swampstomper
Oct-03-2006, 2:31am
Here is my brand-new MA5 which I picked up from Ji?i Lebeda in Prague this past weekend, along with the A5 Premium #which I bought from him about 1.5 years ago. #I asked for an affordable snakehead mandola so he used standard hardware and binding but used premium-grade wood and a radiused board. The sound compares favourably with the really super A5 premium. It plays quite easily and I am finding the longer scale length (see below) forces me to think "mandola" instead of "transpose mandolin".
At EWOB in May, Ji?i offered to make a pair: MA5 and MA4, from which I could choose. I liked them both fine; I guess as a new mandola player but long-time mandolin player I liked the punch and clarity of the F-holes more than the "room filling" sound of the oval hole. They both had the same woods. Quite interesting to A/B them. So he's still got the MA4 in case you are interested.
There has been some discussion of Lebeda scale lengths. This one measures at 16 3/4" (425 mm) to 17" (432 mm) depending where on the compensated bridge I measure. To be honest, I don't know exactly where to measure these things either at nut or bridge.
Ji?i is one of the few builders who offers the whole range of mandolin, alto mandola, tenor mandola (mandocello). And I'm sure he'd build you a piccolo if you wanted. He loves to design instruments and I was very happy with how well he understood my needs. His delivery time is also quite reasonable since he has some contractors doing parts of the work and he can fairly easily increase production if necessary.
At EWOB in May, Ji?i offered to make a pair: MA5 and MA4, from which I could choose. I liked them both fine; I guess as a new mandola player but long-time mandolin player I liked the punch and clarity of the F-holes more than the "room filling" sound of the oval hole. They both had the same woods. Quite interesting to A/B them. So he's still got the MA4 in case you are interested.
There has been some discussion of Lebeda scale lengths. This one measures at 16 3/4" (425 mm) to 17" (432 mm) depending where on the compensated bridge I measure. To be honest, I don't know exactly where to measure these things either at nut or bridge.
Ji?i is one of the few builders who offers the whole range of mandolin, alto mandola, tenor mandola (mandocello). And I'm sure he'd build you a piccolo if you wanted. He loves to design instruments and I was very happy with how well he understood my needs. His delivery time is also quite reasonable since he has some contractors doing parts of the work and he can fairly easily increase production if necessary.