Guitar Bodied Mandola

Folks, I'm pretty excited.

Over the last decade or so I've built about a half dozen instruments. But all electric guitars and basses and whatnot. They were really cool, and fun projects, but the problem is I mostly play acoustic. And I'd been itching to build an acoustic instrument...

I started this a couple of years ago, but got sidetracked by life. Today I finally got it strung up in the white, which is a huge moment, because, finish or not, it's a real instrument now!

It's a rare bird. There's not very many guitar bodied mandolas on the planet. And there may not be another one with a Monteleone style scroll. And this one has a redwood top and locally milled cherry for the back and sides.

Honestly I'm shocked with how well it plays and sounds with no setup or tweaking. Here's a quick video, pardon my playing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA-qxpa1iVU

** Quick note, yes it's missing a C string. The string loop came off the post, and I cut it too short before I noticed...

Very nice! I love seeing designs different from the norm.

That is so cool! Stellar work. I love it.

Looks fantastic - I also have a thing about guitar-shaped mandolins, as shown in my avatar.

Rick Jones- can You share who made the mandolin in your avatar? Doesn't look like an Apitius, and that's the only option I know of. Guitar bodied mandolins are the only thing that gets my MAS going!

Nice design and nice work.
Bill

Nice work Matt and it's a really cool looking mandola!

Really nice design. Will love to hear it when finished, set up, and with all strings aboard.

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Originally Posted by John Soper

Really nice design. Will love to hear it when finished, set up, and with all strings aboard.

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Absolutely! I put the other C string on yesterday, and it's a noticeably louder and fuller sound! Really really happy with it!

I've got a buddy at work who won Winfield many years ago, and I plan to have him do a much better video of him playing it when I get the finish on it.

Also, a quick thanks to Marty Jacobson for helping me with info and sound files to get the top carved correctly!

Looks great and sounds great too...

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Originally Posted by Steve Lavelle

Rick Jones- can You share who made the mandolin in your avatar? Doesn't look like an Apitius, and that's the only option I know of. Guitar bodied mandolins are the only thing that gets my MAS going!

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Steve - This mandolin is one of two I built about 12 years ago. Basic shape is from Bob Benedetto's archtop guitar blueprint, size is reduced to something like 64% so the body meets the neck at the 12th fret. I lessened the depth of the cutaway a bit to avoid a really tight bend. Tone bar bracing following F5 blueprints. Standard 13-7/8 scale length. Both have Englemann tops, maple backs and sides.

+1 what @burt50 said. Sounds balanced across all the strings.

Nice to see more mandola content lately!