Re: Mario Cassella Piccolo Mandolin
Pretty sweet book-matched rosewood back....
IIRC our friend, Jim Garber, also has a proper piccolo mandolin from the "Leland" series that Vega made for Lyon and Healy. Maybe he will see this and stop by and talk string sizes.
FWIW, as a standard bit of fettling on my old bowlbacks and flatbacks, I've been taking a hint from a detail that both CF Martin and L Embergher used on their mandolins. They added a thin flat plate of spruce to reinforce the mandolin top between the soundhole and the neck block.
This is an area that on these thinner top mandolins sometimes gives way under extended string tension on the neck causing the neck to rotate upwards. I've seen this on many an Italian bowlback and on some of the "pocket" mandolins that show up.
The Chicago builders attempted to compensate for this issue by beefing up the top thickness and the neck profile. They tend to be sturdier instruments but lack some of that "shimmering sound" -- how Martin Jonas so wonderfully describes Italian mandolins.
That little extra stiffening plate is an easy alteration. Good enough for Martin and Embergher, makes me wonder why it wasn't more common.
Mick
Ever tried, ever failed? No matter. Try again, fail again. Fail better.--Samuel Beckett
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