1903 Rafaele Disantino from Napoli

[sololite]

Hi everyone,

I am new to the forum and new to mandolins generally. My Uncle gave me this old mandolin 30 years ago and apart from putting strings on it to see if It would make a nice sound and a little research to try and discover its history, its remained in its case in the attic unloved.

I am a bass guitarist who now has a little time on his hands to see if I can follow in John Paul Jones footsteps and play mandolin. I thought I'd share some pictures of it and say hello.

regards,

Chris

[vic-victor]

Hi Chris.

Welcome to the Cafe!

Your mandolin appears to be in a good shape and is a clone of De Meglio model 1A. De Meglio were large-scale makers from Naples and their mandolins were very popular at the turn of the 20th century and were often copied by smaller-scale makers like Disantino.

Key features of "Sistema De Meglio" mandolin are:

Brass nut and saddle.
Scratch plate going around the soundhole.
Little sound ports on either sides of the body .

Enjoy your mandolin and have fun learning to play.

[plinkey]

I would just like to add to Victor's post that one need not look at clone mandolins as being inferior to the original instruments. I have an anon De Meglio clone, and that mandolin is made as good as my De Meglio original instrument. However, the clone mandolin sounds a fair bit nicer to my ear than my De Meglio, and I enjoy playing it much more.

[brunello97]

I wonder if some of these DeMeglio "clones" weren't in fact made in the DeMeglio shop and relabeled by others. DeMeglio made a lot of mandolins over the years: their serial numbers range up to 20,000+

I realize that some DeMeglio labels, already lengthy, added language (in French and sometimes English) warning against falsifiers and their merchants.

I have five other Disantino mandolins in my files, each one distinctly different in style and appointments, from versions obviously Sicilian, to quasi Calace like, to flatbacks to sort-of Embergher influenced Roman style.

Maybe Disantino cloned everyone, or perhaps he was simply a re-brander like many others, and the source of the DeMeglio clone is another party altogether.

Mick

[sololite]

thank you everyone - some great information for me to digest and understand the history of this old mandolin

[Kieran]

Here's a nice 1903 Disantino I just aquired.

[LadysSolo]

Looks to be in good shape - nice find!

[Kieran]

Has some neck bow normally found on old bowl backs but not the worst.

[pops1]

Has some neck bow normally found on old bowl backs but not the worst.

Take the fingerboard off and reglue it with the neck flat, if you still need to replace frets with ones with a slightly wider tang. It will correct the bow. Sometimes just refretting with wider tang frets will do the trick, sometimes simply regluing the fingerboard will also be enough. Nice looking mandolin.

[Tavy]

Take the fingerboard off and reglue it with the neck flat, if you still need to replace frets with ones with a slightly wider tang. It will correct the bow. Sometimes just refretting with wider tang frets will do the trick, sometimes simply regluing the fingerboard will also be enough. Nice looking mandolin.

Not so easy - the fretboards on these Neapolitans are wafer thin and usually cut right through (meaning they come off one fret at a time, not in one piece). They use bar frets as well, not T-frets, so a wider tang is not normally an option.

They do usually plane level though, and can then often be refretted using the original wire.

[Jim Garber]

I like the "cross-eyed" soundholes and the general look, though it also seems to me that this mandolin was stored in adverse conditions. Can you see light through the ribs? I also believe that that bridge is not the original one and you would do better with a bone-topped shelf-style bridge.

[Beanzy]

He certainly liked his convoluted soundholes.

They look like they were generally built to a pretty high level of quality.

[brunello97]

The headstock reminds me of Sicilian / Catanese stylings to go with the Ballantine Beer soundhole.
No wonder you East Coast guys like it......

Mick

[Kieran]

(I like the "cross-eyed" soundholes and the general look, though it also seems to me that this mandolin was stored in adverse conditions. Can you see light through the ribs? I also believe that that bridge is not the original one and you would do better with a bone-topped shelf-style bridge.)


Although not stored in optimum conditions I would say it was stored in near reasonable conditions when you see it up close.
No light visible through the ribs.Thanks for the tip about the bone topped bridge.

It was bought in Dublin,Ireland in the 1930's having been pawned off by someone who fell into hard times after the crash in the late 20's, at the time the purchaser presented it to his girlfriend who lived up the road from here.