The Greenfield brothers were fine cabinet makers, based at 9457, 100A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in the 1920s and early 1930s.
During the Hawaiian craze, starting in 1926, they made several models of guitar for Hawaiian style playing. It is not known how many instruments were made by them. As far as I know both brothers and their families left Canada during the depression in the early 1930s and moved to Florida in the USA. After which no one seems to have any knowledge of them. If anyone has any information or pictures I would like to hear from them. The workmanship is first class, I hope they continued to make fine cabinetwork wherever they ended up.
The first and earliest instrument(s) , known for obvious reasons as 'The Log' has a body and neck of similar dimensions, which is loud, but presents problems when tipping the bar away from the neck to play on the top string. The nose of the bar hits the neck top with a loud clunk!
The label on this example is dated August 1926 and the serial number is written as 'One'.
It has 'patent pending' rubber stamped inside the body.
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This 'log', dated Feb 1926, number TWO has a headstock brace similar to the one shown in the scan above, a brace can also be seen on the the patent.
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To get round the problems of the bar hitting the extended neck on the treble side, the majority of instruments were made with the neck extension only on the bass side. These are known as 'the hambone' for obvious reasons! They came in two versions with similar shape, but the style 2 has more intricate purfling.
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The later models had both Canadian and USA patent stamps.
Rubber stamped inside the body of this one its says:
(Stamp 1)"Patent in Canada . April 17 1928. Patent 279875." (I have tried to search the Canadian patent office online for a copy of the patent but have not yet located it.)
(Stamp 2) "Patented Oct 29 1929, United States patent reg no:1,733,595."
Click the patent picture for the patent text.
(Stamp 3)"Proclaimed by Canadian and USA artists of repute as the world's best Hawaiian Guitar."
The actual date on the label of this Style 2 instrument is: April 1931.
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Another, dated May 1931, one of a pair undergoing a rebuild on the bench of luthier Bill Giebitz, in Austin Texas.
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It is the only one known to exist, and, probably was a one off instrument in the first place. It also has a light bulb inside the sound box which shines up into the player's face. Michael Dunn, fine luthier and player from Vancouver, Canada, who owns the instrument tells me that the light fitting is definitely pre-war and appears to have been built in at the time of manufacture. There is even a 110v plug built into the end of the body.
The first electric guitar! (Smile!)
The brace under the head stock is identical to the US patent drawing, a brace is also seen on 'log' TWO.
The detailing at the end of these fingerboards is identical to that of 'The Log'.
(And if you have any of those prewar light bulbs in 'working order' Michael needs a spare or two!)
Please note the white labels on the head stocks of several of the instruments are just price stickers from the shop who recently had them. All three of the single neck instruments pictured here have been fitted with new tuners. I would appreciate pictures of the origional tuners and makers details if anyone has them.
Finally, thanks to Greg Miner, Ben Elder, Michael Dunn and Alex Varty, amongst others, for help with the information here, also a big, big Mahalo to Lorene Ruymar from whose fabulous book 'The Hawaiian guitar and it's great Hawaiian Musicians' (Distributed by Hal Leonard) I took the two black and white scans of WA Greenfield. (I believe the standing musician is his brother(?). I also wonder if the ukulele and Spanish guitar in the main picture were also built by them?
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If you've read this far then Lorene's book should be in your library.
Click the book to go to the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Association site.
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As should George T. Moe & Daniel L. Most's book 'From Harp Guitars to the New Hawaiian Family' The story of Chris J. Knutsen.
Click the book to go to their site.
This page is maintained by Colin McCubbin. www.notecannons.com
I have now received the Greenfield brochure that I was expecting, and amazingly it is not the brochure the two scans above came from. It's content just shows hambones and although undated appears to be from late 1929. Click here for the scan
I recently had an email asking if I knew about Herbert Greenfield who was the Premier of Alberta from 1921 to 1925 and who also lived in Edmonton. I don't know if there is any relationship there, but if anyone in Edmonton can try and dig about in the town archives or records office they might turn up something. Help please!
If you have any information on the Greenfield family or their instruments, please send me an email.
Aloha-Eh!