Blackheart Sassafras flattop

[peter.coombe]

Here is one of my latest flattop mandolins. This is what I call my "classical" flattop because it has the same shape of a Lyon and Healy style C and an extended fretboard. This is made from Tasmanian Black Heart Sassafras, first time I have used this wood, and it won't be the last. It is called black heart because the centre of the tree goes a dark colour due to a fungus infection and the resultant spalting can produce spectacular wood. The wood is fairly lightweight and finishes beautifully because there are no pores to fill. The sound is interesting. Warm, solid sound with a bit less ring and sustain because the wood has more internal damping. Sounds more like Mahogany than Maple. Anyway here are a couple of sound clips -

http://petercoombe.com/for_sale/Mandolin185/Lord_Inchiquin.mp3
http://petercoombe.com/for_sale/Mandolin185/Hornpipe.mp3

I quite like this one. I like the shape and also the sound, quite apart from the spectacular wood.

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[Paul Busman]

You just changed my formerly held opinion that flattops are boring looking mandolins. That is gorgeous!

[Randi Gormley]

spectacular. nice work!

[PH-Mando]

A very nice mandolin, indeed. I like the sound of flat tops (both of my mandolins are flat tops) and your wood choice is very nice.