Eight-year GAL member Alfred Woll is a native of southern Germany who played the violin, mandolin, and guitar as a teenager. In 1977 he took apart a damaged mandolin, repaired it, and assembled it again. Two years later he set up his own workshop and built his first classical guitar. He did repairs and restorations and built all sorts of stringed instruments before deciding to specialize in the mandolin and completing his master’s certificate as a mandolin builder.
2021
AL#143 p.30
Alfred Woll
▪ The Vinaccia family was at the heart of the development of the Neapolitan mandolin, beginning in the mid-18th century and running well into the 20th. This article follows those developments with changing string technology and musical taste. The author then gives us a step-by-step demonstration of making the distinctive arched-and-canted soundboard.