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Ciao , Elia, e benvenuto al forum.
I think you might be right, those are the distinctive "Catania Church roofs with Mount Etna behind" fretboard inlays we can see on other Caponnetto guitars, including my own. I guess you're also right about the metal plates covering the holes of an earlier pickup and jack-plug installation. I would love to see a photo of the whole of the front of the guitar - it looks like it needs some work & repairs, but these are nice vintage guitars.
p.s what is your guitar's 'scale length' ("diapason?" ) - my Caponnetto is very long, about 683 mm
-Andy -
Hi! Thanks!
Yeah the guitar needs a bit of work, the back it's cracked. As you can see I removed the metal pieces and there is the pick up hole.
The guitar misses the bridge and tailpice so I'm not able right now to give you the diapason but it's quite a short scale guitar, it's 1 m long.
Do you have any photo of your guitars? I would like to restore this one with a tailpiece similar to the ones used.
Wow, that is an odd one. Caponetto certainly had an imagination.
Shame about the pickup hole, will you try to patch that with some similarly grained spruce? I had done that years ago on an old Levin and with some patient fiddling with small brushes and wood dyes I got it nearly invisible, The only other choices would be either replace the whole top, which would be a shame and leave you with only half a true 'vintage' guitar, or what I would do if I could not repair it, is fit another pickup, maybe with a decorative surround if needed just to cover the hole. That big hole at the bottom of the right side 'f' hole would be another problem, I can only guess someone opened that up to fit a volume control? That too would be hard to patch up but doable, and when you have added a new bridge and possibly a pickguard which all help to divert the eye it may be possible to disguise it altogether. Or it could be left as it is, the asymmetrical look has a certain charm. Or..........as an extreme answer, open up the other one on the left to match; getting away from the original Caponetto design but still saving it as something unique.
AndyW has tackled some rough old things before, it would be interesting to hear how he would approach it.
Below is a photo of a Carmelo Catania of similar proportions which had a pickup in the same place just to help with inspiration, note the volume and tone controls on the tailpiece, an original idea too.
By the way, if the tell-tale shadow where the bridge used to be is not enough, you can calculate scale length just by doubling the distance from the nut (or zero fret where fitted) to the 12th fret.
The knobs on the tailpiecea are pretty cool.
I thought that the hole on the "f" hole could have been made becouse that little piece in between was broken and they tried to save id by rounding it all but yeah probably the guitar had electronic parts on it so I approve your idea, plus I was thinking of making it electric again but I'm not sure.
There's one ohther thing, the guitar has a fret 0 and 2 nuts, did they just ad one because the other was too worn?
My major concern now is how to repair the big crack on the back, wich basically divides the guitar back. Can the back part be remove re glued and reinstalled?
I don't need to be asked twice to show-off my Caponnetto 😀 lol.
The chromed trapezoidal tailpiece was bought as "Italian new old stock", the original was very similar, although slightly shorter, but the chrome plating was wrecked. The original bridge is very long - 21 cm - one piece with curved base and bone saddle, quite unlike the simple bridges commonly seen on many Sicilian instruments of the period.
Nice to see modern "replicas" based on the large body "Marius" Sicilian guitars- from Jeongwoo Cho at JWC Vintage Guitars.
beautifully figured back
Beat me to it, I was going to share that remembering a previous exchange on here re Marius. Gee, that does look nice though, for anyone brave enough to step outside the normal Selmer copy. I wish I could go for it but SWMBO says I have enough guitars !!!
Sonny, Fredo, Connie & Michael : the four Sicilians in their new studio home.
Connie sure is pretty but you better be good to her or Sonny might have to sort you out with a garbage can. Don't trust Fredo though, Michael is gonna have to take care of him.
But seriously, a nice quartet, all different but all with some pedigree, shows what is out there to try other than the usual suspects. With experiments in set up, strings, picks and playing style I bet these could all make a good job of the GJ repertoire.
Anyway, you have given me the idea, now I have to get the (slightly less pedigree) family out for a group photo.