Fratelli Ficarra mandolin

At first glance nothing special on this mandolin but by

looking at several parts we will give our comments.

It all starts here of course with an aluminium bowl made

out of one piece and not covered with paper on the inside.

This instrument has incurred some "injuries"  during its' 

lifetime but the most severe can be cured with a wooden

device with a rounded top that cures the bulbs with

careful beats.

A nice shot of this side were the decoration can be seen

but also the screws on this instrument that are everywhere

even in the fingerboard. That part in fact has to be replaced

but I will place these screws back in place as they are a

part of the typical construction of tis instrument.

The typical bowl form has been executed in a good way

on tis mandolin and I can't confirm that due to the aluminium

bowl this instrument sounds like an old resonator. It sounds 

like a normal mandolin, not even much brighter or

boosted in the mid frequencies. A resonator guitar owes

his typical sound due to the use of an aluminium cone that

produces that typical sound. No cone here.

Probably the original bridge in ebony and provided with 

a metal bridge "bone". The fingerboard is very thin and 

won't attribute to the stiffness of the neck as a whole. 

In order to withstand string tension it is advisable to 

place a thicker fingerboard what also will result in a 

better playing action.

The headroom that reminds a bit of the DeMeglio headform.

The same thing counts for the knobs on the tuners that

have a bit of a "stained"  appearance. Zero fret.

Maybe difficult to read bt I will com up with a better

picture as the non original lacquer on the soundboard

has to be removed after having cured to double split 

damage in the lower part of the body.

As has been stated earlier, several elements do remind of

the DeMeglio mandolins. In this case the scratch plate that  

has a leather like appearance but I think it to be some

kind of metal (!) Unfortunately this form makes it 

impossible to mount an extended fingerboard but

in this case I want to stay close to the original design.

The wooden device behind the bridge is another DeMeglio

feature and causes more downward pressure of the string

tension to the soundboard. If it dramatically affects the

final sound result I do not know.

Presented here is the result after some restorations.

The soundboard had been painted in an ugly way.

We've made it clean and just put two thin layers of 

finish on it. Just enough for first protection.

No painting here. I wanted to keep the rest as original

as possible but with a possibility to play this instrument.

An ivory topnut has been added but with the gap

exactly wide enough to receive its' original device:

An all original all string divider and zero fret in one.

New copper screws as the old ones were rusted.

The bowl that has been treated against the most serious

bulbs there the mandolin was bearing after all this time.

It doen't have to vibe perfect to my opinion. It still

is an old instrument with his own history.

A small double crack has been repaired in the lower

bottom left. I had to make a special device in order

to be able to lift the wooden part in between a bit.