New Double-neck Mandolin

**Connor** · Aug-10-2012, 3:24pm

Hello, folks. I've lurked around this forum off and on for years and finally decided to post info about my new double-neck mandolin. I had a luthier by the name of Richard Clark build it for me. I play a lot of Irish sessions and hate switching back and forth between my main mandolin and an octave mandolin. My initial plan was a utilitarian instrument, solely for session playing, but I ended up with a very, very nice instrument. Go to this website for a full story of the design and building of the instrument.

http://lee588.wix.com/mandoventure#!problem/mainPage

Click image for larger version.

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Regards,
Connor

**Boge Quinn** · Aug-10-2012, 3:44pm

VERY cool! Great sound, too. Thanks for the link, the story, and the sound clips.

**billhay4** · Aug-10-2012, 3:46pm

Darn nice instrument. Richard flies under the radar, doesn't he? This sounds terrific and is a fine idea.
Bill

**JeffD** · Aug-10-2012, 4:16pm

That is cool. I can't get the website to open. Is ithat mandolin/mandola?

I like the look. It avoids the ugly birth defect look of many a two necked design.

**Connor** · Aug-10-2012, 4:22pm

The website requires flash, and doesn't seem to work on older IE browsers. Try using Chrome and see if it helps. It takes a while to load images the first time, too...

The instrument is a mandolin and a short scale octave mandolin – 19" to be exact.

**greg_tsam** · Aug-10-2012, 6:00pm

Wow. Why hasn't this been done before?

**Connor** · Aug-10-2012, 7:48pm

Originally Posted by greg_tsam

Wow. Why hasn't this been done before?

It has... but not often.

There are a few in the builder archives here at the cafe. http://www.mandolincafe.com/archives...rs/double.html

I found a few other examples out on the net, but nothing that completely fit my wishes.

**rico mando** · Aug-10-2012, 8:19pm

that is really nice and sounds just excellent but I am waiting for my geneticist to set me up with a second pair of arms

**Tavy** · Aug-11-2012, 5:47am

Originally Posted by rico mando

that is really nice and sounds just excellent but I am waiting for my geneticist to set me up with a second pair of arms

Great instrument!

**Connor** · Aug-11-2012, 7:13am

Originally Posted by billhay4

Darn nice instrument. Richard flies under the radar, doesn't he? This sounds terrific and is a fine idea.
Bill

Richard has been a delight to work with on this project. His eye for detail is excellent, and this instrument turned out better than I ever imagined. It plays so smoothly that I'm afraid I'll always want to play this, rather than pick up my Eastman. Maybe I'll have to commission a mandolin and an octave mandolin separately. Hmmm... Will the wife go for that?

**Jim Garber** · Aug-12-2012, 9:36am

Interesting bracing on this. What is the bridgeplate -- reinforcement under the bridges? Can you elaborate on the designer's intentions? I assume that this is a flattop but does it have an induced arch?

**Connor** · Aug-12-2012, 11:12am

Originally Posted by Jim Garber

Interesting bracing on this. What is the bridgeplate -- reinforcement under the bridges? Can you elaborate on the designer's intentions? I assume that this is a flattop but does it have an induced arch?

Yes, it's a flattop with an induced arch. We talked about a true archtop instrument early in the design, but agreed that the geometry needed to handle two necks not on the apex of the arch was too much work. In the end, there's a slight arch to the top and back. Richard didn't tell me details about the bridgeplate, but I'm assuming it's to handle the pair of slightly offset bridges. He's been playing around with bracing of various sorts. I can ask him to weigh in on the thinking.

By the way, the pickups are JJBElectronics, and so far I think they do the trick quite well. We stuck them in the instrument just because it was easy to do during construction, not because I amplify my mandolin all that much. To my ear, though, they sound pretty nice.

**mandolinlee** · Aug-12-2012, 11:50am

Did your recording use the pick-ups or was it acoustic? Really sounded nice.
Thank you.
Lee

**Connor** · Aug-12-2012, 11:57am

Originally Posted by mandolinlee

Did your recording use the pick-ups or was it acoustic? Really sounded nice.
Thank you.
Lee

I used a Blue Snowball USB mic into Garage Band with no extra sound reinforcement... Just quick recordings at my computer. It captured the sound very nicely. Thanks.

Maybe I'll try to record something using the pickup sometime. Hadn't thought of that, yet.

**Verne Andru** · Aug-13-2012, 1:12pm

Very nice story and instrument.

**Connor** · Aug-15-2012, 5:25am

A followup for Jim on the bracing question. I double-checked with the builder on my interpretation of the bracing and bridgeplate, and I was correct about it being to handle the pair of offset bridges. When we worked out the design, we tried to keep the bridges fairly close to each other so that the picking hand hand would stay at about the same orientation when switching between necks.

**Marcelyn** · Aug-15-2012, 6:46am

What a great collaboration. The mandolin sounds wonderful.

**Jacqke** · Aug-15-2012, 10:15pm

I have admired the idea of two instruments combined like this. But I've always wondered, does one instrument get in the way of the other? Either way, it is a beautiful set.

**Connor** · Aug-16-2012, 8:52am

While designing the instrument we played with the ergonomics of it by making a mockup. There's more about that in the web story (see the link below). It's easy to switch instruments other than having to switch gears mentally/physically to handle the different scale length, which is nothing different from changing actual instruments. The necks are situated such that they don't interfere with each other and are equally accessible to the left hand. The bridges are set in such a way that there's not a lot of right arm movement to switch from one to the other. The unintended consequence that is positive is that I can snag a drone g/d off of the octave neck while playing the mandolin neck, kind of like a harp guitar. There is also a gentle resonance from the unplayed strings, which is kind of a built-in chorus or reverb. I think I'm going to want to have a way to squelch it, though for some circumstances. A friend suggested using scrunchies slid behind the nut unless needed. With two necks it is not a balanced instrument. I intend to mostly play it sitting in Irish sessions, though, so it's not an issue. I also don't know how much a strap will help since I'm banned from using a strap for at least another month's worth of curing time for the finish. The only ergonomic problem I've encountered is that I keep trying to reach through the other neck to turn pages of music. That's just a matter of learning a new habit for reaching around instead of through.