Abramusic Mandolin

[Isd5793]

Hey folks have an older Italian mandolin Im repairing I believe made by Francisco Abramo.

From what I can find out about him online he seems to have made mostly guitars. Anyone know anything about his mandolins?

[Isd5793]

Hope this photo works

[nmiller]

Not a clue. Do you know what the two grommets in the top are for?

[allenhopkins]

Holy cow! Amazingly unique design, and I've never seen anything like it.

[Isd5793]

They appear to be venting

[MikeEdgerton]

Not a clue. Do you know what the two grommets in the top are for?

The Italians and the Germans seem to love to put two small holes in the tops of their mandolins. Generally they are next to each other. There are probably dozens of threads about this on the cafe and none of them draw any real conclusion. I'm sure that's what these holes are.

[Bob Clark]

Holy cow! Amazingly unique design, and I've never seen anything like it.

And no need for them to worry about getting a nasty-gram from Gibson! Good for them.

[MikeEdgerton]

They could possibly get one from Salvador Dali...

[OlDanTucker]

Or Dr. Suess...

[Jim Garber]

The Italians and the Germans seem to love to put two small holes in the tops of their mandolins. Generally they are next to each other. There are probably dozens of threads about this on the cafe and none of them draw any real conclusion. I'm sure that's what these holes are.

I am convinced that these builders put those holes on instruments as a sort of luthier joke.

"Ehi, Luigi. Mettiamo questi buchi nella parte superiore e infiliamo questi occhielli in essi. Un giorno in futuro ci sarà un posto in cui le persone parleranno di loro. Non scopriranno mai qual è la loro funzione."*

*"Hey, Luigi. Let's put these holes in the top and stick these grommets in them. Someday there will be a place that people will talk about them. They will never figure out what is their function."

[Jim Garber]

Hey folks have an older Italian mandolin Im repairing I believe made by Francisco Abramo.

From what I can find out about him online he seems to have made mostly guitars. Anyone know anything about his mandolins?

How do you know it was made by Abramo? I can sort of see his logo silk-screened on the top of the lump-scroll. Like this one from a banjo on the site linked below.



I am not surprised that he is one of the many (for some reason) eccentric instrument makers from Catania. Info here on one of my favorite sites: Fetish Guitars.

Here is a Google translation of that page:

Francesco Abramo - Abramusic

By the engineer Giuseppe Porto - Catania

Francesco Abramo began in the early 1950s in the shop on Via Messina, the road of the sulphates and the "magazzeni" for citrus processing. in the 1960s, due to the urban development undertaken by the city of Catania, we are witnessing the abandonment of the sulfur springs, the decentralization of the citrus market, and the demolition of via Messina to make way for the new road axis of avenue Africa. Abraham moves into the new shop in Piazza Ottorino Respighi, in what will be his home until the end of the business ...

In this new workshop, consisting of two rooms and a courtyard in which the instruments are painted, he begins to build electric guitars, the shapes become more and more daring and pass from the first missing shoulders to more geometric shapes (pure V or triangular guitars) up to organic shapes, like a butterfly-shaped solid body guitar never completed and decorated by young laboratory goers. The collaboration with the Milanese Meazzi is from this period.

Abraham manages to keep the shop open until the beginning of the 1990s, a period in which he must bend to the new logic of the market, completely abandoning the activity but not the premises where it took place. Until the end of his days, in fact, every Monday he will open the doors of the small shop to accommodate some friends wishing to play along with other unknown talents or high-sounding names of classical island music, using some of the few instruments left unsold and hung on the pale walls of the second room.

Hidden in a corner of the shop, on a small attic that served as a cover for the closet, one could see the master's personal guitar. It was a classical guitar with a strongly amber color that ended with a jewel-like head, at the end of which was set a wooden diamond painted in yellow topaz. With this guitar, the Maestro presented himself every year at the Sicilian song festival, broadcast by the island's main broadcaster, to line up with the orchestra ... despite the fact that he didn't know how to play a single note!

[Isd5793]

It has the same logo on the mandolin

[jim simpson]

clearly this mandolin shape was inspired by a jigsaw puzzle piece, lol!

[LadysSolo]

Really interesting looking - I wonder what it will sound like after repair?

[Isd5793]

Looking good buddy’s workin on action now