Favilla Guitars, Inc. was a family-run musical instrument company which produced quality
string instrument
String instruments, stringed instruments, or chordophones are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer plays or sounds the strings in some manner.
Musicians play some string instruments by plucking the ...
s for approximately 96 years until 1986. Originally called "Favilla Bros.", the company built
guitars,
mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
s,
banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
s,
ukuleles, and
violins.
Company history
Brothers John (ca. 1871-1956) and Joseph Favilla, after having emigrated from
Italy to
New York City, formed Favilla Bros. (or Favilla Brothers, predecessor to Favilla Guitars, Inc.) either in 1890
or 1894.
By the 1920s, the company had expanded to over 50 employees. The company produced instruments in various New York locations, but around 1930 settled into the West 16th Street location where it would remain until 1959. At that time, Hercules (“Herk”) Favilla, son of John Favilla and a former vaudeville performer,
took over the business and renamed it Favilla Guitars, Inc.
Herk’s older brother Frank had been running administrative affairs for the company since the late 1940s. John Favilla died in 1956, and when his son Herk took over in 1959, the company was moved to a larger facility in
Brooklyn.
In 1965 the company relocated again, this time to
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
. Around this time, guitar production peaked at 3,000-3,500 per year. Herk’s son Tom (b. 1942) worked for the company, and in 1970 began importing guitars from Japan under the Favilla name. (These instruments can be distinguished by their having the Favilla name in script on the guitar, instead of the full Favilla crest.)
Due to a shift in the guitar market from acoustic instruments to electric instruments, the Favilla company ceased production in 1973. However Herk and his son Tom continued building custom instruments until their retirements, in 1980 and 1986, respectively.
Instruments
Over almost a century, the Favilla family produced a wide range of instruments in America. Some of these bore names such as “Favilla Bros.”, “Favilla”, and “Marca Aquila.”
*
Guitars (including
classical,
archtop,
dreadnought including the 12-string F-12, and
tenor)
*
Mandolin
A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...
s (including “bowl back” and “flat back” models)
*
Banjo
The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...
s
*
Ukuleles (including “Teardrop” models, soprano, concert, tenor, baritone)
*
Violins
* Other
** Dulcet Guitarette
** Wimbrola
**
Mandolin-banjo
Publications
In the 1950s and 1960s Herk Favilla was involved with music publication as well. In 1951
he authored and published a two-volume baritone ukulele method, one volume for self-taught beginners, the other for students and professionals.
[“The Baritone Ukulele” (c. 1958 by Herk Favilla in Brooklin, NY.; c. 1962 by Favilla Guitars, New York, NY) (OCLC numbers 428979358 and 20191514, respectively). Book one: A Self-teaching Method for the Beginner; Book two: A Practical Method for Students and Professionals.] He also published a collection of arranged guitar music in 1965.
["World Classics for the Guitar" transcribed and edited by Howard David (c. 1965 by Herk Favilla Publications) (OCLC number 79822350).]
Footnotes
References
*
*
* Cagnetta, Andrew (2017) ''Favilla Familia: A History & Guidebook'' ASIN: B073ZNMT1K
External links
Those Fabulous Favillas: A pictorial tribute to Favilla string instruments (and the family who built them){{Use dmy dates, date=October 2017
Banjo manufacturing companies
Guitar manufacturing companies of the United States
Musical instrument manufacturing companies based in New York City