EBay Bowl Back

[JohnDiMaggio]

I am new at this Mandolin stuff. Teaching myself classical guitar but I am of Italian descent and love the sound of Italian traditional music.

Bought a inexpensive bowlback on ebay.
Two labels inside.

One says "Paola Valiani E fn Figle Napoli" The other says Restored by David Hynds Luthier de Thaims, France. Restored June/July 05.

What did I buy??????

Any recommendations for strings?

[bennyb]

I'm not a bowlhead myself, but Dave Hynds has a good reputation here, and he has a website mandolinluthier where you could contact him directly. The usual recommendation on strings is extra lights, but check with Dave to see if you could go heavier.

benny

[Jim Garber]

You bought a decent simply-adorned mandolin. It should be fine for playing and you have the advantage of having a good luthier check it out. Many eBay instruments are as-is and sometimes require work to make them truly playable. I would guess that since this is an older mandolin that the caveat to use extra-light strings would apply here as well.

[brunello97]

I am new at this Mandolin stuff. Teaching myself classical guitar but I am of Italian descent and love the sound of Italian traditional music.

Bought a inexpensive bowlback on ebay.
Two labels inside.

One says "Paola Valiani E fn Figle Napoli" The other says Restored by David Hynds Luthier de Thaims, France. Restored June/July 05.

What did I buy??????

Any recommendations for strings?

Thanks, John. Would you mind / be able to post a photo of the labels?

I'd be interested in seeing the Valiani lable and also Dave's overlay.

Nice score, btw.

Thanks!

Mick

[EdHanrahan]

What did I buy??????

You bought a certified eBay prize that has many of your predecessor bowlback "had-to-haves", a/k/a "us", maybe a wee bit jealous. Or more.

Nicely done!

[Jim Garber]

My favorite strings for vintage bowlbacks as yours are Dogal Calace RW92b Dolce roundwound. They are the lightest gauge. If you want to send less, the GHS A-240 sets are decent sounding.

[JohnDiMaggio]

Thanks everyone. Now all I got to do is learn to play something.
MIck - here is a picture of one of the labels. I will try tomorrow to see if I can bounce the label image off of a mirror and get a better one.

[Jim Garber]

Here's the Valiani label from David Hynd's site. David never liked to post large photos for some reason.

[brunello97]

Here's the Valiani label from David Hynd's site. David never liked to post large photos for some reason.

Thanks, Jim. That's the one I have in my files, but didn't know if JDiM's was yet the same from the small corner visible in his photo.

This is an example of the "London Importer" label that has me pretty suspicious as to the actual origin of the mandolin.

Was there really a Paolo Valiani? And did he have a Grande Fabbrica let alone a couple sons?

Perhaps prematurely, I tend to think of these as being part of those Etnas of mandolins shipped up from Sicily that Victor and Plami have hinted at from time to time-and relabeled for export to the UK.

The fact of which shouldn't make even a tiny difference on the perceived or actual quality of the instrument, likely to be modest yet very enjoyable whatever its providence: bright and responsive with at least some of the "shimmering sound" as our friend Martin so memorably described them.

Intonation is el mas sketchioso variable when it comes to these MOR Italian mandolins from my experience.

Let's all hope this is a good one!

Mick

[JohnDiMaggio]

Hey Mick - That is the same label. I paid $130.00 for it. Before I bought I did check out David Hynds. Figured if someone has it restored it had to be worth at least $100.00!!!

I am 78 years old - I don't think I'll ever get to the level of playing that the sound would make that much of a difference. I am just going to have fun!!!!!!

[EdHanrahan]

Here's a slight puzzlement:

The red over-label, "Imported by Ball Beavon (?) London", seems to be rubber-stamped on. BUT, it's a concave surface on the inside of a bowlback, so that would have to be a fairly unique or sophisticated stamp for a century ago. The thought occurred that maybe the labels were initially printed that way, except that the red lettering is in just the approximate same place, not identical, in the two cases shown, so an actual stamp seems more likely. Possibly stamped before the label was put in??

[JohnDiMaggio]

On mine placement is not quite the same as the photos posted.
I wonder if the labels are exactly the same size. If the labels are identical and they were printed on a printing press I would think that the placement would be just about exact.
The strings are in the way so I can't measure mine until I get up the courage to change the. Right now I am still trying to figure out how to hold the damn thing!!!!!!

[Seter]

This is a good video demonstrating several different holding methods, made by one of our own members: