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Thread: 12 string mandolin?

  1. #1

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    Hi all,
    I recently saw an unlabeled 12 string bowlback mandolin with courses of 3 strings instead of pairs. Any idea what or why?

  2. #2

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    They weren't that uncommon. #They had a big chord sound, but I find them to not lend themselves to acts of dexterity very well. #New Jersey's Oscar Schmidt cranked out thousands in the early 1900s. #Do you recall, is there a stylized "OS" inlaid into the scratchplate?




  3. #3

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    Thanks for the reply. Don't know about the "OS" but I'll take a look.

  4. #4
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    As Eugene noted, 95% of the 12 strings I have seen in the US have been Oscar Schmidts. Lyon & Healy also made them. I have seen a Gibson A mde with 12 strings.

    If I had one I would string it with either octave strings on the lower courses (like a tiple) or else take off the extra strings and have a wide fretboard.

    Then again, I would prob pass.

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  5. #5

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    I used to have one. It was fun for a while. Sold it on ebay for way more than i paid for it. No complaints

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    ISO TEKNO delsbrother's Avatar
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    I can't tell, but is this a 12 string Gibson? Love the drum!


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    Registered User Martin Jonas's Avatar
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    12-stringers were much more common in Germany (where they were called "mandriola") than in the US. There are a lot of 12-string bowlbacks and semi-round backs on Ebay Germany at any one time, most of them of dubious musical value and never intended for any sophisticated playing. I would agree with Jim that the best thing you can do with these is take off one string per course and convert them to a standard eight-string. Incidentally, there also were some quadruple-strung mandolin, which look very frightening.

    Italian builders don't seem to have gone for string tripling -- the only one I've ever seen (and indeed own) is a 10-string made by Umberto Ceccherini. When I bought it, I thought it might be a five-course mandola/mandolin combination such as Vega made, but it's actually a four-course (with triples on the trebles) and the fretboard isn't wide enough for conversion to a five-course configuration. So, I took the extra strings off and it's now a rather nice "normal" bowlback. Its dimensions are very similar to Ceccherini's double-strung instruments, with almost exactly the same fretboard width and the same scale length, it just has a slightly sturdier neck and presumably stronger braces to cope with the extra tension.

    Martin

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    Levin used to make them. I played one or two and it just didn't feel right.
    I understand they were very popular in Finland.

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    This is a bit late of a reply, but I got my hands on one of these oddballs a few months ago, and have had fun learning about it, starting from the "what the heck do I have on my hands" phase.

    My mandriola is an old one made by a German company, apparently now defunct, called Edeco. I got a hold of it at a hole-in-the-wall music shop in Spokane, WA. They'd gotten it somehow via eBay, either directly, or from someone else selling it on to them. The previous owner was the fellow who restored it, Dave Hynds, who has set up shop in rural France. His website is over at http://www.mandolinluthier.com/; he's got some other info about mandriolas, and also still makes new ones. More info still can be had over at Musica Viva's page on mandriolas.

    I'd first bought the mandriola with simple triple mando strings. But between emailing with Hynds and other googling, it seems that mandriolas often had two strings in each course the same as a mando, plus one string in each course tuned an octave lower, which is how Hynds sold this one on eBay. Pyramid still makes mandriola string sets with the octave strings, but apparently you need to go through their German site to get them. I still need to talk to my local music guy to see if he can order them direct now that I have the product number (Mandriola 12-saitig # 544 100, if anyone's interested).

    Anyway, with the octave strings on there, the sound is *very* different, in a fun and new way. But the work involved! Not only is the action that much harder just for having the extra string, but the octave strings are a much fatter gauge, leading to other challenges for fingering -- it's awfully hard to make some chords, as your finger doesn't want to lie flush flat across the fretboard. It's also interesting trying out the differences when the octave string is on the bottom, or on the top. I personally prefer the top, as I found with the octave string on the bottom, it pushed my fingertip over to where it was hard not to muffle the next higher course, but apparently the more traditional German fashion is to have the octave strings on the bottom.

    Have a look at the nut and bridge on your old piece to see if there's any evidence of octave strings. There might not be; some sites I've read mention that mandriolas sometimes had all three strings the same, with the extra string making it easier to play tremolo.

    Hope this post might help, or at least prove interesting.

    Cheers,

    Erik

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    Here's shot of mine just after restoration. You can kind of make out the octave strings on the left side of each course.

    Cheers,

    Erik
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    Innocent Bystander JeffD's Avatar
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    Looks like one of those instruments you spend half your life tuning and the other half playing out of tune.
    A talent for trivializin' the momentous and complicatin' the obvious.

    The entire staff
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    wood butcher Spruce's Avatar
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    Givens 12-string mandolin.....
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  13. #13
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by (Erik Anderson @ July 17 2007, 01:52)
    The previous owner was the fellow who restored it, Dave Hynds, who has set up shop in rural France. His website is over at http://www.mandolinluthier.com/; he's got some other info about mandriolas, and also still makes new ones.
    Dave is quite active on this site in the classical section.

    Jim
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