My Paul Doyle and Johannes Möller mandolins

[mandobeard]

Hi all,

I have been browsing around on the cafe for at least 5 years, but this is really one of my first postings. I thought you might be interested to see the mandolins I play.

The first one is made by the Irish luthier Paul Doyle. It is really the same as is pictured in the Eye Candy section on the Cafe. According to Paul, it was made in 1999 but the label says May 2000. On his website (it is pictured there as well), Paul states that "..As a violin maker i look at the construction from the violin making tradition, that is the symmetric carving of the front and back, tap tuning the plates using the Chladny plate technique from the 18th century, tuning of the tone bars, crazy flame back, nice spruce front, french polished, the nicest carved top mandolin i made so far...". I agee.
Further information from an e-mail from him: ..."the wood is european maple and spruce top, the bridge is original and brazilian rosewood, the fingerboard also is brazilian, the extension is resting on the belly but is on the top block so is not loosing tone for that reason, the head veneer, well its solid not really a veneer but is made from a rare ebony called sabah ebony but looks like rosewood, the only other thing is the soundhole was made using a shampoo bottle as it was the only oval i could find to make it so its not a copy of a gibson im sorry, maybe gibson used the same type of bottle he he, the finish is french polish...".
I bought this mandolin used in 2007 and it has been my main mandolin since then. I have changed the tailpiece to an Allen and added an arm rest from Michael Fluegge in Germany (bought on the Cafe). Last fall, it was refretted by my local luthier and the fretboard slightly radioused.

The second mandolin is a bowl-back buildt by the Danish luthier Johannes Möller in Copenhagen in 1921. I do not know much about the materials, but it is a wonderful instrument for classical music. It also has one of the narriwest fretbouards I have ever seen on a mandolin, just 20mm (a tad over 3/4"!) at the nut.

/Björn

[wildpikr]

Very nice. Welcome to the cafe.

[Bill Snyder]

Beautiful instruments. Has the bowlback been refinished?

[mandobassman]

Beautiful instruments for sure! I love the binding and the thick fingerboard. Would love to see some better photos of the bowlback. It looks beautiful as well.

[mandobeard]

The Johannes Möller bowlback is french polished as well, and I do not think it has been refinished as such. It has however been repolished a couple of times. When I aquired it in the early 1990ies, someone had put a modern tailpiece on it, and the screws had caused some bad cracks in the back. My local luthier replaced a semicircle of wood and patched a screw hole just next to the head of the figure. The new string holders were turned from brass, much like the ones you find on guitar strings, and screwed in place where the original bone knobs for fastening the strings were located. Other than that, I think it is original.

You can see the repaired part in the picture. By the way, Johannes Möller had the inlayed figure as his trademark, and it appears on most of his instruments.

I will try to post some better pictures later.

/Björn

[Jim Garber]

That Möller bowlback is esp interesting. The only info I can find on the maker is here. It sort of looks like a variant of the German style of mandolin but that extremely narrow neck is unusual. Embergher mandolins (Roman style) have very narrow necks but not quite that narrow. I would love to see some detailed pics of the neck near the nut and the string spacing as well as the back showing the neck profile.

[billhay4]

Quite lovely instruments. Your luthier did a nice job on the bowlback repair.
Bill

[mandobeard]

Here are some more photos, hopefully better, of the Johannes Möller mandolin.

The mandolin has a zero fret and the scale lenth is 343mm (13 1/2"), the string spacing at the zero fret is 19mm over all strings.

I tried to find some more information about Johannes Möller, and in the catalog for the 1991 Mandolin exhibition at the Copenhagen Music Historical Museum I found this: "One of those who were inspired by Stockholm (another famous luthier in Copenhagen) was Johannes Möller (1880-1960). He was the son of a carpenter and was himself trained to be a carpenter 1894-1897. He buildt his first mandolin around 1916. In 1919 he went to Germany for one year, then returned to Copenhagen where he set up his workshop. From 1927 to his death, this was located in Studiestraede just off Rådhusplatsen, one of the main squares in Copenhagen.
He kept record of all his instruments in a book, where even new owners were listed when they were known. After his death, Johanees Möller's widow continued to update this book, and when she died I understand it was given to the Music Historical Museum. The book contains data of 701 instruments.
Many of his instruments were used in the many Mandolin Orchestras active in Copenhagen at that time."
My Mandolin has S/N 22 and is dated 1921.

