4 string mandocello

[croonerexpress]

i have a question for some of the luthiers (and for that matter anyone else) ae there any 4 string mandocellos out there? i want a lower register mando (lower than an octave) and id be fine with an 8 string but i ust wan to know what my options are.

[danb]

Try looking for a plectrum guitar. That's a long enough scale length to do Cello tuning. They're not really sought after so there are bargains to be had

[TommyK]

I'm not sure what a 'plectrum guitar' is but there are 'tenor' guitars that come up on Ebay once in a while. #There's even purveyors of instruments who specialize in that sort of thing. #A tenor guitar is a 4 string guitar tuned just like the high 4 strings DGBE

Hey, how about a cello? #I've seen some guys put a long peg on it and play it 'stand-up bass' style.

[Jim M.]

Here are pictures of a plectrum guitar and tenor guitar at Mandolin Brothers:





The plectrum is longer than the tenor, with a scale length of 26" to 27". Like the tenor, they usually have a skinny neck, which I'd be concerned could not hold the low C string of a mandocello.

[mandocrucian]

You are interested in using a tuning. So string up a regular guitar with 4 strings tuned CGDA. Put the strings where guitar strings 2-5 were with nothing where the high and low strings were. #Or respace the nut and modify the bridge/tailpiece (too much hassle for an "experiment", imo, unless you've decided you like a guitar tuned this way.)

Or do the same with an acoustic bass guitar if you want the long neck. Or string something up in 5ths, and select whatever pitch you want on the low open string. GDAE two octaves below a mando.

NH

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[delsbrother]

OK, I have a little experience in these things.

If you're after an electric sound, definitely try Nile's suggestion - much easier than trying to find a 4 string m'cello. But you'll have to experiment with the tunings and scale.. I tried it on a Gibson-scaled electric and found the low C very floppy. Much better on a longer scale - try to find an new/old reissue Dano baritone. The shorter guitar scales are better for modified fifths tunings, or OM tunings.. IMO of course.

If you're after a single-string acoustic sound, you could try finding a plectrum (good luck - in my area they're MUCH rarer than tenors, YMMV). I ended up special ordering a 26" scale archtop from Mike Soares. I wanted it to experiment with fifths/Freeman tunings before I took the leap of buying a Eddie Freeman Special. It was good for messing around with, but it is in no way a fine instrument.. Though not bad for &lt;$300. I never tried full-bore m'cello strings on it, though. The neck on the thing is pretty beefy; it'd probably survive.

I think Earnest Instruments has a Cello guitar as well.. Good luck!

[Paul Hostetter]

A real cello has a scale of 27" - the C really growls at that length. Some plectrum guitars have a 27" scale. I share Jim's concern that the old Gibson plectrum pictured above might not be able to handle mandocello tuning, even four strings. Depends on the neck angle and bridge height. The top is rather light, even if the neck has an adjustable trussrod, for strings from .074" to .022". That's a rather small body too, so even if it could take the tension, it probably wouldn't sound very big. Cellos need to sound big. Martin made 27" plectrums on their 14-fret 000 body. Those would work great, but they're rare.

A Gibson mandocello had a scale of 24.75 and sounded more like a mandole or mandola; the C was floppy but OK. Way underpowered to my ears.

A typical guitar has a scale of 25-25.5", which is in between. So Niles's suggestion is a very good one.

If you bond with the idea of that scale combined with the guitar body, there are a lot of late Kalamazoo-era Gibson guitars with really skinny 24.9" necks that foster that conversion to four strings rather well. Joel Eckhaus, of Earnest Instruments, has made these "Big Red" guitar hybrids from scratch and I'm sure would be happy to do so again. And a normal 6-string guitar neck accepts and converts fairly easily four double courses too. It'll never have the authority of a 27" scale, but it's accessible.

Here's my own mandocello:

It has a 28" scale!

It's a laouto, a Greek mandocello.

[zoukboy]

Here's my own mandocello:

It has a 28" scale!

It's a laouto, a Greek mandocello.

Paul,

do you tune it in one of the Greek tunings or do you actually tune it like a mandocello?

[Paul Hostetter]

Both. I tune it DGDA for Greek music (not reentrant like so-called modern times, but with the low course really low), and sometimes drop the low D down to C to make fingering more comprehensible when I'm playing other-than-Greek music.