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Thread: Need Help Identifying Strange Mandolin

  1. #26
    Moderator MikeEdgerton's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help Identifying Strange Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by skitfin View Post
    I now see that inside the body, up at the neck, written in ball point pen is "Dan Fitzer, Sept. 1970".

    I can find no record of a luthier named Dan Fitzer.
    It's always good to look inside. Now we have to see if we can find out anything about Dan Fitzer in your area. It's a logical place to start.
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  2. #27
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help Identifying Strange Mandolin

    Quote Originally Posted by skitfin View Post
    I now see that inside the body, up at the neck, written in ball point pen is "Dan Fitzer, Sept. 1970".

    I can find no record of a luthier named Dan Fitzer.
    So I believe that you and others of us here were on the right track, that is probably was an amateur luthier, maybe built a few violins and wanted to try his hand on a mandolin. I don't know where you are looking for your luthier records, but I would follow MikeE's advice and check around your area for folks names Fitzer. You could also try to contact Wayne Henderson, a well known luthier and musician in SW VA. I don't know if you can actually reach Wayne but I know he studied with Albert Hash who was a well-known fiddler and violin maker from the area. Wayne probably knows many of the folks who built instruments back around 1970.

    BTW, I don't think you told us how it plays and sounds, did you?
    Jim

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  3. #28
    Full Grown and Cussin' brunello97's Avatar
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    Default Re: Need Help Identifying Strange Mandolin

    Dan Fitzer?

    Maybe his mother or his wife were Sicilian?

    Fitzer would likely translate into Tessitore in Italian.

    But not in Catania.

    Mick
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