True Love

[saez]

The Bride and Groom.

[JEStanek]

Can you tell us about them?

Jamie

[JeffD]

Lovely!

[saez]

The Bride and Groom.

Hi all

Thanks for the kind comments, the smaller of the two is a spanish mandolin made by Prudencio saez, all solid woods, the tailpiece is not the original, think it dates back to the 1960s, they also make decent guitars.
Originally it had a black headstock, I decided to sand it down to the bare wood and was suprised at the outcome when I gave it a couple of coats of varnish. it has a very bright sound and I do prefer the wider fretboard.

The other does not have a label however the person who had it before me told me it was made in the Czech Republic, it had ebony violin pegs in the pegbox originally but I had these replaced by my luthier with geared wittner tuners as I could not keep the thing in tune.
My luthier who is based in London did a great job including a set up but to my suprise he informed me the unusual peg box had been added at a later stage in its life, but whoever did it made a professional job of it.
The overall sound is pleasant, but nowhere near as bright as the Prudencio, this is obviously
due to the small soundhole, the build quality is not as good but I use it for medieval stuff because it looks the part, I am hoping to get a pickup for it (removable) as I dont want to amplify it constantly and spoil the look cosmetically.
The mandolin was made around 1950, it is not the original tailpiece, (other one broken).

Both Mandolins have light gauge strings for obvious reasons on them but the Czech originally had Gor medium gauge strings, the previous owner suggested I could try nylon strings like Aquilla, but I have not bothered after seeking advice from my luthier, he seems to think the extra long peg head which measures approx 10ins should withstand the tension.

Regards