Falcate Bracing Mandolin "Padellone"
“Padellone” (big frying pan) is an archtop bluegrass mandolin that takes birth from an experimental idea: that of understanding how much it is possible to push the design limits to obtain the best playability, together with a powerful and rich sound.
Padellone is named after frying pans, sharing with them the long narrow neck and the large body.
Aside from the peculiar aesthetics, this archtop mandolin features several innovative elements:
Straight string pull
Strings proceed in a straight line from the capo to the tuning machines to minimize friction, allowing for a quick and very precise tuning and a better intonation.
Soundboard with falcate bracing
The archtop soundboard is carved from solid red spruce wood and features falcate bracing with carbon fiber reinforcement. This bracing style gives it a very powerful sound with the typical bluegrass chop.
Innovative elements
- The neck features an active trussrod with access from the tail end, avoiding to weaken the headstock which otherwise is one of the most fragile parts of mandolins
- The back is also carved and the geometry and the wood choice allow to obtain vibrational coupling between top and back, giving the tyipical bluegrass sound
- Sides have additional masses that improve the sound output and allow to “tune” the instrument by modal tuning
In this video of TrioQuarter you can hear the mandolin played by Martino Quintavalla,