Stromberg-Voisinet resonator model for sale...

Hey you Stromby fans,

I just saw this one, a late 20's Stromberg-Voisinet, for sale on eBay. :drool: The seller's been on for awhile, has 98% positive feedback, and a seven-day money back guarantee. Still, I've inquired about other auctions he has and he frustratingly never answers questions, but your mileage may vary. He also, very annoyingly, doesn't post side views of any of his instruments. What the...?

Anyway, it's still a good looking instrument - http://cgi.ebay.com/Unknown-Banjo-U...801?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f690d711

There looks to be two hairline cracks on the resonator. It's the stained maple model with the non-flanged walnut resonator. Might prove to be a bargain for someone looking to add to their collection.

Good luck, SVers.

Anyone else hate auctions without Buy It Now?

Nice looking instrument. You're right, a side view and a little more info would be good. I doubt it'll stay at $27 for long, though.

Jnobianchi said:

Hey you Stromby fans,

I just saw this one, a late 20's Stromberg-Voisinet, for sale on eBay. :drool: The seller's been on for awhile, has 98% positive feedback, and a seven-day money back guarantee. Still, I've inquired about other auctions he has and he frustratingly never answers questions, but your mileage may vary. He also, very annoyingly, doesn't post side views of any of his instruments. What the...?

Anyway, it's still a good looking instrument - http://cgi.ebay.com/Unknown-Banjo-U...801?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item45f690d711

There looks to be two hairline cracks on the resonator. It's the stained maple model with the non-flanged walnut resonator. Might prove to be a bargain for someone looking to add to their collection.

Good luck, SVers.

Click to expand...

seller has 6 neg's in the past month. not a good sign

Yesterday I asked this seller a specific question about one of his/her other items and got a very vague, almost insulting, response. Just saying.

Yep - I think this guy's a real piece of work. I just asked about another item for my kid; I asked if the neck was straight - he said, "win the auction, and if the neck isn't straight, you can dispute the sale with eBay". Are you KIDDING? I should dispute the sale? How about me sending you back the instrument and you refund my money?

I'm changing my opinion of him: don't buy from 2112Jefferson.

I bought a Bruko baritone from this seller. In the listing he stated that there are "two small cracks below the bridge." I was fine with these because I bought it for the purpose of learning to repair cracks (a luthier friend is teaching me, so I need some instruments to work on). Well, the Bruko has four cracks on the front, one of which is about 4" long, and two cracks on the back. Had I not bought this item for the reason stated above, I would have been quite displeased. He has been listing a lot of good ukuleles lately; the pictures are limited, and not very good. Since one cannot rely on the descriptions, I would be cautious.

I don't know anything about the seller, but he got $208.50 from someone with an eBay score of "0". Of course 4 days later his score is still 0, so he must have not received it yet. I bought a Stromberg-Voisinet from an ebay seller and paid $49.00. That makes mine, now that it's restored, worth megabucks.

I bought an unknown maker Banjo Uke from an ebay seller who had a 100% score. They only offered 2 pics (front and back), They listed it at least 3 times with a buy it now price of $499.00. I had offered $50.00 and was rejected. I offered $50.00 again and was rejected once again. I wrote the seller explaining to them that what they had was not worth the money they were asking. I told them that it didn't say GIBSON on the peghead (good thing because I hate the sound of the Gibson UBs as compared to a Stromberg-Voisinet). A week after the last expiration of the ad, I get an email asking if my $50 offer was still good.....I said it was and we completed the transaction.

But now it gets sticky.......I open the box when it arrives and remove wads of newspaper to find it laying in there looking just like the photos. I grab hold of it and lift it out and was turning it in my hands to inspect it and the neck fell off! That's right, a broken dowel. I was POd. The seller informed me that it was fine when they packed it and that I should have bought shipping insurance. So that seems to be a tactic many ebay sellers have started using. Blame it on the shipper and the buyer for not purchasing the insurance. It's just a rudimentary form of insurance fraud.

I wrote that one off to experience. I had the thing fixed, cleaned and playable in a couple of hours after the package arrived, so all is well and it's worth twice what I paid at least.

That seller kept their 100% rating, that was our agreement. They knew I was unhappy, but we agreed to give each other positive feedback. I realize now that the seller didn't pack it correctly and it was broken because of the pressure that was exerted by all of that newspaper. Most people don't have a clue as to how to ship an instrument safely.

Make it look good in the photos, suggest buying insurance in your ad, collect your money, ship broken item, blame it on the shipper....eBay always required caution, but it's even worse now.

Oh, and beware of hijacked eBay accounts selling things they don't even have and offers to sell outside of eBay. I'll tell you more about hijacks if anyone wants to hear that doesn't already know, just ask.

I still use ePrey ooops I mean eBay on occassion but with much caution and ALWAYS through PayPal, and yes, now I buy the insurance. It's worth the peace of mind.

You did very much alright with this one. Hard to say what it is, but it looks like a better than average Harmony uke. That pot is 7", right? Great job fixing it up!

John,

Thanks for the compliment. Yes it's 7 inches. I don't think it's a Harmony and I know it's not Slingerland, but I do believe it was made in Chicago. I've restored a few of these in the past few months. The tuners on the one above were worn out so I replaced them with some $10 grovers.

I see that you have 2 S-V's. Do you know much about them or the company? I've done a lot of research but I still have one unanswered question. Maybe you know the answer.....Why are the fret dots (MOP) where they are on mine? Every other S-V I've seen only has 4 dots in a straight line down the neck, mine has six. See photo below: 15 frets, six MOP dots.

Tim

The company's history is fairly well-documented - they were only known as Stromberg-Voisinet for about a decade before Henry Kuhrmeyer - their general manager, became owner and changed the name to Kay (his nickname). But frustratingly, there's nothing out there on the S-V inventory offerings - no catalog or ads that I've been able to find - and even though you see certain instruments that are basically the same model, they're often not *exactly* the same.

I can't be 100% sure, but I think I've seen your doubled mop marker arrangement once or twice before. But other than that, the other 30 or so I've run across have only had 4 markers, and there was one that had no markers at all. Once I get home, I can post the shots of the others, if I have them.

Tim -

Turns out that NONE of the instruments I've logged have the same mop marker arrangement as yours. Absolutely all but one had the 4 singly placed mop markers on the fretboard. Yours is unique as far as I can tell.