1920 Vega Cylinderback Mandocello

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a video of this one!

Shop friend Michael B. picked this up recently and he was nice enough to bring it up to us to get the service it needed to get playing again. Vega Cylinderback mandolins and mandolas are on the rarer side but a mandocello version? Sheesh!

It's feather-light, built to Vega's usual high spec, and extremely curious. Its serialization and build style seems to date it to 1920 or very close to it (around the same time lots of Cylinderback mandolins were being made) but it has a 1940s-style decal on the headstock. I'm guessing it must have gone back to Vega for some sprucing-up around then, perhaps?

It has some rough patches, too -- various old repairs to cracks, some finish touch-ups and overspray, and the usual old-instrument woes including a top that has sunken a bit over time considering the (now seven) shims fit to the bridge base. It's also got a very long, 26" scale length which means one can't use the quite-heavy normal mandocello string sets (74w-24w or so) as they would completely damage the top due to their excessive tension. We've modified a mix of guitar strings (54w, 42w, 32w, 16) for use instead.

Post-repairs it sounds phenomenal -- warm, full, round, and with excellent sustain.

Work included a level/dress of the frets and some crack re-repairs that Ancel did and then a whole bunch of glorified setup work that I did. It appears as if all of the hardware is completely original.