# Music by Genre > Orchestral, Classical, Italian, Medieval, Renaissance >  Seen a lot of bowl backs but never one with machines like this...

## Marc Woodward

Any thought?!

Marc

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Beanzy, 

Jess L.

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## MikeEdgerton

Oh those crazy Italians!  :Cool: 

I've never seen those either.

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## John McCoy

...and the fret markers!  The fret markers!!! :Disbelief:

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## Jim Garber

Marc, can you read the name of the patentee on the tuner plate? Also, is there a label inside the mandolin? Maybe I am not seeing something here, but it looks like each string pair gets tuned by one tuner? Are there knobs to tighten? Similar to Preston tuners but with a key (as seen in the last photo). Can you post more photos?

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## Bob Clark

Odd bridge, too.  Could we please see a close-up shot of the bridge?

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## Jim Garber

We will have to wait until Marc wakes up in the morning. He is in the UK and it is about 3am right now.

You can sort of see the bridge details if you zoom in on the photo. It looks like there may be some small wheels where the strings ride over the bridge. I guess that is part of the patent concept.

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Bob Clark, 

DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## Marc Woodward

Hi 
More photos. I havent seen it in the flesh I was sent the photos by a friend who runs a local music shop.
It seems the strings may be one long double loop ended string for each pair the runs from the headstock over the rollers on the bridge round an end pin back over the roller to the tuner! He says it works... tuners are tightened with a key. No internal label, body looks standard De Meglio type but name looks something like Carlo Mabico or DiLabico maybe..?

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Bob Clark, 

DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## Martin Jonas

Looks like there are only four tuning pegs (or whatever you want to call them) for eight strings, so how do they get the string to unison?

I was wondering whether this is some sort of retrofit onto a standard De Meglio, but then the exposed part of the wooden headstock would have to show some of the tuner holes and it doesn't.  So, this seems to have been built this way.

Crazy.

Martin

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DavidKOS

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## Bertram Henze

> Looks like there are only four tuning pegs (or whatever you want to call them) for eight strings, so how do they get the string to unison?


...the answer may be hidden here:




> It looks like there may be some small wheels where the strings ride over the bridge.


I suspect there are also wheels under the tailpiece cover, providing each string of a pair with equal tension - in theory. It's a pulley system. One sound sample would explain why this idea is not more widely recognized, I'll say.  :Whistling:

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DavidKOS

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## Beanzy

Wonderfully bonkers & fit for the industrial era. 
I assume your wallet is having a hard time remaining closed.
You know you really really want it don’t you Marc?
Once you buy it you can post us a sound clip so we can hear if it really does sound like a trapdoor mechanism snapping shut.

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Dan Krhla, 

DavidKOS

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## MikeEdgerton

I've tried expanding the back of the headstock and still can't make out the name in script.

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## Frankdolin

That is way cool!!! Yea ,I'm seeing thru old 1/2 Italian eyes. :Mandosmiley:

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## William Smith

Whats that stuff some people are into "steampunk" ? That is the mando for that type of person for sure!

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## Bertram Henze

> Whats that stuff some people are into "steampunk" ? That is the mando for that type of person for sure!


Yes, exactly what Captain Nemo would play.

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## Beanzy

> I've tried expanding the back of the headstock and still can't make out the name in script.


I think it’s Malbiso

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## Jim Garber

> I think it’s Malbiso


Maybe Mabiso (no "L" in there). Still, I am not sure. Here is a Photoshop-enhanced version.

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Beanzy

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## vkioulaphides

From the era of _factory_-tuned mandolins, no doubt.  :Laughing:  I'd hesitate to bestow the Steampunk honorific, though...

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DavidKOS

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## Tavy

Well, one things for sure - top marks for originality in the patent application!

I assume the bridge is fixed to the top, so not much chance of fixing the intonation up?

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## PJ Doland

Apparently Ned Steinberger was experimenting with time-travel at some point and left one of those behind.

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## Steve VandeWater

I think it says Carlo Alabiso

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DavidKOS

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## Marc Woodward

Thanks all, glad you find it as curious as I do! I’m going to try and see it in the flesh shortly and will report on sound/tuning etc 

BW
Marc

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derbex

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## MikeEdgerton

I wasn't even sure that was an M. The only part I could make out with any certainty was abiso and even that could be wrong. It almost looks like Rhabiso. It has to be easier to read when you have it in your hands.

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## Beanzy

It looks a bit like there is a / between the two names, so maybe it’s a joint patent?

