Soundboard Construction of Vinaccia Mandolins Around 1900

by Alfred Woll

Originally published in American Lutherie #143, 2021



It is presumed that the Neapolitan mandolin was developed mainly by the Vinaccia family toward the middle of the 18th century. At that time, the instrument was strung with low tension gut and metal strings. Two high braces, one above and one below the soundhole, were strong enough to stabilize the soundboard which had, in addition, a distinct cant and a slight transverse arch. The cant and arch were important features of the soundboard to withstand the pressure exerted by the strings on the bridge.

The very early Neapolitan mandolins had been rather small. The width of the soundboard was approximately 165mm at the cant. But in the following decades the size of the soundboards as well as the bodies increased. Another famous Neapolitan mandolin maker, Giovanni Battista Fabricatore, built mandolins with larger bowls. In 1793 he added a third brace between the bridge and the second brace. He also strengthened the soundboard with a longitudinal spruce reinforcement running along the center joint from the third brace over the cant to the tail block, and began using a fingerboard plate, which is a transverse spruce reinforcement on the underside of the soundboard in the area of the wooden frets. These four innovations — larger body, third brace, center reinforcement, and fingerboard plate — are used in Italian lutherie to this day. However, his improvement received little attention at the time, due to rapidly declining interest in the Neapolitan mandolin after 1800.