Adapted from the sale listing from Folkway Music in 2010

The Favilla brothers opened their New York city shop in the 1890’s. Although the company changed locations numerous times over the years, they remained active in fretted instrument building until the 1970’s. At the height of the uke boom of the 1920’s, Favilla Brothers were employing some 50 employees and building many thousands of instruments a year.

The mandobass likely dates from sometime between the two World Wars. The original tuners were made in Czechoslovakia, indicating a post 1918 build, while the balance of design elements seems to point to the 1930’s. The numbers 1929 are handwritten in pencil on one of the back braces, and could be indicative of the year of manufacture,

The instrument features a 25” wide body of solid spruce and mahogany. The back is bookmatched, the top is a three-piece bookmatch. The celluloid pickguard is inlaid in the top, and the body is otherwise simply appointed with single-ply bindings and and a lovely sunburst finish. The two-piece mahogany neck has an unbound rosewood fingerboard with pearl dot inlays and a rosewood head veneer with pearl logo. With a scale of 40”, the instrument’s string length measures half way between that of a fretted bass and an upright. Endpins at the tailpiece and on the lower treble bout allow two different playing positions.