Interesting Altman headstock

[Drew Streip]

I had the pleasure of stopping in Gruhn Guitars this weekend to take a 1954 Martin 000-18 in for a repair. Obviously I played every mando on the wall.

I noticed this Altman has about an extra inch on the headstock between the nut and the truss rod cover. As a result, some of the strings actually touch the cover.

Any idea what purpose this serves? I've never seen another instrument like this.

[pheffernan]

I seem to recall a mandolin that had been built to a longer scale for Mike Marshall that had been converted back to standard.

[sblock]

pheffernan is correct. This was originally built to a longer scale length for Mike Marshall. The experiment failed (or so it would seem) and the mandolin was returned. One fret was removed from the fretboard and the fretboard shortened by that amount (but the neck length was not altered, hence the offset), to reduce the scale length to something closer to 14" (or 13 - 7/8") standard. But the scale is still a bit longer than normal, even after this surgery, and so the strings carry extra tension in them, making the playing feel a bit different.

[fscotte]

Ok I'm curious, why would/did it fail? Too hard to play? Surely Mike would have known it would be higher tension.

[MikeEdgerton]

We had a mandolin posted that was built by a guy in California a few months back with that same configuration and nobody could say why. I have to see if I can find that.

[Tom Haywood]

I've been curious about this one. Supposedly built by a local builder in the 1980s, who is deceased now, based on a mandolin that he took measurements from. The head stock from the nut to the top point is 8 3/8" - one inch longer than my standard F5. The top plane of the neck continues flat to 7/8" above the nut before the lay back angle occurs. There is no truss rod, but if there were the cover would end about 1" above the nut. From the nut down, the scale length is 13 7/8" (normal) and the body is 14" (a little long). There's no evidence to indicate that the fret board was ever shortened.

Different lighting to try to show the flat area.

[EdHanrahan]

Referring to the non-Altman "local builder" mando shown just above:

The nut slots appear to have been cut for MUCH heavier-than-normal strings, and then "normal" strings seem to have worn their own mini-slots into the bottom of the original grooves. This shows only in the darker left-side photo. Maybe a failed attempt at a close-to-standard scale but lower-pitched (octave?) instrument?

[Tom C]

That thing looks terrible. Especially for the price. Please. Somebody put a new neck on it!

[AlanN]

Reminds me of Stretch, from The Fantastic Four.

[Jeff Mando]

I'm thinking if you wrapped a 6 foot chartreuse feather boa around that part of the peghead and let it dangle in the wind, nobody would ever notice.....

[Tom Haywood]

The one I posted has many features that call into question the builder's skills and thought processes, the least of which was his decision to put two position dots at the 10th fret rather than the 12th. But I've seen this elongated head stock design somewhere else. It looks like it would be weaker, especially at the truss rod nut area, so I'm curious about who has used it and why.

[MikeEdgerton]

There was one. The builder was selling a few mandolins on eBay and one was like this. For whatever reason I think Jim Simpson bought one but then again Jim buys all the interesting stuff

[HoGo]

That thing looks terrible. Especially for the price. Please. Somebody put a new neck on it!

The top arch and f hole position is weird as well, so transforming to "normal" F5 would require both new neck and top.

[Marty Jacobson]

I always add additional space between the nut and the lower points of the headstock. It makes playing much more comfortable compared to some F-styles where space between the nut and the lower headstock flare can get in the way and make things awkward.