Mandolin-style instrument with wider neck

[Jon08]

Does anyone know if there are any mandolin-style instruments (maybe tenor/octave/bouzoukis?) available with wider necks? I have big fingers and have found that the standard mandolins that I've tried have been quite hard to fret accurately.

[Larry S Sherman]

Some mandolins do have wider necks, such as Sam Bush model Gibsons.

If you are just coming to mandolin from guitar a mandolin neck seems impossibly small at first. But what you will find is that in time you will get used to width of a mandolin neck, and next time you go to play guitar it will seem huge to you.

Mike Marshall has big hands, and he plays a very skinny neck. A conventional mando neck might allow you to bar two string pairs with one finger, and other mando tricks.

Do a search here and you should find several mandolin choices where wide necks are an option. But even if your hands are as big as canned hams you should be able to adapt to the mando neck with time and practice.

What's more important, I would argue, is a neck profile that is comfortably matched to your grip (rounded neck, v-shape, etc) and whether to go with a radiused fretboard or flat.

Good luck, Larry

[JEStanek]

Breedlove's have a wider than standard neck. You can order wider necked Webers, Big Muddy, many custom builders can give you that too. The main thing is to keep at the mandolin you have for a while first. Just like adjusting to the stretches on a guitar it's difficult at first. When I first started mandolin I couldn't even get the 2 finger D chord clean. It comes with time.

Jamie

[mando.player]

You can add Rigel mandolins to Jamie's list. I've got big mitts myself and just couldn't get used to the Eastman 614 I had. I picked up a Breedlove, which is the same widths as my Rigel, and all was good.

[DeamhanFola]

I custom ordered a Weber Bridger with a 1 1/4" nut and have never looked back. It helps with the Irish trad I generally play as I'm able to let the bass strings drone more easily without damping them whilst playing the tune's melody.

I'd advise you to try some wider-nutted mandos: most teens Gibsons have 1 3/16" nuts, and I think that's the standard width on oval hole Collings too. (For contrast, many mandos, especially those intended for bluegrassers, have a 1 1/8' standard nut.)

[Jim MacDaniel]

Board sponsor Gypsy's Music's mandolins have a standard neck width of 1-1/4" (wider than most), but if you need it even wider than that, I believe they can setup one of their 10-string mandolins as an 8-string, with a 1-1/2" at the nut.

[Jon08]

Thanks for the info guys.

[Bob DeVellis]

I have a Sobell with a 1 1/2" nut that I find really easy to play. I think what works depends partly on the type of music you play. If you're playing a lot of closed-position chords, thin necks can be an asset. As others have said, you can grab multiple notes with a single finger, for example. On the other hand, if you're playing individual melody notes with few chords or double-stops, the close finger proximity necessitated by noting adjacent strings can cause a lot of dead notes (at least in my case).

I've recently moved from playing essentially exclusively mandolin (albeit badly and intermittently) to playing mostly guitar, and the extra fingerboard geography is very welcomed. But, having said that, there's also a learning process of refining your finger positioning and lots of players can absolutely tear up a single-note melody on a skinny little mandolin neck. For me, though, the more roomy the neck, the better.