Bowlback mandolin blueprints

[peterk]

These "Neopolitan" (sic) bb mandolin drawings are quite nicely done, and a bb mandolin aficionado amongst you might wish to procure them. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Neopolitan...item2589897d2e

Incidentally, the drawings refer to the bowl apron as the "clasp".

Note: Whether one calls those mandolins "Neopolitan" or "Neapolitan", both adjectives are linguistically as flawed as when Italians refer to New York as "Nova Yorka".

[Graham McDonald]

Annoyingly, the seller in Ohio seems unable to post one to Australia. Might someone in the US buy a copy for me and post it across the Pacific. I can PayPal the original cost and the extra postage

Thanks

[brunello97]

Maybe I've been missing something. Isn't Neapolitan a variation of the Latin Neapolitanus? Greek ought to be Neapolis (New Town) or something like that. I still struggle with English, though.

I still first think of the ice cream and then the mandolins.

Mick

[peterk]

I can't see what relevance does Latin (or Greek) have in the currently held toponims and their derivatives.
Napoli is Napoli because that's the way the city's denizens call it in their country's tongue, and Naples is a town in SW Florida. BTW, Venezia is in Italy, Venice is in Florida again.
Their mandolin style Italians call "Mandolino Napoletano", and not "Mandolino Neapolitano" or some such.
Similarly, Manhattan is Manhattan, although there could be some people somewhere who are still referring to it as New Amsterdam.

[Bruce Clausen]

Well, at least Neapolitan (with an -a-) gets the gender of polis right. So Peter, I take it you wouldn't call an oud from Istanbul "Constantinopolitan"?

Oh yeah, the ice cream! Almost forgot.

Sorry, Graham, someone will get to your query.

[Beanzy]

If I were speaking Italian then I'd call Naples Napoli too.
Unfortunately I don't speak Italian and over here speaking English it's called Naples.

[brunello97]

I can't see what relevance does Latin (or Greek) have in the currently held toponims and their derivatives.
Napoli is Napoli because that's the way the city's denizens call it in their country's tongue, and Naples is a town in SW Florida. BTW, Venezia is in Italy, Venice is in Florida again.
Their mandolin style Italians call "Mandolino Napoletano", and not "Mandolino Neapolitano" or some such.
Similarly, Manhattan is Manhattan, although there could be some people somewhere who are still referring to it as New Amsterdam.

If you want to make life hard on yourself (and others), there's no one stopping you.....

Mick

[brunello97]

Annoyingly, the seller in Ohio seems unable to post one to Australia. Might someone in the US buy a copy for me and post it across the Pacific. I can PayPal the original cost and the extra postage

Thanks

I've got Graham covered on getting him a copy of these plans.

Mick

[peterk]

So Peter, I take it you wouldn't call an oud from Istanbul "Constantinopolitan"?

Bruce, I have no idea what to call such oud, I do not even really know what an oud is, however, I do know the name of the city is Istanbul and no other.

[Jim Garber]

I've got Graham covered on getting him a copy of these plans.

Mick

I ordered mine. I think there are three left.

I can't see what relevance does Latin (or Greek) have in the currently held toponims and their derivatives.
Napoli is Napoli because that's the way the city's denizens call it in their country's tongue, and Naples is a town in SW Florida. BTW, Venezia is in Italy, Venice is in Florida again.
Their mandolin style Italians call "Mandolino Napoletano", and not "Mandolino Neapolitano" or some such.
Similarly, Manhattan is Manhattan, although there could be some people somewhere who are still referring to it as New Amsterdam.

I agree. It is strange to me that there are many places where the residents call it one thing and foreigners, for some reason (cannot pronounce the words????). Why should Napoli be Naples or Firenze be Florence? Then again why is Deutschland Germany?

[peterk]

I agree. It is strange to me that there are many places where the residents call it one thing and foreigners, for some reason (cannot pronounce the words????). Why should Napoli be Naples or Firenze be Florence? Then again why is Deutschland Germany?

Well, I guess local usage in different languages has some historical foundation. This is a difficult thing to address properly, although I believe the guiding principle should be straightforward: one should try to show consideration/respect for foreign (to us) customs, names and languages. A simple example would be to figure out how to pronounce names such as Ceccherini, Calace, Puglisi, Ruffini, etc. kind of properly. What is that "proper way", one may ask. I'd say it is the way those luthiers called themselves, or they are still called by their countrymen, and not the way someone from North Bay Ontario may pronounce them following direct English phonetics.

[Jim Garber]

Imagine being in Italy, tho, with a Germanic name like Embergher or Kasermann. I would think many Italians mispronounced his name. So it goes...

[peterk]

Imagine being in Italy, tho, with a Germanic name like Embergher or Kasermann. I would think many Italians mispronounced his name. So it goes...

That is a good point. In fact, the further north up the Italian peninsula one goes, the more common Germanic and Gallic root surnames become. (Whenever I hear the name Embergher, I remember poor Berlinguer, an Italian politician from ages ago.).
To the best of my knowledge, Italians cope with that diversity rather well. Yet, we might find that regional dialects in Italy cause variations in name "sounding": I think "Calace" is a pretty good example for that.......however, I am not quite sure which way they'd pronounce that name in their native Naples, and which way in, say, Torino up north.

Yet, there is the ubiquitous name De Meglio which I think all Italians "sound" in fundamentally the same way, but many native English speakers just do not seem able to pronounce it approximately right.

[Bruce Clausen]

...I do not even really know what an oud is...

You can think of an oud as The Mother of All Mandolins.

I have to agree with Beanzy; when speaking English we say Parisian, not parisien, etc. etc. etc.

[Jim Garber]

I think that Neapolitan came about when trying to make an adjective out of Napoli. "Let's see... Napolean/Napolian... nah!"

[Jim Garber]

All five of those blueprints are sold. Mick, did you get your two?

BTW a 9 year old thread about bowlback mandolin plans. Most of the links do not work any more.

[delsbrother]

Similarly, Manhattan is Manhattan, although there could be some people somewhere who are still referring to it as New Amsterdam.

Why'd they change it, I can't say...
People just liked it better that waaaaaaay!

[peterk]

All five of those blueprints are sold.

Are we to assume that there are five people out here who will be building now their own BB mandolins from scratch, following those blueprints ?
Well, not quite five......one person bought three copies.

[Graham McDonald]

Building a bowlback is still on the radar. I just need the time to build two, one to work out how to do it, and then the next to get it right. I suspect the plans are not going to tell me much I haven;t worked out already, but always useful. Interesting that the plans are for a 13.5" scale bowlback, which is rather unusual

cheers

[Jim Garber]

Graham: Do you have this book? Franz Jahnel, Manual of Guitar Technology: The History and Technology of Plucked String Instruments ? I have it at home and I think there is a bowlback mandolin plan in it as well. I will take a look later.

[Graham McDonald]

I have a copy, Full of interesting info, sometimes I think a little fanciful on the history stuff, but good as a reflection of the thinking of 50 years ago. I have bought a lot of books and journals for research in the last few years. Fun but it can get expensive...

cheers