Låtmandola!

[Toad_T]

I had to wait for ten months...but here it is! Built by swedens top builders, the same builders who developed this instrument together with Ale Möller: Ådin & Ekvall. This one is built by Ådin, he was so happy with it that he wanted to keep it himself...but he didn't have them time to make a new one. He decided to experiment a bit with it as well. It features quarter-frets and lots of point-capos.
It sounds amazing! Better than I could ever dream of http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I didn't figure out how to post images! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/sad.gif someone help?
You can see them here, anyway...:

My Låtmandola (http://www.picjar.com/pub/toad10/Mandola/)

What do you think?

[PhilGE]

Fascinating! At first glance, I thought there was no sound hole, then I recognized how it's "camouflaged." Fascinating...

[glauber]

Funky! So you have those little pegs to stop the strings at different frets. And what are those double frets for, microtones? I love how that thing is fretted all the way up the pegboard... I couldn't find the soundhole, though; is it carved into the end of the fingerboard?

[mandroid]

A capo system with small parts to loose, at least there are some spares on the neck heel.
Whats the open strings tuned to, quartertone first position scales eh?
:cool:



odder things made; could be 24 frets to the octave, Ive seen guitars like that.

[croonerexpress]

i think the little frets are for quarter tones. for a sitar thingy-ma-doogy sound.

[Toad_T]

yup, the "extra frets" are for quarternotes. It's tuned AFDAD, but I don't really use that tuning. If you ignore the extra long frets it's CGDAE, so it's not as complicated as it sounds. The soundhole is at the end of the fingerboard. Too bad I don't have anything to record it, because it's sounds amazing, especially the A-Bass is awesome. The way the pin point capos are on this picture it's "tuned" in A. It probably wouldn't be any practical for bluegrass and similar, but since scandinavian music is based on drone-tones it's very smart. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Looking forward to "getting to know it better", at least I have something to do with all my time this summer!

[Michael Wolf]

Toad_T,

are the low strings also steel or nylon? Once I saw a Ådin & Ekvall Bass Drone Mandola with nylon on lower strings to get a round, deep bass. Since they are intended as drones anyway and not as melody strings, I found this very interestingly. What scale length does your mandola have?

Cheers
Michael

[Michael Wolf]

Toad_T,

I forgot to ask: Since you saw Ale Möller, as I read in another thread, do you know what scale length he is playing?

[otterly2k]

Very impressive!~ boggles the brain what could be done with all those quartertones and point capos...:O
I'd love to try one of those some day...

[mad dawg]

Intriguing. What kind of music do you plan to play on it? (I wonder if all of those quarter-frets would permit you to play Oud and Sitar tunes on it.)

[Toad_T]

don't know what you mean about scale length (language confusion ;) ) how do I measure that?
I'm probably playing the same scale length as Ale Möller though...
The low strings are nylon. The bass sounds amazing, very impressive.

I'm planning to play traditional swedish and norwegian music mostly. There are quite a lot of quarter tones in scandinavian music. I could probably play some oud tunes, but then again it doesn't have all the quarter tones.

The Point capos allow me to play in various open chords without retuning.
So far I've only used open D and open A (but then again I've only had it a week)
still really happy with it, it was quite easy to get started but it has so many possibilies so I'm discovering new things every time I sit down and really play it http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[mad dawg]

...The Point capos allow me to play in various open chords without retuning...
Cool idea -- that would also be great for slide guitar players who play with more than one open tuning.

Where can one buy "point capos" on the internet?

[PhilGE]

Jm, you can find them here. (http://www.luthiers.nu/?show=111&PHPSESSID=636da2730543e1b24875bc2a2ab1db27)

-Phil

[billkilpatrick]

lovely instrument - took me a while to spot the sound hole as well.

from the photos i gather you've taken the instrument to bed with you. i wouldn't advise this. what i do is prop my mandolin up in a doggy basket NEXT to the bed. separate beds, you see. this way i can reach out and touch it and stroke it and whisper sweet nothings to it during the night without fear of crushing it to death in a dream-induced, amorous embrace.

what's a "slæsk?"

- bill

[Michael Wolf]

Toad_T,

with scale length I meant the vibrating string length between saddle and nut. Maybe there's another term for this, my English is a bit incomplete sometimes.

Cheers
Michael

[Toad_T]

I'm actually keeping it next to bed so that I can play it wwhen I wake up every morning...! hehe
and a slæsk is kind of like a "slacker" http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

I'll find out about the scale lenght later