I've just received the Giuseppe Vinaccia that I recently got from Ebay. It's a beautiful mandolin, with a perfectly straight neck, a sound and very attractive maple bowl with slight flame figure (a nice contrast to my rosewood bowls) and a low action, right on the spot for playability. I like the understated plainness of the decorations, which is nicely off-set by the quality of the wooden binding at the sides and around the soundhole. No painted-on "binding" or heat transfers here, as one sees with some Neapolitan or Catania builders. The top is clean with little or no finish and an even colour with a nicely-aged honeyed hue.
Having said all this, this mandolin does have some structural issues and unlike my previous three Ebay bowlbacks, this one will need to see a luthier before it is playable. There is a fairly substantial split in the soundboard between tailpiece and bridge, and a second smaller one parallel to it. These weren't visible in the Ebay photos, as they are directly underneath the e- and a- strings, but are pretty obvious in the flesh. They're along the grain, so they might not be too serious structurally, but I'd rather have them closed. Probably more seriously, the edge of the soundboard has come away from the bowl and the binding on the bass side over a length of about 15cm and there is about a 1mm gap and some give in the soundboard when pressed. This clearly needs to be reglued, if the seam can be closed somehow (which I'm not sure about at the moment). The photo below shows the problem, although because a gap looks much like a dark binding strip, it's not nearly as prominent on the photo as it is to the eye.
The bridge also needs some work. It was on the mandolin the wrong way around, with the string spacers facing the soundhole. Bizarrely, a previous owner had nailed the bridge to the soundboard. Luckily, I was able to gently pull the bridge together with the nails out by hand without damage to bridge or soundboard. Most of the string spacers are broken off, and to compensate for that, a previous owner has put notches into the bone saddle insert (which should be smooth for this style of bridge). I expect I'll be able to replace the broken string spacers with a slice of ebony and then smoothen the saddle insert.
As was obvious from the photos sent out by the seller by e-mail, the tuners are mismatched, with the treble tuners having the post below the gear and the bass tuners post above the gear. So, the tuners turn the opposite way on one side to what one would expect. However, the tuners all work smooth and seem good quality. The replacement seems to have been done a long time ago, as the two sets of tuner buttons, while slightly different from each other, are all real ivory rather than bakelite, celluloid or pearloid.
No idea about tone yet, of course, although I did briefly pluck the old strings that were on. Even with the strings detuned for transport, it did sound rather intriguing and I can't wait to hear how it will sound with the top and bridge repaired and new Lenzners on.
More later.
Martin
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It was nice to meet Martin at last! He also brought his Ceccherini and Rinaldi for me to see - the Ceccherini is a particularly nicely made instrument.
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