What is the thingy on the headstock?

Subject: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: GUEST,Busker On A Budget
Date: 18 Jul 18 - 10:55 PM

Mural from a place called Ivar's.

What the heck is up with that headstock?

https://goo.gl/images/quZ4eU

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 18 - 11:09 PM

Ivar Haglund was a wonderful local character in Seattle. His restaurant (Ivar's Acres of Clams) has a number of locations and there are fast food type Ivar's also, last time I was home. He was born in West Seattle and that part of town is surrounded by salt water; it's no surprise he was into fish.

He was a musician and he was a prankster. Maybe someone will come up with an answer, but if you look up Ivar and Don McCune and Stan Boreson and probably a few others you'll find there was a love of music but they often marched to their own drummers.

Good luck in your quest.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Mooh
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 03:44 AM

To accomodate an extra string, the headstock is equipped with an extra machine head.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 08:44 AM

Did he often play with a cupcake balanced on his guitar?

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 09:18 AM

Only the Photoshop variety.

Original 1944 photo.

More about him.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: keberoxu
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 08:30 PM

...how much is that thingy on the headstock ...

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 19 Jul 18 - 11:31 PM

Looks to me like an old style elastic strap capo attached to a tuning peg for quick access, much like people clamp today's Kysers et al to their headstocks.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Bugsy
Date: 20 Jul 18 - 02:11 AM

Looks like extra tuners. Also looks like there's more than 6 endpins. Though you can't see them all, the spacing suggests more 5han 6.

Cheers

Bugst

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 20 Jul 18 - 02:24 AM

It looks like a crude type of Harp-guitar. The additional strings don't contact the fingerboard, they aren't fingered by the player, they act as 'drone' strings.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jul 18 - 02:59 AM

There only seem to be 6 string shadows on the original photo. Could some heve been double courses? The endpins look as if extras may be in between the normal ones.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: GUEST,Mark Bluemel
Date: 20 Jul 18 - 04:01 AM

The image is of fairly low resolution so zooming in on it doesn't help much, but as GUEST (20 Jul 18 02:59AM) commented there doesn't look to be more than 6 string shadows, so if the lump contained machine heads, they probably weren't in use at the time of the photo.

Unless we find someone with direct knowledge, this is all going to be speculation. I'd like to think it was an old-fashioned compact film camera so that he could have a memento of his audiences :-)

Does anyone have access to the image enhancing technology used in police procedurals? I expect CSI New York could zoom in and rotate the image to show us the back of the headstock and how much dirt was under his left thumbnail.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jul 18 - 09:41 AM

That is the only guitar configured that way, when compared to other photos.

It's represented in this sketch, made from the earlier photo and that photo appears on this flyer but no better look at it.

Someone wanting a good look at his information should find where his collection is housed (I hope it is housed!) possibly at the University of Washington Pacific NW collection.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jul 18 - 08:42 PM

I don't suppose that the Acres of Clams people
had anything to do with
the geo-duck song?

You can hear the diggers say,
as they're headed for the bay,
I gotta dig a duck,
gotta dig a duck a day ....

this is what the Mudcat is good for.
By sheerest chance I heard that hit single on the radio,
went WTF!?
and years later the Mudcat threads answered my question.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Jul 18 - 10:55 PM

The dig-a-duck-a-day song is one of the Pacific Northwest's more potent earworms. Many decades apart, however.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Jul 18 - 11:03 PM

Earworm is right, Acme!

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Jul 18 - 12:20 AM

Gotta diga duck a day.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: keberoxu
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 04:22 PM

Nice version of that song from
Sandy and Caroline Paton,
can be heard on YouTube.

Subject: RE: What is the thingy on the headstock?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jul 18 - 09:55 PM

There are several. This guy doesn't get started till about half-way through the video, but he does attribute it to an obscure group from Bainbridge Island (out in Puget Sound west of Seattle).