Making a 5-string

[broke & barking-mad]

A couple of years ago I constructed a semi-solid 8-string out of a broken 20’s mandolin (guitar-shaped – just the neck, some of the top and half a side). It sounds great (an Armstrong pick-up) but the neck is short-scale and not that good anyway. (see below)

Today, looking on Steve Ryder’s website I saw 5-string pickups and it inspired me to do the same for a 5-string mando. #

I am planning to buy the cheapest flat-topped mando with a half-way decent neck, rip the sides and back off and cement a solid body under to the original top (then sculpt the whole thing into a guitar shape) There is a shop in London that sells old solid bodies for guitars, real cheap.

Does anyone know of a supplier for a five-string Telecaster-type bridge? Or even better ... a supplier of mando necks?

I have NO budget, so as cheap as some of the electric mando’s are – I can’t afford one – so don’t suggest it!!

Any suggestions?

[jim simpson]

If you can't find a five string tele type bridge, you may be able to modify a 6-string tele bridge by narrowing it by one string - just cut and grind. I like the illustration of the mando conversion. It looks like it was a bowlback? My son had a mini strat that he no longer played so I bought it off of him and converted it to an 8-string. I should have made it a 4 or 5 string. I had an old Strat type neck and shortened it (had to cut the truss rod) and drilled extra holes in the headstock for the extra strings. I used a trad tailpiece and made a flat bottom bridge. It made it easier to intonate. I thought it would be cool to try the same thing with an old cheap acoustic that you've done with the mando.

[broke & barking-mad]

Mini-strat sounds good. #It's the neck that's the problem, though. #Did the fret-spacing still apply in the cut-down neck? #

The mando-conversion wasn't a bowl-back, but a Neapolitan flat-back. #Someone told me that the backs were beautifully painted with naked ladies, and that it was the fate of many of these instruments to have the backs ripped off them as a wall hanging!

[jim simpson]

I forgot to mention that I did pull the fret board off of the cut down neck and glued a mando fingerboard to it. I also had to do quite a bit of shaping/reprofiling to the neck.
The painted artwork on the flatback sounds like it would have beat the bowlback for eye apeal!

[thistle3585]

I make some 4 and 5 string bridges for my emandos, but I think shipping to Europe would make them expensive. try allparts.com. I think they have a distributorship in England. You can get a guitar bridge from them to cut down. Email me and I can give you some info on mine.

Andrew

[broke & barking-mad]

I got a tip to go to jupitercreekmusic.com. #He makes necks. #

Jim, I never saw the painted back, so I'm going on hearsay. #However, it meant I got an interesting shaped mandolin for nothing! I just HAD to give it the florentine cutaway!

Andrew: #The shipping for your bridges might put them out of my price-range. #However, the guy at Jupiter Creek cuts down six-string bridges, so although it may be a crude alternative, I'll probably do the same. #But if you could let me know your price anyway. #Do you have a website?

Chris