Some mandothingies from most recent batch

[Dave Cohen]

I shipped some of these out today. It is a big batch (7), & has taken me a while. I'll start with a mandocello. This body is 15.25" wide, w/ a 25.0" scale length. The top plate has quite a bit of figure for Engelmann.

[Dave Cohen]

Now, a demo F mandolin that I almost didn't bother to complete. The back/sides/neck are birdseye maple. Very dense, ca 0.78 g/cm3, about like some rosewoods. When I got around to measuring the density, I thought the mandolin would be a dog. Made the back plate very thin, CF neck reinforcement, no truss rod, headstock is hollowed out to reduce mass, etc. Top plate is a piece of "Sullivan Stash" redwood, very low density (ca 0.3 g/cm3), but ringy. I got away with it for now, as it sounds fine.

[Dave Cohen]

Now, a mandolin more to my liking. This one is a demo "Classical A", w/ redwood top, big leaf maple back/sides/neck, macassar ebony fretboard, bridge, head plates, all trim. Has a 13.09" scale length. That redwood top is also very low density, but not very ringy. Most people would probably have thrown that piece of redwood away. Again, sounds fine.

[Dave Cohen]

This one is a commission, another classical mandolin, a two-point. Engelmann top plate, bigleaf maple back/sides/neck, African blackwood fretboard, bridge, head plate, all trim. Again, this one has the 13.09" scale length.

[Dave Cohen]

This one is another commission. Redwood top plate, Claro walnut back/sides/neck. This one has a 13.88" scale length. Ziricote fretboard, bridge, headplates, all trim. I foreshortened the body heel in order to get an extra fret's worth of upper fret access. The 13th fret is at the body crosspiece. 29 frets on the E (1st) string. This will do it for tonight. I have two more to rub out and set up. Maybe tomorrow night or the next.

[Bill Snyder]

Show off! :)
FWIW, that is a good thing.

[Tavy]

My you have been busy! :) Got to love that 'cello!

[DougC]

Just stunning Dave. And you can make any wood sing!

[Clinton Johnson]

Beutiful instruments Mr Cohen...wow factor going here!

[Mark Levesque]

Great work Dave! I'm looking forward to hearing one of them.

[Skip Kelley]

Dave, that is a fine batch of mandothingies!

[sebastiaan56]

Serious, appreciative expletives. Way beautiful. I'm sure the sound as good as they look.

[Londy]

Very nice indeed. I love the idea of hollowed out headstock to get more balance. How did that work out? I often wonder why some builders don't try to figure out how to balance a mando better. For example, in addition to what you did, why not have a weighted tailpiece? Anyhow, nice looking mandostuff there!

[margora]

Mine is the 4th above, the one with 29 frets on the E string. As one expects with Dave, very refined workmanship, superb sound and playability. A phenomenal instrument -- I am very pleased.

[sgarrity]

Really nice Dave. That 'cello is beautiful!

[Dave Cohen]

Two more commissions. This one is a two-point mandolin, w/ 13.88" scale length, redwood top, Claro walnut back/sides/neck, Macassar ebony trim, etc. Twelfth fret at the crosspiece.

[Dave Cohen]

This one puts the thingy in mandothingy. It is a multi-scale (aka "fanned fret") mandola/mandolin, CGDAE. The scale length for the low C (5th) string is 16.0" (~406 mm). The scale length for the high E (1st) string is 14.0" (~356 mm). I used my regular 2-point mandola body, but decreased the body depth. This is another one that I got away with. Works well as a mandola, and equally well as a mandolin. Redwood top, curly maple back/sides/neck, W. African ebony trim, etc. No truss rod; only cf composite neck reinforcement, as w/ most of my mandolins

[tom.gibson]

That's a really marvellous bunch of instruments. 'Mandobeauties' would be more appropriate.

I'd love to hear the five-course 'thingy' over its full range. It's something I'd like to have a shot at making one day. If I'm right in assuming you reduced your normal mandola body volume slightly to help the upper part of the range, does the C string suffer from that at all?

[fatt-dad]

Those I played were great! The, "Thingy" wasn't strung though. . . I think I'da liked it!

f-d