Mandoloncello

[rosenthal]

Hi All,

My thirteen year old son is getting quite proficient on the Cello, and would very much like to also play a mandocello. I guess I'd like to play it too. Do any of you have any advice on the acquisition of such and instrument. I haven't found too many manufacturers, and I have no experience with the sound vs instrument style.

It took my three purchases on ebay to find a bowlback mandolin that could be restored to playable condition (new frets mostly) I would rather not go the ebay route, because from a family perspective, it is getting politically awkward to purchase multiple additional instruments, not to mention the monetary cost.

Thanks,

Peter Rosenthal

[Jim M.]

I've played several old Gibson mandocellos and have never been very happy with them, particularly the C string. A cheaper alternative would be to try an old tenor guitar. Harmony's come up on e-bay pretty often, but if you searched the web you'd probably find one some place else. I would think a decent octave mandolin with a long-enough scale (23" or so) could be strung like a mandocello. You might want to post this query in the CBOM section of the Cafe. Lots of folks there with experience in long-scales. How much do you want to spend? There is a Kentucky mandocello at Vintage Instruments for $3750, it's a copy of the old Gibson K4.

[Nathan Sanders]

Gruhn guitars in Nashville has an old Gibson mandocello, in great shape. I just played it recently at their store and it sounds really nice. Check out their web site:
Gruhn Guitars (http://www.gruhn.com)

It is a 1914 Gibson and they want $3750.00 for it, probably more than you want to spend. But it might help your research.

[bolannta]

There are a number of mandocello makers (http://www.mandolincafe.com/cgi-bin/builders/searchdb.cgi?uid=default&view_records=1&keyword=mandocello) in the mandolin builders directory. (http://www.mandolincafe.com/builders.html)

[Jim Garber]

I've played several old Gibson mandocellos and have never been very happy with them, particularly the C string. A cheaper alternative would be to try an old tenor guitar. Harmony's come up on e-bay pretty often, but if you searched the web you'd probably find one some place else. I would think a decent octave mandolin with a long-enough scale (23" or so) could be strung like a mandocello. You might want to post this query in the CBOM section of the Cafe. Lots of folks there with experience in long-scales. How much do you want to spend? There is a Kentucky mandocello at Vintage Instruments for $3750, it's a copy of the old Gibson K4.
I would be wary of stringing an octave mandolin with seriously heavy m'cello strings. They were not meant for that tension. Tenor guitars would be even more unlikely.

Jim

[Jim M.]

Tenor guitars may not take a big string meant for a mandocello, but they will do a low C with a smaller string. I used to get D'Addario tenor guitar strings, which have a .32 low string, and that was fine for a C on a 23" scale. OM's I'm not as confident of, but I'd check with the maker to see.

[Jim Garber]

The low C on a tenor guitar is one octave above the low C on a mandocello. The gauge for the low C string on a m'cello is .074 inches. The second string or D on a m'cello is equivalent in gauge to the C on a tenor.

Jim