared that the more he saw of Europe,
the better he was satisfied with America.
"We may think we have trouble over here,"
M. Hohner, Inc., the world-famous manu-
facturers of harmonicas and accordions, are
now fully settled in their new showrooms
and offices at 351-353 Fourth avenue, near
26th street, New York. A large floor is occu-
pied which gives the company much needed
additional space in which to carry on its
business. THE REVIEW hopes to present some
views of the new quarters in an early issue.
he said to THE REVIEW, "but in comparison
with the situation in some European coun-
tries, we are really enjoying a year of pros-
perity. The United States looks mighty good
to yours truly."
NEW SMALL GOODS STORE
OPENED IN MILWAUKEE
Robert A. Froemming and Arthur H.
Gossfeld have established Froemming-Goss-
feld, a new music shop which has space
with the Baldwin Piano Co., at 744 N.
Broadway, Milwaukee, Wis.
Both Mr. Froemming and Mr. Gossfeld
NEW ILLUSTRATED CATALOG nere
formerly associated with the William
A. Kaun Music Co., for a period of more
ISSUED ON KAYKRAFT LINE
than fifteen years, and they are widely known
A new catalog is just out, issued by the among concert goers, music teachers, and
Kay Manufacturing Co., formerly Stromberg- other music lovers in the Milwaukee met-
Voisinet, and illustrating in COIOT the new
ropolitan district.
famous KayKraft line of fretted instruments,
which have met the enthusiastic approval of
players and dealers alike, owing to their JAY KRAUS SEES BETTER
tone, finish, and artistic designs. All of
BUSINESS IN OFFING
the seventeen models in this KayKraft line
Jay Kraus, president of the Harmony Co.,
are going over so well that the factory at
310 Union Park Court, Chicago, has been Chicago, stated to THE REVIEW that his
running for a number of weeks with a full company looked for a rather substantial
force of men on full time in order to keep amount of instrument business in the fall
months of the year; not in any record-break-
up to current demands.
ing volume, but sufficiently strong to enable
them to conduct manufacturing operations on
a normal basis.
"We have certainly noticed a decided
change for the better within the last two
weeks," said Mr. Kraus, "and knowing well
Which dominates your
the extremely low condition of all retail and
buying?
jobbing stocks, we cannot help but feel that
this improvement will continue."
S'ingle-sale profits are no indication of a
Price or Quality—
profitable yearly average . . . . the replac-
ing of unsatisfactory merchandise at your
own cost, together with increased over-
head through sales resistance in promoting
an unadvertised brand may reduce your
profits far more than the slight difference
you pay for a well known quality product.
RED-OKAY
and TONECRAFT
STRINGS
give you both quality and price advantage
. . . . quality that has an enviable reputa-
tion of many years standing and a liberal
discount for a profitable yearly average—-
plus our guarantee that insures dealers
against loss through any possible dissatis-
faction.
Write for full particulars regarding our
complete line of String Products. Oppor-
tunities throughout the country are open
to active dealers.
Kaplan Musical String Co.
South Norwalk, Conn., U. S. A.
OUTLOOK IS BRIGHTER,
REPORTS HARRY BUEGELEISEN
Harry Buegeleisen, of Buegeleisen &
Jacobson, musical merchandise importers and
wholesalers of New York, reported to THE
REVIEW that business so far this year was
.on a par with the first nine months of 1930,
with considerable activity among retailers in
all sections of the country. As a matter of
fact, all accounts seem to have improved and
the outlook appears much brighter than at
this time last year.
The Slingerland Drum & Banjo Co. is now
out with a new catalog in color, illustrating
the full line of drums which they manufac-
ture. The Slingerland house is well rep-
resented by a delegation from the office at
the American Legion Convention in Detroit,
and Slingerland drums were prominent.
FINDS BETTER DEMAND
FOR QUALITY INSTRUMENTS
H. & A. Selmer, Inc., Elkhart, Ind., report
that although their band instrument busi-
ness for the first nine months of this year
was a little behind last year, there has been
a marked improvement during September
and prospects are that sales for the re-
mainder of the year will run ahead of 1931.
One of the officials of the company ex-
pressed the opinion that many dealers could
with profit put more effort into the selling
of band instruments instead of waiting for
the manufacturer to develop the sale and
put it in his lap. The tendency, it was de-
clared, was strongly for quality instruments,
following the general demand for high-class
merchandise that has been noted in other
fields.
NEW LINES OF BACON
GUITARS AND BANJOS
The Bacon Banjo Co., Groton, Conn., has
recently announced several important addi-
tions to its large line of fretted instruments.
These include the new "Senorita" tenor
guitars and the "Symphonie" banjo. Both
lines have a number of new features.
Death of E. Euhlinger
Owing to the sudden death of E. Euh-
linger, proprietor of the Acorn Sample Case
Co., the factory at 208 West Kinzi.- street,
Chicago, has temporarily closed down for
inventory and Mrs. Euhlinger is now con-
sidering propositions to sell the plant, stock,
patent rights, etc. It will be remembered
that the Acorn Sample Case Co. recently got
out a new type of piano case accordion with
a double hinged folding top, obviating the
objections generally found in the conven-
tional or California type accordion case.
Finds Fall Season Active
The American Plating & Mfg. Co. started
the fall and winter season very well, ac-
cording to President Pidgen, who based his
optimism on the orders he had already got-
ten since Labor Day. He said, "I am par-
ticularly pleased by the continued sales of
our saxette and our new Boy Scout bugle
which we claim is an improvement and has
made a big hit. Also our Jewsaphone, jazz-
sax, and our guitar attachment feature."
Wm. R. Gratz Co. Moves
The Wm. R. Gratz Import Co., for some
time past located on West 34th street, New
York, has moved to more commodious quar-
ters at 239 Fourth avenue, near 19th street.

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