Marvelous Mozzani!
The Incredible Harp Guitars of Luigi Mozzani
by Gregg Miner

Chapter 5: Mozzani's Harp Guitar Forms: Single Arm

 

Chitarra-lyra ad un braccio ("one-armed lyre guitar")

NOTE: As of yet, I have no idea what the timeline of Mozzani's designs is. Hopefully, someday I'll be able to arrange them by date of introduction.

This first series shows the simplest style with rather squared off upper bouts. All have round soundholes, but the arm can have one, two or none. The arm and body share a single piece of wood for the top.

This one has a fancy bridge This instrument is nearly identical to the preceding instrument, but has a soundhole in the arm With two arm holes, and a standard bridge

The next series are similar to the above, except that the arm is now made out of a separate wood. All of these have one arm soundhole and standard bridges, except for the fancier bridge of the last specimen.


Same style as above, but with a fancy "flower petal" soundhole design.

  Sara Stegani plays an instrument basically identical to the one at left The soundholes move up a bit on this specimen The soundholes are still moved up and the outer "petals" are upside down Similar with correct petals and there is no arm soundhole Going back to the one-piece top with fancy bridge and fancy arm soundholes

And now an upper treble bout flare is added...
This is most similar to the common model two rows above, except for the pointed flare A very similar specimen with a slightly more sever flare. This one is very cool - with more pronounced flares and a base for standing! 

This form, with a more "wappen" (shield) shape, is a close copy of Schenck's one-arm models and thus may have been among Mozzani's earliest one-arm models.

Round soundholes and fancy bridge Oval soundholes and a different fancy bridge A more severe oval soundhole and very fancy bridge The "flower petal" design and a slightly fancy bridge Similar to the far left instrument, but with fancier bridge, and it's a non-harp 6-string model.

(image copyright and courtesy Vintage Guitar Books)


Here, I'm repeating all the specimens with the "flower petal" design - just to show how Mozzani and his team applied one particular soundhole pattern to the different styles of instruments:


And finally, the distinctive ala di aquila (“eagle’s wing”) model. 

This specimen has a one-fret fingerboard extension. It was bought in the final Mozzani shop liquidation sale by Mario Maccaferri.

(image copyright and courtesy Vintage Guitar Books)

This specimen has a fingerboard extension with two frets. This specimen has no extension, ending in a flat cut-off. It was originally owned by Italo Meschi, then sold to Riccardo Marasco, as shown here. This specimen appears to have a different sub-bass nut (though that could have been changed) and also wider-spaced 12th fret markers.

Another image with a hidden fingerboard - this could be one of the previous specimens.

I have no idea how many of the fairly uniform "Eagle's Wing" designs were made, but the above seem to represent at least four specimens. The model is rumored to have been created specifically for Italian troubadour Italo Meschi (watch for an upcoming feature!).


        Credits/Sources: See Table of Contents

 


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