Edelton byggde bra instrument. Jag har en gitarr som visats i tidigare nämnda tråd, men även en mandolin.
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web.archive.org/EdeltonPostby Snap » Sun Feb 12, 2012 5:09 pm
Here goes what I've found about Josef Siebenhüner and his Edleton brand.
There was at least two Josef Siebenhüner active in the in-between world wars period. One nicknamed "Zulspepi" and another one nicknamed "Philippsefferl". They came from an old family of violin makers from Schönbach starting the family tradition in the 18th century. Most Siebenhüners kept making viols, like "Zulspepi", and were apparently widely recognized for the good craftmanship, but for some reason "Philippsefferl" chose to make plucked stringed instruments instead. He was specialized in Zithers making, but he also built many lutes and guitars.
In 1883 he founded and registered the brand (or company) "Edelton" using this brand name along with "Elite". Though I have never seen a Schönbach style instrument having the Elite brand name. I've found a few Edelton zithers, lutes and guitars. Maybe the Elite brand was used for strings only. These were not uncommon in catalogs by the time.
I researched as much as I could about this brand name, because there was a german maker called Josef Braun in Ergoldsbach, Lower Bavaria, using the Edelton brand too. I only managed to find a single kontra guitar signed and labeled in 1926. There are no hints, registers or records about him in database of the MUM, so he was probably a very small or even a single man workshop with a very small production unable to fill the catalogs or demands of the Edelton foreign importers. IMO, besides the coincidence, Braun is not our man.
I found a report of an Edelton zither dated in 1938 which label reads "Schönbach bei Eger in Böhmen". This is our man in my opinion.
According to the Schönbach house owners list (Die Hausbesitzerliste der Stadt Schönbach), There were two different Josef Siebenhüner living in Voglstange… whatever it means it's correct according to the Siebenhüners I've found, but all the Siebenhüners in the list are mispelled as "Siebenhühner" I guess it's only an administrative typo. According to other sources, these two Josef Siebenhüner both lived in the the Falkenauerstrasse along with other members of the family and some other known luthiers.
Josef had a son called Rudolf also listed as living in Falkenauerstrasse, and also reported as guitar maker or zither maker in different sources. There was another Siebenhüner called Franz, living in the same street and reported as zither maker too. He was born in 1869. Perhaps a brother of Josef.
So it seems they all lived in the same street, perhaps in the same building and perhaps worked together in the same workshop; the Josef Siebenhüner's Edelton shop. As far as I know, it was not strange in Schönbach and Markneukirchen to have the workshop and the home in the same building. neither the family members helping out in the instruments making. Josef was also a teacher and taught and trained some of the best guitar makers in the area including his own son. Some of those makers were well known in West Germany where they settled after being expelled from Czechoslovakia right after the WWII.
The Edeltons are surely the very first archtops in the "Gibson style" ever made in Europe with the permission from the Mirecourt makers in France.
Or in other words, the first ones ever made in the 20th century. It's clear that nobody else was making any kind of archtops in the old continent before the Schönbach makers. They were making them at least in 1930 as seen in old catalogs. But there are hints demanding to shift that dating even slightly later. Towards some point in the mid to late '20s. The European archtop was born French but it was reborn Czech. No doubts at all.
From some time ago I've found weird looking archtops looking quite old. I never managed to tell if they were German or not, mainly because one of the first german archtop makers, acclaimed to be the first one by some german enthusiasts, Felix Stärke, the owner of the Este brand, was building guitars very close to the Edeltons since the mid '30s. Also some other german makers built guitars in this style after Stärke and before the WWII. But I started finding guitars in Sweden looking earlier than those Germans that the swedish guys were calling Edelton. Most were unbranded, but they were not specially uncommon over there. Those same swedish guys insisted about these instruments were from the '20s.
I also started knowing the Schönbach guitars better. After a long and steady search some guitars actually branded as Edelton started to surface here and there in Sweden. Those guitars were clearly from Schönbach according to the hardware and other building features. I've found not Swedish built archtop older than 1933, when Levin started making the model Nr. 170 for first time. IMO, the earliest Swedish archtop ever. Another reason to think that the Edeltons were imported and not made in Sweden.
Some time ago in a swedish forum some one posted an old guitar followed by pictures of an old catalog showing those guitars. The catalog was dated in the late '20s according with the Levin stuff showed in it along with these guitars. The old Levin catalogs are well known and the Levin history is very well documented, so no chance of mistakes here. In 1930 the whole guitar range was fully changed by Levin. So most of the instruments were different from those built until 1929. It's clear that the catalog is a pre 1930. In 1927 Levin made another major redesign of their range. So the catalog must be dated in between 1927 and 1929. In other hand, the first F-holes cello-like archtop guitar, the L-5, was introduced in 1923 by Gibson at the other side of the pond, so it's hard to believe that anyone in Europe was making this kind of guitars before that year. The margin is quite close now.
Though I requested scans of the full catalog I'm talking about, and I offered paying for them whatever the owner asked for, he refused to share it. I have to trust in his own research and the Levin reference dating we used. We only have the pictures posted in that forum. Check this link
The guitar is unbranded as the guitars showed in the catalogs are (jump to page 2 in that thread). I don't know if J. L. Petersons was the importer or not. I've seen Edeltons having different dealer labels and stickers. I'm still working on this. I'm trying to find the actual Swedish importer. Later I've found the very same guitars having an Edelton stamp in the headstock. Finally it all was fitting together. Edeltons were built by Siebenhüner in Schönbach in the mid to late '20s and mostly exported to Sweden. I never managed to find one in the UK, but I've seen them in some late '20s and early '30s German catalogs too, and also found a few in Germany. Usually unbranded and sometimes having reseller brands like Hess. I think that Stärke just went inspired by them. There are not few instruments in this style found in germany, most of them unbranded which look like Estes at first sight, but they clearly are not Stärke makes. Mostly cheapos. IMO, they all were made in Schönbach, possibly by Siebenhüner or small cloners in the area. It seems that neither Höfner or Albo ever made such kind of instruments. At least I haven't found a single hint about this fact yet.
So it seems that Siebenhüner was actually the very first European archtop maker in the 20th century!!!
Check these clips.
This guy (Rick) has five clips recorded with Edeltons No. 206 and No. 208, apparently through a humble SM58.
206
Hot dog
King of the C blues
208
Buckets of rain
Long distance call
The glory of love
And don't skip this other one.
IMO, this one is the earliest Edelton I know. Probably one of the earliest archtop guitars ever built in the 20th century. I was about buying this guitar, but was the second bidder. It went for something like 250€. A few weeks later the guy put it for sale asking for 3000. It was in ebay UK for several months. He finally dropped the price progressively and it seems it was sold for 1500. It was the last time I saw it. The guy was from Portugal and never replied to my emails, just uploaded this clip linked from the ebay auction.
Marek Rejhon told me that his own experience with one of these guitars was deceiving. It sounded crap and thin, but that's not what these clips seem to show, don't you think? Rick, the owner (and player) of the two guitars in the first clips told me that the small 206 is the best guitar he ever had and describes the 208 as a deep, full sounding and loud monster. Björn the owner of the other 208 in the Swedish forum describes it as "seismic" having a full deep bottom. The sound of these guitars is exactly what I associate with the high end Schönbach guitars and exactly why they have been my main (almost only) target in the last years.
I cannot post the pics of the Rick's guitars, I'll try to persuade him to post a few here, but trust me. In the good pictures he sent me they look stunning. Specially his 206 makes me droll like about no other guitar ever did.
