Mandolinetto - Guitar shaped Mandolin circa early 1900's

An antique Guitar shaped Mandolin (mandolinetto), usually labelled as "Neapolitan College of Music Patent By His Majesty's Royal Letters Patent no. 2272"

It was designed by Ewald Glaesel with patent accepted in 1902, then produced in 186b Plauenschestrasse, Markneukirchen, Saxony, Germany. Label was missing here and there was no lady picture at back however, am pretty sure that this is still the same model, made in the same place.

Mandolin was in a really bad state with many cracks to soundboard, loose strutting, damaged pickguard so about two years ago I used it for some experimental work.

Soundboard is now fully repaired with new strutting, pickguard was removed and there's a multi-layer sound hole now. Tuners are original and work fine, tailpiece has been replaced as well as bridge and nut. Mandolin also has a new rosewood fretboard, fretted with narrow Japanese Nickel-silver frets. Original finish was removed and replaced with shellac over an ebony dye. As this was an experimental restoration cosmetical part wasn't a priority here, but structurally it is all sound and holds well despite previous damage.

Mandolin is set up very well with action set as low as - 1.1mm at treble side and 1.4mm at bass side over 12th fret. It's fitted with new very light set of strings - Pyramid Silver 529 .009- .032 so it's very easy to play and more suitable for someone preferring a light playing style. Neck is quite thin and narrow so it's best to stay with light strings only.

Tonally it's more soft and mellow with nice lows, still pretty loud and good sustain. Sound sample upon request, please message me with email where I can send it (Reverb messenger doesn't allow attaching mp3 files sorry)

Mandolin specification:

Soundboard – Solid Spruce

Back and sides – Solid Maple (stained black)

Neck – V/U shaped, made of maple (stained black)

Fretboard – New Rosewood with MOP inlay

Nut – new Ebony

Bridge – New Rosewood

Frets – 17 1.1mm crown width, Japanese Nickel-silver

Instruments measurements are as follows:

- total length 61cm (body length 31.6cm)

- body width, lower part 25cm, upper part 18.4cm

- body depth 5cm at neck, 5.5cm at tailpiece

- from nut to 12th fret 165mm (total scale length 330mm)

- Neck width at nut is 26.3mm, at body merge 34.5mm

Any questions feel free to ask, thanks.