Trillium longscale mandola demo

A couple videos with my new Trillium Mandola.

I've had it about 2 months and it's already my desert island instrument. If I could keep only one, the Trillium would be it.

Very versatile. Thanks to Bob Abrams for making an instrument that I will always cherish.

We make these videos for FB fans and friends. Feel free to skip the talky stuff but in the first vid we start with Fiddler's Green and end with Banish Misfortune. Second video is N.T. Wrighton's "Her Bright Smile Haunts Me Still" an old civil war era song inspired by the Murphy Beds version.

https://www.facebook.com/singletonst...54105174722046

https://www.facebook.com/87118271424/videos/683665409169737/

Sounds great!!

Very nice playing and singing.

A friend just lent me his 25 year old Trillium octave. I heard that Bob was making only a limited number of instruments over the last few years and that he closed shop altogether more recently.

In any case, I want to explore this instrument. You call it a mandola but what scale is it and how do you have it tuned?

ah I found the earlier thread where Bob comments. In any case this sounds great.

Thanks Jim

It's a really nice hybrid instrument. Great for accompaniment, solo chord melody (drone sort of stuff), and small enough scale to play leads to speed. The body is basically a bouzouki body with a mandola neck.

I highly recommend a Trillium if you can get one but Lawrence Nyberg and Nigel Forster are also building mandola with bouzouki-ish body instruments.

Here's John Doyle with a Trillium longscale mandola. Melody then accompaniment. Not sure why we don't see more of these instruments:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AlpF86j6V8&list=LL&index=128

You don't see more, because frankly, Bob didn't make all that many. From what I understand from another local builder here he sold all his equipment and closed down his shop. That was about two years back.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mandobar

From what I understand from another local builder here he sold all his equipment and closed down his shop. That was about two years back.

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I'm not making mandos these days, but I still have a shop full of tools where I build a few instruments for my own amusement.

Bob, are you getting your banjo hardware from Patrick from Balsam Banjoworks?

Other than the one tailpiece, no.....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mandomentch

I'm not making mandos these days, but I still have a shop full of tools where I build a few instruments for my own amusement.

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that nyckelharpa looks rather cool. Is it your own design or did you copy an older instrument?

Chuck very cool - great playing ( by all) on a wonderful Bob Abrams (hats off) creation.

nice nice nice tone on that dola!

"that nyckelharpa looks rather cool. Is it your own design or did you copy an older instrument?"

Jim....it is a tenor nyckelharpa, inspired by the wonderful instruments that came out of the collaboration between musician Johan Hedin and luthier Peder Källman.

From the little I know about NHs they are usually in the range of violas, more or less. Is the tenor lower in pitch?

I have always loved the music and a friend lent me one a few years ago but I decided to stick to fiddle and mandolin rather than play something new. Beautiful work though. Must have been fun to make.

Thanks TM.
It's a beautiful versatile instrument! I'm pretty bad at keeping mandolin family instruments but this one stays :)