Shutt Mandolins
Teacher, composer, publisher, performer, leader of musical groups, and inventor, Albert Burton Shutt of Topeka, Kansas, filed for his first patent in 1909, and built guitars and mandolins with F holes at least 14 years before Gibson's L-5 Guitars and F-5 Mandolins with the Lloyd Loar signed labels.
His patent for a mandolin with F holes was filed in March, 1914.
Gibson adopted the F holes after the 7 year patent had run it's course.
There is no doubt that Gibson was aware of Shutt. This endorsement photo is from the 1910 Gibson catalog.
Shutt was a prolific inventor with many patents, and did work diligently in his attempt to be successful at marketing his instruments.
This 1912 advertisement is from the Crescendo music trade magazine
Albert Burton Shutt (1877-1963) was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, 33 mi. East of Pittsburgh, on September 29, 1877, then moved with his family by age 2 to the extremely remote town of Blue Hill, Mitchell County, Kansas, where his father Simon joined his brother Jonathan to farm. Jonathan had purchased 160 acres of land in Blue Hill in 1874. A supply run from Blue Hill to Beloit would have been a two or three day journey by wagon. By 1900, Simon's family had moved to Topeka Kansas, where he spent his life farming, and where Albert spent the rest of his life in certainly a better environment to teach music and manufacture and sell instruments! .
Albert Shutt married Myrtle Cooper on December 23, 1903 and had three children.
In the 1910 Census, at age 32, Albert is listed as a music teacher, but on his 1917 draft registration form he is still listed as being a farmer. In later years he was listed as music teacher and publisher.
After a long life of farming, Albert's father Simon lived to be 99, while his mother Catherine died in 1893 after bearing 11 children, the last of which died in childbirth in 1890.
Albert Shutt died in Topeka, Kansas on September 2, 1963 at age 85.
1914 Shutt D #2 Professional Model Mandolin
Serial #3007
