Manufactured in Germany
Wenzel Rossmeisl 

Spruce, maple, metal, mother-of-pearl, rosewood
Early 1950s
Length: 38 in
Strings – Lutes – Guitars

Engraved on tailpiece: ROGER

This is a 1950s archtop guitar adorned with mother-of-pearl and finished in red sunburst finish. While there is no visible marking of the maker inside, the guitar looks to be the work of Herbert Todt, with its beautiful mother-of-pearl inlay work and the shape of the sound holes on top. Todt was widely regarded as one of the most skilled luthiers operating out of East German at the time this guitar was produced. Nevertheless, the carving of the top and back are reminiscent of the Roger Super Ultra by Wenzel Rossmeisl, and there is a Roger-branded tailpiece.

Wenzel Rossmeisl was a professional jazz guitarist and a jazz guitar maker. In the early 1930s, Wenzel made a trip to America and returned with a Gibson archtop jazz guitar. Wenzel was inspired by Gibson’s design and began to make his instruments with a similarly-arched top and back. He called them Roger guitars, after his son.  In the late 1930s, Wenzel sent young Roger away to school in Mittenwald, Southern Germany. The town, Mittenwald, happened to be the home of one of the oldest and most famous violin and guitar making schools in the world, with a 300-year history of violin making. Today, the school still turns out master craftsmen.

Description:
The carvings of the top and back of Wenzel’s guitars were original and innovative, confined to an area about two inches from the edge of the body. Parallel to each other, with the idea that the entire flat area would move, thus moving more air for a bigger sound (much like a speaker flexes mostly at the outer diameter edge). This look came to be referred to as the German Carve. Later, his son Roger, went on to use the look for his designs at Rickenbacker, most notably in the Combo 800 and 600 from 1955 and 1957, to the more recent 381JK and the Fender LTD jazz guitar of the late ’60s.

This early 1950s Roger Super Ultra has a maple neck with a headstock face covered in mother-of-pearl squares that match the mother-of-pearl pickguard perfectly.  It has a laminated white and black string guide nut with zero fret, a multi-ply bound 20 fret rosewood fretboard with mother-of-pearl inlays, and an adjustable rosewood bridge.  The carved spruce top, maple back, and maple sides are finished in red burst, with black purling on the top and mother-of-pearl inlays and multi-ply binding throughout.

In the 1950s, Wenzel was arrested and convicted for breaking the Foreign Exchange Act, Musima eventually took over his facility and staff, resulting in Roger guitars being made under the Musima banner.

This spectacular guitar was owned and played by Randy Bachman, who has sold 40 million records worldwide as a member of The Guess Who, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, and as a solo artist.  Randy has painstakingly collected a number of German archtops from the 1940s-1960s over a period of 30-plus years.

Resource: https://www.vintageguitar.com/1939/rossmeisl-guitars/