Favilla

[roue]

Hi All,

My great grandfather played this Favilla mandolin until his death in the late 80s. It sat unplayed for 25 years until I asked my folks to dig it out of storage for me. I started learning guitar a few years ago and now have a few different instruments, but this is my only mandolin. I've done a little research online about it and it seems to be from the mid-50s. I've seen a few identical looking Stradolins online too.

I'd like to learn more about it but especially to get it back to playable condition. I put on new strings and it stays in tune, but the D and G strings sound pretty dull compared to E and A and it's hard to play frets up the neck. This is almost certainly lack of skill on my part, but I'm hoping for suggestions on how I can adjust it to sound as good as possible.

I've played a few new mandolins in stores so I know it's not sounding as good as it might. I've been tempted to buy one but I'd really prefer to put my great grandfather's back into service.

Thanks,
Matt

[FredK]

Following. It will be interesting to see the comments on this one. I especially like hearing the family history behind this instrument. That makes it all the more special. The one thing I notice is that the action looks pretty high which would make it harder to get good intonation up the neck.

[NickR]

It may be a Strad-O-Lin.

[Seter]

Favilla is one of the rumored Strad-o-lin builders right? It may need a set up but otherwise should be a good no frills player's instrument. You might want to put lighter rather than heavier strings on it as well just to be safe. If you hunt around on the forums for Rob Meldrum's mandolin set up e-book you may be able to tweak it yourself.

[AndyV]

It may be a Strad-O-Lin.

, Orpheum, Marvel, ... can't remember the other brand I've seen on these. This is the 1st I've seen with Favilla.

[Jimmie]

Headstock, neck join, f holes = definitely a Stradolin. I've seen many Favilla-labelled mandos that were obviously Strads, from lower tier instruments to quite fancy ones.

[MikeEdgerton]

It's a Strad-O-Lin genre mandolin. Big Tom Favilla identified one similar as a "mandolin they had been making since the 20's". He also said they never made instruments for anyone else but then again Tom entered the family business in the mid 50's well after the Strad-O-Lin marque had really ceased to appear. Mike Holmes had a story on Mugwumps that someone recalled being in the Strad-O-Lin factory in New York City. There are a few Favilla branded mandolins in the Strad-O-Lin social group. It's a good place to look at pictures. I personally think they built the bulk of them as they had the capacity and were in the same city as Sorkin, the company that owned the marque. There has never been any real proof of who built them but Favilla, in my mind, is a strong contender. The Strad-O-Lin genre mandolins show up branded as many well known builders.

[DavidKOS]

I'd like to learn more about it but especially to get it back to playable condition. I put on new strings and it stays in tune, but the D and G strings sound pretty dull compared to E and A and it's hard to play frets up the neck. This is almost certainly lack of skill on my part, but I'm hoping for suggestions on how I can adjust it to sound as good as possible.

The action looks like it's on the high side; assuming the neck is straight and the frets do not need leveling, you can lower the bridge a bit.

[AndyV]

also branded Stadium.

[MikeEdgerton]

Strad-O-Lin Social Group

[roue]

Hi All,

I put on new light strings and cleaned all the tuners and it's sounding much better now. Thanks for the suggestions.

[Gregoryp]

I'd like to thank you Roue, for posting the images of your great grandfather's mandolin.

My story is remarkably similar to yours and the timing is uncanny. I just picked up my grandfather's mandolin. It is exactly the same as the one you've posted, but it has no decal on the headset. I remember my grandpa in Brooklyn, playing it when I was a teenager. Sadly he passed away in 1980 and the mandolin has been stored at my sister's place all these years.

I've been scouring the internet looking for images of similar mandolins and and trying to decipher the whole Stradolin mystery maker riddle. Thanks to you (and other posts in this forum) I now know my mandolin was made by Favilla... as opposed to Homenick, Kay, Regal, etc. The F-holes do all the talking.

Mine is a little more worn than yours, but it is playable. I'm having a local luthier to set it up. I'm going to spend the extra money and get some fret work done too, now that I know what I have. I'm just a beginner, so I could not have asked for a better gift this Christmas.

[Knox Al]

This looks like a decent model of a Favilla. It looks like it could be a cheap player. Seems to have a bit of a Martin look to me, but I am no expert. I'm guessing 1950's. Would appreciate comments and approximate value. It is a quite a few miles from me and I don't want to waste a trip.

Thanks

[NickR]

Does it have "Made In USA" stamped inside? If it does, it is probably a product of United in New Jersey. It certainly looks a lot like one of this company's later instruments. Here is a thread with someone looking for identification. I wrote a comment suggesting it was an United mandolin- it is at the bottom. The body shape of your mandolin is different, so I may be wrong and others can adjudicate.

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...=jersey+united

[MikeEdgerton]

Favilla was a New York City based manufacturer that was actively manufacturing instruments well into the 60's. They had a penchant for "kind of" copying Martin instruments in their later years. I'm pretty sure they actually built that one.