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Thread: Vega Cylinder Backs

  1. #1
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    Default Vega Cylinder Backs

    For some reason I have been noticing a bunch of Vega Cylinder Back mandolins lately. I don’t really have any experience with them. I do think they are interesting though. What are others thoughts on them. I have seen a bunch of plainer ones all the way up to this super fancy one https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F282770758846.

    Phil

  2. #2
    Registered User Rodney Riley's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    https://www.mandolincafe.com/ads/119286#119286
    Yep, one here in the classifieds now too.

  3. #3

    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    I have 4 of them...
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  5. #4
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    Really good mandolins, often with a big, fat voice. Nothing else sounds quite like them.

    Will NOT handle any more than a medium light set of strings [10, 14, 24, 38]. As a result of being overstrung, many of the surviving cylinder-backs have sunken tops, so be gentle with them.

    If you end up with one, have a luthier check it over for loose braces.

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  7. #5
    Registered User DavidKOS's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    They are quite nice, a special design, obviously not one anyone copied!

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    Registered User gweetarpicker's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    Attached are photos of a set including a mandolin, tenor mandola, tenor guitar, mandocello and guitar. If I had to generalize, I would say they have the sweetness of a bowlback but without being tubby sounding and are typically warm, responsive and fairly loud with excellent balance across the strings. Like all Vega instruments from this period, the craftsmanship is exceptional. I have never played one of the ten string (five course) examples, but there seems to be a few around and folks speak highly of them as well. I would love to find one of their ten string mandocello/octave mandolin hybrids since to my knowledge, they didn't make a regular eight string octave.

    I posted a video playing the cylinder back mandocello...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXM1t8Ds9cI

    www.vintagefrettedinstruments.com
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  10. #7

    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    My Vega CB Tenor...
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  12. #8
    Registered User mandocaster's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    I used to have very similar to the one second from left in Dacraws collection. I sold it many years ago to Elderly while raising money for another mandolin. I bought it from Tony Marcus, then of the Cheap Suit Serenaders. The Vega had a beautiful sound.
    Mitch Lawyer

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  13. #9
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    Quote Originally Posted by gweetarpicker View Post
    Attached are photos of a set including a mandolin, tenor mandola, tenor guitar, mandocello and guitar. If I had to generalize, I would say they have the sweetness of a bowlback but without being tubby sounding and are typically warm, responsive and fairly loud with excellent balance across the strings. Like all Vega instruments from this period, the craftsmanship is exceptional. I have never played one of the ten string (five course) examples, but there seems to be a few around and folks speak highly of them as well. I would love to find one of their ten string mandocello/octave mandolin hybrids since to my knowledge, they didn't make a regular eight string octave.
    Nice set of Vegas, Matthew!

    I don't know if I would ever describe a bowlback as sounding tubby but I do like the cylinder backs. I just de-accessed my cylinderback guitar recently but it found a very good home. Mine was one of the maple-backed roundhole ones. Very nice instrument.

    My first non-bowl mandolin was a cylinderback model 202. It was a wonderful instrument but I had to sell it to a friend (who still has it) in order to buy my first Gibson and hear myself in a string band back in the late 1970s.

    I did own a 10 string one but it was the shorter scale vs. the longer mandola scale one. That one never sounded right to me on the low C string. I almost sold it to Tiny Moore but he probably felt the same.
    Jim

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  14. #10
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    Hi Jim...I suppose "tubby" might not be not the best term as I was just trying to describe broadly the tonal difference between a bowl back and a cylinder back. I'd say the bowl backs tend to have a bright poppy sound with good balance in their range but the large body gives them a subtle rounded bass. The cylinders have that bright poppy sound, but the midrange seems more pronounced, more like a flat back mandolin or even a carved mandolin. It's tough to describe the tonal tendencies of different designs in words as you really need to hear the instruments. Still I think bowl backs, cylinder backs, flat backs, carved tops, double tops, etc, do tend to sound a little different.

    Anyway, I really like the Vega Cremona f-hole guitar in the photo. It actually has a cylinder top and back, and the tone is painfully sweet and pretty. I played an oval hole once and liked it as well.

    I have a five-course Bohmann mandolin/mandola hybrid and a five-course Vinaccia Liuto Cantabile and I am always fiddling with string gauges on those things. Five courses each tuned a fifth apart is a design challenge for sure when it comes to scale length, body size and string gauge. I've thought about finding something with fan frets.

  15. #11
    Registered User zookster's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    I have two cylinder backs, a 1916 model 204 mandolin (rosewood back and sides) and a 1910 mandocello (mahogany body). The sound is wonderful on both of them, even though they both have had their share of repairs over the years. The mandolin in particular has some tremendous bottom end that causes some amazement in Irish sessions ("it sounds like a mandola...."). I have the mandocello set up as an octave currently. Of the few cylinder backs I've played, they all sound great, and are generally a bargain.

  16. #12
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    zookster: Wasn't sure if you caught this before but I posted a video playing a maple cylinder back Vega mandocello. Link below...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXM1t8Ds9cI

    www.vintagefrettedinstruments.com

  17. #13
    Martin Stillion mrmando's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    Quote Originally Posted by DavidKOS View Post
    They are quite nice, a special design, obviously not one anyone copied!
    Pete Langdell of Rigel built some copies. Jamie Masefield of Jazz Mandolin project played a Rigel cylinderback mandola.
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    No discussion of these wonderful instruments is complete without reference to the Giuseppe Pettine Quintet.

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  20. #15
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    Quote Originally Posted by BradKlein View Post
    No discussion of these wonderful instruments is complete without reference to the Giuseppe Pettine Quintet.
    Of course, at least from the photo, it appears there were not CB mandolins. GP is playing his artist-model Vega bowlback along with the other mandolinist I would guess. Interesting also is the non-point version Mandolin which may or may not be a CB. I have seen some flatback Vegas that look like CBs from the front.
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  21. #16
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    Default Re: Vega Cylinder Backs

    I have a friend who has a cylinder back mandolin with no body points. It is otherwise similar to the common style 202. It is the only one like it I have ever heard of.

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