Famous Old Time Stringed Instrument Museum

OVERVIEW

The Famous Old Time Music Company Stringed Instrument Museum is dedicated to Bluegrass music, a uniquely American blend of styles, instruments, and rhythms.  Bluegrass as an independent musical genre differentiated itself from old style country music in 1945 the moment Earl Scruggs stepped onto the stage of the Grand Ole Opry with Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Boys.  Historically, bluegrass has been viewed as the ‘poor cousin’ of country music and was considered ‘hillbilly’.  While the Nashville country sound was mass marketed with smooth orchestral arrangements and choral background harmonies, bluegrass retained it’s rugged, heartfelt sound with a small but avid following.  Devotees were stereotyped as old guys in bib overalls with no education or culture.  Bluegrass received a brief span of national attention in the 1960s and 1970s as a consequence of various movies and TV shows featuring the style.  The long running TV show, The Beverly Hillbillies featured the bluegrass sound of the band Flatt & Scruggs.  The blockbuster movie, Bonnie and Clyde, featured Scruggs’ instrumental Foggy Mountain Breakdown.  The movie Deliverance popularized the tune Dueling Banjos.  Most recently, the hit movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou has brought the bluegrass sound into the national spotlight and popularized the sound so that professed devotees now include college students and professors, doctors, lawyers, and other well-educated professionals.

HOURS and ADMISSION

INSTRUMENTS ON DISPLAY

BANJOS

Piccolo banjos

Civil War era banjos

Banjo Ukeleles

Modern Five string banjo

Tenor banjo

GUITARS

Modern Dreadnought guitar

Parlor guitar

Archtop guitars

Resophonic guitar

Double neck guitar

VIOLIN FAMILY

1800s Villaume violin with carved headstock & scene on back

upright bass used in Carnegie Hall Concert by Boatwhistle McIntyre

Child size violin

1921 Glier violin made by Cincinnati’s own Robert Glier

MANDOLINS

F-5 style flat back

A style Kalamazoo

F style Edwards made by Cincinnati’s own Clyde Edwards

Assorted bowl back mandolins

MISCELLANEOUS

Tiple

Various Ukeleles

Zithers-circa 1900

HANDS ON EXPERIENCE

People often enjoy the chance to see and feel an object in addition to just hearing about it.  Famous Old Time Music Stringed Instrument Museum has several instruments for attendees to handle and try out.  One of each of the major bluegrass instruments, guitar, banjo, fiddle, and mandolin is available to touch, feel, and play.  Each student receives his or her own flat pick to use and keep.    

The internal structure of the instruments can be seen in our cut-away violin and guitar.  These are actual instruments sawed in half so students can see the bracing structure in the guitar and the sound post and bass bar in the violin.

CONCERT

No visit to the Stringed Instrument Museum would be complete without a live concert.  Vernon and Kitty McIntyre combine the lively bluegrass sound with an interesting discussion and demonstration of the various instruments on display.  Kitty’s trick fiddling act provides some comic relief.  Concerts usually end with a rousing version of Orange Blossom Special.

THE MUSICIANS

Vernon McIntyre has traveled the road as a performer since the early 1960s and has played at innumerable venues across the US and Canada.  These shows include guest appearances on the Grand Ole Opry, both as the banjo player with Earl Taylor’s Stoney Mountain Boys and as lead singer/guitar player with his own band, Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass. He has innumerable recording credits as banjo player, guitarist, lead singer, harmony singer, and mandolinist.  Vernon is himself a walking history of bluegrass; he has played on stage with most of the founding artists and talked backstage with them personally.  His knowledge of the history and lore of the music and it’s instruments is encyclopedic; every performance conveys his fascination with the music and the instruments. 

Kitty McIntyre entered the bluegrass arena as a fiddler in the early 1980s.  Her training was in classical violin, but the sound of the bluegrass fiddle caught her interest.  Kitty has studied the fiddling of the original bluegrass artists, especially Scot Stoneman and Kenny Baker.  She has traveled & performed with Vernon McIntyre’s Appalachian Grass since 1982.  She teaches a large number of weekly private students and has conducted workshops and seminars at various festivals.