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Emile Grimshaw, son of the famous banjoist of the same name, had a guitar factory and a salesroom-office and workshop in Piccadilly. I visited him often and bought three guitars from him in all, when I was no longer satisfied with my Hofner Consul electrified guitar, The Commodore (I think it was called) was an arch-back guitar with all the trimmings, so much inlay in fact that I figured it reduced the sound. When I showed it to Ivor mairants he said it was more like a wedding cake than a guitar (but Polish-born Mairants and the younger Grimshaw were loggerhead competitors of about the same age, both promoting different brands and both haveing been pupils of the elder Emile Grimshaw). I swapped in the Commodore and paid the difference to get the short scale Grimshaw electric gtr. seen below, plus an acoustic guitar he had just brought out called the Troubadour. This latter was very like the popular Martin acoustic, though with less neck (and hence string) tension, so easier to finger. It had a good tone but not all that powerful.

Emile Grimshaw was himself a player of divrse stringed instruments and issued the monthly BMG (Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar) Magazine, which contained music for some of his arrangements. He published banjo and guitar music, mainly his own arrangements or perhaps mainly those of his father, but also transcriptions of Eddie Lang classics (like 'April Kisses'). He may have issued a transcript of the Roy Smeck duet 'Stagefright'. Some of the arrangements were for two guitars and many were for the finger-picking style. They were very tasteful and they are no longer obtainable, as far as I can discover. Titles included: 'Stringin' Along', 'Lily of Laguna', 'Libestraum'.


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