International Musical Corp. 1930’s Hawaiian Tremoloa

gInternational Musical Corp. 1920’s Hawaiian Tremoloa

Here's one of the most distinctive approaches to playing melody on a chord zither. It appeared in response to the rapid increase in popularity of Hawaiian music in the 1920's. The instruction manual is bold enough to say that it "might well be called the Original Hawaiian Instrument," though the Hawaiian steel guitar had already been played for decades. Even the patent plainly states that the instrument "simulates closely the tonal effects of the so-called Hawaiian steel guitar."

There's a single melody string which is under fairly low tension. A sliding (or rolling) weight rests on the string and is positioned by the player to locations marked on the large note label under the string. That position controls the pitch of the string when plucked. The relatively heavy weight actually bounces on the string and alternately raises and lowers its tension a little. Thus the pitch is raised and lowered a little around the desired pitch, and the sound becomes a broad vibrato. In addition, as the weight moves from one played note to the next, the weight stays in contact with the string, and creates a glissando that is reminiscent of the sound of a Hawaiian steel guitar.

The patent for the Tremoloa was granted in 1932 to Harold Finney, a principal in the International Musical Corp. at the time, and John H. Large, an inventor who also received a patent on a form of the Ukelin. The Tremoloa patent was applied for in 1929 and shows Form 1 of the instrument. We could assume that the Tremoloa wasn't available before about 1929.