/Björn

[Jim Garber]

Thanks for posting those pics, Bjorn. It is an interesting looking instrument, sort of a cartoonish version of an Embergher 5bis with elongated crook headstock. it is obvious that he was influenced, at least in this mandolin, by the Roman school with the triangular narrow neck profile. Is the fretboard radiused? Are those bar frets or t-frets? It also seems like there is no noticeable cant but I would assume that there would have to be some sort of induced arch to the top.

[mandobeard]

Jim,
The fretboard is flat and the frets are modern T-frets. I had this mandolin partly refretted in the mid 1990ies, and we used the same type of frets as was there before. But I guess it has been refretted many times, so I do not know what was there originally.
By the way, I have heard that the original owner wanted a very narrow neck as he mainly played the violin...
The top is dead flat, no cant and no arch. The brige is somewhat slanted 10,5mm over the top at the E strings and 12mm at the G strings. The string angle over the brige is 11,5 degrees as far as I could measure.
Johannes Möller was clearly influenced by the German builders but also by the Copenhagen builder Stockholm who buildt mandolins in the similar vein, although his mandolins - at least those I have played- seems to be coarser and with thicker lids, giving them a more "woody" sound.
Johannes Möller reportedly stayed with flat lids until the mid 1930ies when Kurt Jensen, who later played with Tove Flensborg as the Danish Mandolin Duo, commisioned a mandolin with a canted lid. That became the standard design of later Johannes Möller mandolins.

If you search for Skånska Mandoliner on Facebook, you will also see some octave mandolas made by Johannes Möller.

/Björn

[John Kinn]

Hello!
I have visited Paul Doyle's workshop in Galway on several occasions, and once I had to reject an Irish Bouzoki which was repaired due to a fire at his workshop, and I could have it for half price. I have regretted not buying it (due to economy at the time)ever since. It's a great place to be, and your Paul Doyle mandolin looks (and sounds I guess) stunning! Thanks for posting.

[Denny Gies]

Nice mandolins Mandobeard. It's about time you joined the fray. Have fun and welcome.

[Paul Doyle]

Hi all,

I have been browsing around on the cafe for at least 5 years, but this is really one of my first postings. I thought you might be interested to see the mandolins I play.

The first one is made by the Irish luthier Paul Doyle. It is really the same as is pictured in the Eye Candy section on the Cafe. According to Paul, it was made in 1999 but the label says May 2000. On his website (it is pictured there as well), Paul states that "..As a violin maker i look at the construction from the violin making tradition, that is the symmetric carving of the front and back, tap tuning the plates using the Chladny plate technique from the 18th century, tuning of the tone bars, crazy flame back, nice spruce front, french polished, the nicest carved top mandolin i made so far...". I agee.
Further information from an e-mail from him: ..."the wood is european maple and spruce top, the bridge is original and brazilian rosewood, the fingerboard also is brazilian, the extension is resting on the belly but is on the top block so is not loosing tone for that reason, the head veneer, well its solid not really a veneer but is made from a rare ebony called sabah ebony but looks like rosewood, the only other thing is the soundhole was made using a shampoo bottle as it was the only oval i could find to make it so its not a copy of a gibson im sorry, maybe gibson used the same type of bottle he he, the finish is french polish...".
I bought this mandolin used in 2007 and it has been my main mandolin since then. I have changed the tailpiece to an Allen and added an arm rest from Michael Fluegge in Germany (bought on the Cafe). Last fall, it was refretted by my local luthier and the fretboard slightly radioused.

The second mandolin is a bowl-back buildt by the Danish luthier Johannes Möller in Copenhagen in 1921. I do not know much about the materials, but it is a wonderful instrument for classical music. It also has one of the narriwest fretbouards I have ever seen on a mandolin, just 20mm (a tad over 3/4"!) at the nut.

/Björn

SSSHHH Bjorn it was supposed to be a secret about the shampoo bottle for the oval sound-hole, so now the whole world knows my secret method of sound, now that it is out I confess that my D sound-hole was designed from an old spice talk tin which was oval too, ha