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## Bertram Henze

> Maybe Mabiso (no "L" in there). Still, I am not sure. Here is a Photoshop-enhanced version.


I doubt if there is an "i" in the last name. That looks like just another accidental black spot, as there are many on the plate, e.g. beside the "L" in Carlo.

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## DavidKOS

That is a strange idea - assuming the strings will even out the tension and tune a pair off of one machine!

It reminds me a bit of the Portuguese guitar tuners, but those have individual string gears.

BTW, sistema brevettato just means it's patented.

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## brunello97

> I think it says Carlo Alabiso


I think Steve has it: Carlo Alabiso.

But likely not the same CA who is author of _Problemi di Meccanica Quantistica Non Relativistica_.

Maybe, though.

Mick

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DavidKOS

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## JeffD

I am assuming those are stickers on the fretboard, indicating the notes. Kind of weird, kind of cool.

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## vkioulaphides

> I think Steve has it: Carlo Alabiso.


Hm... you sure it's not _a l'abisso_?  :Laughing:  The outcome of tuning unison courses by this machinery must surely be abysmal...

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brunello97

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## bratsche

> I think Steve has it: Carlo Alabiso.
> 
> But likely not the same CA who is author of _Problemi di Meccanica Quantistica Non Relativistica_.
> 
> Maybe, though.
> 
> Mick


His grandfather?  Or he is a time traveler?  Web page here.

bratsche

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## brunello97

> Hm... you sure it's not _a l'abisso_?  The outcome of tuning unison courses by this machinery must surely be abysmal...


Ouch.....Too funny, V.

Mick

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## vkioulaphides

Intonation abyss gapes at every step...  :Laughing:

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## Jim Garber

> Intonation abyss gapes at every step...


That is the title of my next science fiction book. A group of intrepid explorers travel to the far reaches of our galaxy only armed with oddly made bowlback mandolins.  :Smile:

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## Graham McDonald

I came across the Alabisa patent when I was working on the book, but I didn't include it. Here is the drawing from the patent application as well as pictures of a bridge and tailpieces. It takes the whole double loop end string idea of the Portuguese guitarra and adds another level of complication. Someone must have sent me the photos but I can't remember who! In theory, it should actually work and play in tune, but there is a lot of tension on those little rollers on the tailpiece and it would not take much for tuning catastrophes.

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Beanzy, 

Bertram Henze, 

bratsche, 

brunello97, 

DavidKOS, 

Frankdolin, 

Hany Hayek, 

Jess L., 

Jim Garber, 

MikeEdgerton, 

Tavy

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## Bertram Henze

This fits right into the tradition of Leonardo Da Vinci's war machine design.

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## vkioulaphides

Or that of headlines in _The Onion_.  :Laughing:

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## billhay4

Pretty darn clever. Wonder if it works.
Bill

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## Jairo Ramos Parra

Inventions often turn a simple and functional design in something more complicate than how astronauts poop...

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Steve VandeWater

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## Jim Garber

As Graham notes, the Preston tuners add the complication of double looping but this adds even more complication using strings twice the needed length thereby solving a problem (?) that really didn't exist.

Graham, do you have the patentee's description of what he was trying to do or at least a summation of that?

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DavidKOS

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## DavidKOS

> As Graham notes, the Preston tuners add the complication of double looping but this adds even more complication using strings twice the needed length thereby solving a problem (?) that really didn't exist.


I guess the designer thought it was too hard to tune each string in a pair individually. :Grin:

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## Graham McDonald

Jim, the drawing page is the only one I have. Here is the back of the tuners assembly, a picture of the tuning key and another image of the bridge. They might be ivory rollers in the solid brass bridge?

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Beanzy, 

DavidKOS, 

Jess L.

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## Jim Garber

Graham: do you have any clue of when this was patented? I don't see any dates on the patent you attached.

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DavidKOS

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## Graham McDonald

Jim, No idea about the date. That one page with the drawings was all I was sent along with the photos. I think I did spend an hour or two trying to penetrate the Italian patent registration system on-line but it was all too hard and I went on to other things.

cheers

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## Eugene

Indeed, David.  They look functionally similar to those on Portuguese guitarra/English guittar.  There is one early Neapolitan I've seen with similar.  I'll look for reference.

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## brunello97

Another of Carlo Alabiso's mandolins has turned up on the ebay.

I posted the links and images to this over on the Bowlbacks of Note thread.

Mick

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DavidKOS

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