Lowell Levinger - Cathedranola Tenor Guitar

Lowell Levinger - Cathedranola Tenor Guitar (formerly owned by Frank Ford)
Click a pic to view it full size in a new page. -- Updated 7 May 04 --

A beautiful mahogany May Bell Cathedranola Tenor Guitar in pristine condition.
The back of the Cathedranola. Beautiful mahogany.
The head (the standard May Bell banjo head shape) with rosewood overlay.
The secondary soundboard, of spruce, painted black. This soundboard is glued to the full-thickness top.

A close up shot of the front of the instrument. Note the name engraved in the cover plate, and also note the small size of the instrument... the cover plate is 11" in diameter, and looks to go completely to the edges of the guitar.
A close-up of the back of the Cathedranola showing the detail of the inlaid marquetry purfling.
The back of the head, showing the original planetary tuners.
A close-up of the neck, showing the inlay in the rosewood fingerboard -- I originally thought that these might not be original as the holes are round and poorly filled, as if someone had replaced the original dots with the clovers. It seems unlikely that Slingerland would do this quality of inlay, as they did some nice inlay work on their May Bell banjos and other instruments. However, I have since seen this same inlay piece in the head of a May Bell Queen banjo, so maybe these clovers are original and just not well done, or indeed added by someone later.

Visit Lowell at his web site, Players Vintage Instruments

The above pictures © Frank Ford, 2001; Photos by FF.
Visit Frank at his exciting and informative web site, www.frets.com

-- These pages created using Arachnophilia 5.2