How many different scale lengths are there and what are they?
How many different scale lengths are there and what are they?
"I love the smell of my mandolin in the morning. The smell, you know ... that varnish smell. Smells like victory."
Mandolin or mandolin family?
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. Logan Pearsall Smith, 1865 - 1946
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The whole mando family would be cool. Also, it would be nice to have noted what the most "popular" (or name brand) scale lengths are...
Collings MT
Weber Gallatin Mandocello
Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Here is the scale lengths of some of the mandolin family instruments.
The linked to page says that Gibson mandolins have a scale length of 14 1/8" which is suprising to me since most modern carved top a and f-style mandolins have 13 7/8" scale length.
Most of the bowl back mandolins and some of the other, older mandolins have a 13" sclae length.
Bill Snyder
There's my take on this on my website, mandolin family explained pages.
Trevor
The Acoustic Music Co (TAMCO) Brighton England
Over 150 mandolins in stock.
www.theacousticmusicco.co.uk.
Ahem, the topic is Mandolin Scale Lengths.Originally Posted by (JEStanek @ Jan. 14 2008, 14:23)
"I love the smell of my mandolin in the morning. The smell, you know ... that varnish smell. Smells like victory."
Thanks for the link. This is what I was looking for:
Mandolin:
Scale length of a Gibson A model is 14 1/8", or 35.8 cm. Stefan Sobell's mandolins are about 14 3/8" or 36.5 cm
Tuned [GDAE] (the same as a fiddle). Sobells are bigger, and hence have more sustain and bass. You will find this to be generally true- larger instruments of the same type (just like big fiddles) are a bit "boomier", and have more sustain and bass. It is very rare to find an instrument with perfect balance of treble and bass, there is always an emphasis. If the instrument is perfectly balanced, it seems to be bland... almost as if to get equal volumes and tones something was removed from one end rather than added. These were sort of "invented" in the late 1800's... the story of mandolins is vast beyond belief. Suffice it to say that Orville Gibson invented both modern "A" and "F" models roughly at the turn of the century. Before this, you get the round-back ones which are more visually similar to a Greek Bouzouki.
"I love the smell of my mandolin in the morning. The smell, you know ... that varnish smell. Smells like victory."
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