wappen mandolin

[tonto83]

can anyone please give me some information about this instrument

[Andrew B. Carlson]

That's a strange looking frankenvirzi in there.

[Martin Jonas]

First things first: you may already realise that this mandolin is German, probably made in the 1920s or 1930s. "Wappen" in this instance isn't a brand name (although the label seems to use it in that way) but rather the general name for this particular body shape: Wappen is German for "crest" and Wappenform therefore is used to describe crest-shaped two-point instruments and in particular mandolins.

The unusual part of your mandolin is the second soundboard that can be seen through the soundhole (indeed, there's a second soundhole in that second soundboard). Several luthiers experimented with designs like this between about 1890 and 1940, the most famous of which are the Virzi "tone generators" installed by Gibson in many of their mandolins (and other instruments) in the 1920s. However, Gibson were by no means the first -- Umberto Ceccherini was doing something similar about 30 years earlier, Gelas was doing it in France from the 1910s on, and your anonymous maker did so in Germany. The idea is that this second soundboard/resonator can oscillate freely in the cavity and create a more complext spectrum of overtones. They never quite caught on in the mandolin world, although they are marginally more popular in guitars and get re-invented every couple of decades by luthiers who've forgotten their predecessors.

The brand name on your instrument, "Wappen Resonanz", thus simply means "crest-shaped instrument with internal resonator" and is a plain description of the instrument. The added words "ges. gesch." stand for gesetzlich geschützt, which is German for "patent pending".

Martin

[tonto83]

Thanks Martin that's helped out!! The second sound board is what caught my eye bout it aswell as the age, looking forward to playing it!!