I was photographing some of my instruments recently, and it occurred to me that some readers of this forum might be interested in my somewhat unusual octave mandolin. It was made for me by English luthier Andy Manson in 1995. Manson has become quite well known as a maker of guitars, mandolins, and other instruments, including among his clients various well-known recording artists, including John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin, etc.) and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull). There is a wikipedia article that discusses his work here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Manson_%28luthier%29
The body of my octave mandolin is made of flamed maple. The top is spruce (I don't recall what kind). The neck is Brazilian mahogany, the fingerboard ebony. The trefoil sound hole was a feature that I specified, because I had seen one on another octave mandolin made by Manson, played by Celtic musician Danny Carnahan. The scale length is 21 inches. I like the tailpiece design -- it accommodates both ball-end and loop-end strings. The instrument came with a custom Calton case.
This octave mandolin (or "octave mandola" as they call it in the UK) is very playable, and has a great sound. Unfortunately I never found time to become very accomplished on it -- it has reached 20 years of age almost entirely as a "safe queen," and still looks brand new.
In recent years there have been a number of threads on this forum about Manson and his instruments, including these:
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ghlight=manson
http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ghlight=manson
In addition, Manson has a website which includes photos of a variety of his creations. I see there a photo of one octave mandolin that somewhat resembles mine.
http://www.andymanson.com/mandolin_family/
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