New mandocellist here

[motojosh]

Almost a month ago, a friend of mine was talking about learning to play the cello (regular, not mando-) and asked me if I knew anything about cellos. Up until then, I'd only played guitar, so I said no . . . but went home and started googling. It wasn't long until I discovered Mike Marshall's mandocello video on YouTube (I'm sure you've all seen it before: https://youtu.be/KAMe9pZwogY). Needless to say, I was intrigued.

I took an old 12-string, and restrung the lowest four courses with "light gauge" mandocello strings (or as close as I could get from the "single string" bin at the local guitar shop), just to see if I could get used to an instrument tuned in fifths instead of fourths. Turned out to be fun!

Having read here and elsewhere that inexpensive, "starter" mandocellos really don't exist, I bought a cheap mandolin to learn on. And then a near-miracle occurred . . . a used Weber Tamarack mandocello showed up at a shop in Montana! I drove over to Bozeman today to check it out, and it followed me home:



It's currently strung as an octave mandolin, but I'll probably restring it back to a mandocello soon. I like the booming low end . . . looking forward to learning to play this beast!

[NotMelloCello]

Correct. There are no budget mandocellos.
I have emailed the Gold Tone company, and told them that since they seem to offer great reasonably priced instruments of all kinds, why not mandocellos?
One of the reps called me and we talked for awhile. Don't know whether I convinced him, so other folks here to make their voices heard.

What we need is CHEAP MANDOCELLOS! Gold Tone, are you listening?

[JPL]

I'd buy a (lefty) Gold Tone mandocello (or a 10-string cittern) in a heartbeat. I have had a Gold Tone bouzouki (26 1/4 inch scale) for a year or so and it's a good quality instrument, but lately I've been wanting something a little heftier.

[JPL]

Correct. There are no budget mandocellos.
I have emailed the Gold Tone company, and told them that since they seem to offer great reasonably priced instruments of all kinds, why not mandocellos?
One of the reps called me and we talked for awhile. Don't know whether I convinced him, so other folks here to make their voices heard.

What we need is CHEAP MANDOCELLOS! Gold Tone, are you listening?

I'm curious --- did you get down to any specifics regarding the proposed build? I've actually leaned on them a little about doing some kind of zouk-guitar hybrid, since no one is doing an affordable "Octar." As long as the body is big enough to rumble on that low C course, I'd be open to different ideas.

[NotMelloCello]

No. I merely pointed out that since they make so many cross-over/hybrid instruments, and have a catalog full of non-guitar stringed instruments... they should go ahead and fill that niche in the market. We talked about Mike Marshall a bit (he's the most visible player of mandocellos right now), and I told him to check out this CBOM forum. He said he would.

As many instruments as Gold Tone makes, it would not be a stretch to take an existing instrument (like a guitar), add 2 tuners, a different nut and bridge - mandocello!!! I mean, it makes sense from a financial view to exploit all the variations possible from your different "platforms". Don't you agree?

[Groooooove]

Correct. There are no budget mandocellos.
I have emailed the Gold Tone company, and told them that since they seem to offer great reasonably priced instruments of all kinds, why not mandocellos?
One of the reps called me and we talked for awhile. Don't know whether I convinced him, so other folks here to make their voices heard.

What we need is CHEAP MANDOCELLOS! Gold Tone, are you listening?

walt kuhlman did the job for me. it's not that cheap, around $1300, but still a great instrument at that price point... also built to order... so you can customize.

[Jim Garber]

Goldtone already makes a Cello-Banjo which prob took more tooling up than adapting one of their guitars. OTOH the listed price is $1575.

OTOH they don't really make any std scale guitars, just a baritone with a 29+ inch scale -- a little too long for a m'cello. I imagine their hesitation might be that it would have to be a newly designed instrument.

Eastman m'cellos are based on a large archtop guitar they make already. They retail for about $2000. I think the best budget m'cello alternative would be to take that 12 string guitar and adapt it for use as a m'cello.

[JPL]

I believe http://www.woodsongguitars.com/ is a sister company of Gold Tone, and it does acoustic guitars.

I'd prefer they use a non-cutaway model, since that would allow for some lefties (GT is very good to the southpaw community), but I could see the appeal of using that jumbo 12-string body.