Mesquite McDola

[oldwave maker]

Micks mesquite mandola: really red wooden flame top, texas mesquite sides/back/neck, tortoise celluloid binding, arizona ironwood fretboard and peghead veneer, like to be played at bar-b-q's!

[oldwave maker]

the part you would use to bar-b-q!

[Lee]

I love those C#'s Bill. I still have an old photo Elderly sent me about ten years ago of a black top pinned to my office wall. That mesquite has a wonderful broad horizontal flame. The dark binding sets it off nicely too. How's it sound?

[mandolooter]

overheard at a Oldwave BBQ "man, those ribs sound good"

[Spruce]

"That mesquite has a wonderful broad horizontal flame."

That's the redwood, Lee...
Lousy BBQ wood, by the way. #Pungent non-friendly fish will result... http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif

The curly redwood is from a stash of 24" long shake bolts that sat out in the California sun for many years getting checked and grey, and when milled, yielded just enough wood length-wise to get a 'dola out of...
Turns out that curly wood wasn't all that desirable for shingles because it tends to check on the flames, so the bolts were tossed to check in the sun...
Nice to see someone's trash turn into treasure...

[Ted Eschliman]

How's the tone?
Sweet 'n sassy, or Bold 'n spicy???

[JeffS]

That is flame on the top? I figured it was shadows or something. I like it. It must be nice working with mesquite, just throw the scraps in the Webber.

[oldwave maker]

Lee- that is indeed flamed redwood from Spruce- a sure sign of his wood hunting genius is that he can smell good tonewood a mile away no matter what it looks like. I actually prefer this rasty supercurly stuff to the uniformly tightgrain redwood Ive used, it just has more music in it, if that makes any sense. In mandola-ese it gives more power and clarity to the low end. If I had a nice webber dola I wouldnt throw scraps in it anyway...
heres another flameshot:

[ethanopia]

Wow I don't think I've ever seen a curly top on a mandolin family instrument very cool.

And the thing I like about mandolas is that even though there were Loar dola's (now this is the bluegrass police in me coming out) I have a much easier time accepting alternative body's and finishes because I'm not sure that in any capacity it would ever be a players "primary" axe. In other words if looks "wierd" then fine I only play it on a few tunes...

And that is one of the coolest and most beautiful "wierd" looking dolas I've ever seen.

Good work Bill...

[mandomick]

How's the tone?
Sweet 'n sassy, or Bold 'n spicy???
Knowing Bill's reputation, I'm betting on cool and classy.

It'll be here tomorrow so I'll let you guys know how it sounds after I spend some time with it. My 1st 'dola and I'm feeling kinda giddy waiting for it to get here.