I was inspecting inside some of my new "schlaggitarren" adquisitions and I found a really interesting thing inside my Osbama. It has a single tonebar running along the center of the top. I was very surprised and looked for any trace of glue of a missing second bar, but the top is completely clean and shows no sign or evidence of ever having any other tonebar glued onto it. So this Oswald Bachmann guitar originally had a single scalloped tonebar.
I knew that a few US '30s Regal archtop models (US made) had a single central tonebar, and also the Stromberg archtops use to have just one too, but running diagonally across the top instead. This is the first time I see or even hear about a single tonebar in a german made guitar. Isn't it an interesting dicovering?
I have to add that this is one of the best sounding Vogtland made archtops I've ever played in hard competition with my fifties Otwin Cabinet
What about your Tango, Stefan?
By the way, I also discovered a while ago that most (if not all) '50s and '60s Otwin schlaggitarren have three tonebars. The regular two plus an extra one in the center usually shorter and smaller than the other two in the guitars with thick tops (like the Cabinet I talked about) or all three similar in thickness and size for guitars with thinner tops like my Sonor. I think this partially explains the usual high clarity and note separation of these guitars.
