What is that piece of felt on Di Mauro guitars for?

ChrisMartin · April 2015

I have often wondered what the little strip of felt behind the nut on Di Mauro guitars is for, I even have a mandolin with the same feature, but have not seen it used on any other brands. I could only guess there may have been some idea that it could help damp some unwanted vibration. Any clues?

wim · April 2015

Damp unwanted overtones from those scraps of strings, of course

wim · April 2015

Some guys do the same thing with a sock or scarf or something, if the overtones annoy them..

ChrisMartin · May 2015

Well I had guessed it was for something like that, but if so, why have I only seen it on Di Mauro instruments? They were always good guitars, not top of the pile, and not cheap junk either, so if this idea had any merit, why was it not used by others? Has anybody else seen any other brand of guitar that came with the felt strip as original? It doesn't bother me, but there are many people who like to study and analyse every quirk of the luthier's art, and question the tiniest detail, so I thought there must be others who have wondered about this.

crookedpinky · May 2015

They put it there just so people would ask that very question in years to come.

)

Al Watsky · May 2015

You see the felt strip mainly on mandolins.
Felt will appear on either end , nut or tailpiece.
Mostly tailpiece .
Its located under the "after length" , on either side, as I said , its a mandolin thing.
Guess the DiMauro family was familiar with mandolin building?
The thing that makes it ridiculous is that the strings are so far away from the felt, (if its put under the strings behind the nut) that it will never achieve its purpose which is to mute sympathetic ringing of the after length .
Guess they liked the way it looked?

ChrisMartin · May 2015

Thanks Al, your thinking makes some sense of it. I have a few Di Mauros (and a couple of others now sold) and also a Di Mauro mandolin which too has the felt strip behind the nut, and even on that it is almost 1/4 inch below the strings, but yes I can understand if it was a mandolin thing that Di Mauro thought would be a useful addition to guitars as well, but I suspect it is more for the sake of appearance, or tradition, than actually functional. By the way, mine are all by Antoine Di Mauro, does anyone know if Joseph the elder or Joseph Jr. used it too?