Not sure how applicable this is to Mandolin Cafe, but the electric phin does occupy a similar sonic territory to the electric mandolin and I imagine some may be interested; anyway curiosity got the best of me and I ordered one of those electric phins you see on eBay and Amazon, fairly pleasantly surprised considering I had no idea what to expect. The woodwork is very nice, but the bridge/tuners etc are not so great. Pickups do not align with strings, an upgrade there would probably help a lot. I'm not entirely sure what type of wood it is, a Thai friend suggested teak and one cryptic online advertisement hinted at cassia which could mean the national tree of Thailand. Still working out the best tunings and string gauges to use, any suggestions? I've tried EAE, DAD, and EBE. I am tempted to maybe just use the same sets as my dulcimer, would make buying in bulk easier. Right now it has a electric guitar G string for the low E, I think a wound D like a dulcimer might be be an improvement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEm-J9wjKYU
http://i.imgur.com/6ukqee0.jpg