The custom Breedlove "Zenkl signature" model electric mandola finally arrived today (Yay!). There was some minor damage on the back of the neck from a flaw in the case (Boo!) that I'm sorting out with Stan Jay at Mando Bro's, but I'm confident we'll figure out a fix for that.
Meanwhile, here's a first day review of the instrument. Played acoustically, it's a bit dull-sounding... no match for my Lebeda F5 in acoustic volume or tone, but when amplified through my tube gear it has that woody, hollowbody tone like a good archtop guitar. As a fingerstyle machine for blues and jazz, it's exactly what I was looking for. It ships with roundwound strings, but I think it's begging for a nice set of flatwound TI's.
More later, that's just the first impression. Let's see if I can attach a photo...
Lebeda F-5 mandolin, redwood top
Weber Yellowstone F-5 octave mandolin
Looks great! I'd love for them to figure out how to hide the wire, though. All else is very tasteful and inviting. I bet it's fun to play. You'll have to let us hear a clip or three.
It is a pity about the pickup wire - otherwise it looks great!
I love the idea of an electric mandola which also has a passable acoustic sound for unplugged practice. I notice that you opted for a standard Breedlove tailpiece rather than the trapeze one that Radim's 'dola has. Looking forward to an in-depth review, and maybe some sound clips?
Hope you get the damage sorted out to your satisfaction.
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I have an 8 string hollowbody 16" scale mandola with a Benedetto S-6 floating jazz pickup. It also is dull sounding acoustically compared to my Pomeroy mandola, but plugged in........WOW! It's like having a really great jazz hollowbody guitar tuned in 5ths. It has a radius fretboard and plays like a dream. What type of pickup did Breedlove use?
Originally Posted by (Ken Sager @ Feb. 16 2008, 06:03)
Looks great! I'd love for them to figure out how to hide the wire, though. All else is very tasteful and inviting. I bet it's fun to play. You'll have to let us hear a clip or three.
Congrats!
Ken
Why can't they just route the wire out through the back, and into the body?
Really nice piece of work!
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John's Dola is exceptionally cool. Excited to see Breedlove tackle the 4-string mandola; there's so much sonic potential in this instrument. I'm thrilled with the Old Wave Jazzbox Solocomp JM Bill Bussmann built me. The (Kent Armstrong) pickup floats under the strings at the end of the fingerboard, no visible cord.
The absent finger-rest would pretty much hide the wire of course.
though from that angle its hard to tell if the kent armstrong made pickup has the wire running out of it, in such a way that the hole in the top right under the pickup, though not made by the builder , could still be done, after the fact, and rewired back up to the endbutton jack.
doesn't have RZ's superwide fingerboard spec does it?
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Regarding the pickup wire... yeah, routing internally through the top would have been cleaner-looking, but like most floating pickups I've seen, the wire is horizontal and flush to the back of the pickup (glued there, I think) until it exits at the side. Even if it could be bent far enough to run down into a hole in the top, you'd probably see a loop of wire off to the side. I do like the way the pickup is edge-mounted to the end of the fingerboard instead of touching the top, and it does sound terrific. If the exposed wire is the price for that, it's fine by me. They could have hidden it with a finger-rest, but I think for a fingerstyle instrument it works better without that getting in the way. So far, I haven't had any trouble tangling my fingers in the wire.
I'll try to get a recording posted here, but it's about to be out of my hands again for the neck finish touch-up, so it will be a little while.
Lebeda F-5 mandolin, redwood top
Weber Yellowstone F-5 octave mandolin
I played Radim's original 'dola and thought it was great. I bet you really enjoy yours! I think Radim may have had flatwounds on his, in any case I would definitely try out a set.
Originally Posted by (delsbrother @ Feb. 17 2008, 13:38)
Does it come with monster duo style chops?
Alas, no! Maybe that was an extra cost option I didn't see...
I have some fingerstyle chops from years of playing blues/jazz guitar, but this is a lateral shift into a different plane of possibilities. As a fingerstyle instrument, I'm trying to figure out what the heck my thumb should be doing! So far, the best I've done is hacking out "St. James Infirmary Blues" on this thing.
I'm definitely switching to flatwounds, but I have to figure out the gauges. I'm used to flatwound TI Starks on my regular mandolin. I'm not sure TI makes gauges this heavy, since the single strings need to be larger to match the pull of double courses. The strings it ships with are pretty big, but there's no owner's manual for a custom job like this, so I'll either have to measure them or call Breedlove and see what the gauges are.
Does anyone else here play a 4-string mandola? What string gauges are you using?
Lebeda F-5 mandolin, redwood top
Weber Yellowstone F-5 octave mandolin
I play a Risa 4 string solid-body electric with a 17" scale length:
a = 0.011
d = 0.017
g = 0.026w
c = 0.038w
My Ryder EM-54 4 string electric has a 14.5" scale length, and I asked Steve to set it up for DAEB tuning. It works very well a step lower, in dola tuning, with the following string gauges, using chrome flatwound Thomastiks:
a .014
d .020w
g .030w
c .049w # #
...notice the wound 2nd string on the Ryder, which I prefer.
I always played my Stewmac electric as a 4-string but the standard 13&7/8ths scale length was always a bit too short for a workable low C. I tuned it DAEB using a 0.052w on the bottom, which worked well.
Don't know how helpful this stuff is, considering the 15.813 inch scale length of your Breedlove Z.
I wouldn't worry about achieving the double course pull in tension; if you're approaching this as an electric instrument, generally strings will be lighter, anyway. This kind of offsets the need to use anything but half an 8-string Dola set. <warning: shameless plus> I use 1/2 of a Labella JD13 JazzDola set, and couldn't be happier. These strings were made for this kind of playing. 13p 24w 33 43, and since they are flatwound (like the TIs), they get more tension with less thickness.
This video has been up for awhile, but it might give you a better idea of the size of the thing (if you can judge by the prototype). What I found interesting is Zenkl saying Breedlove is "working on a complete line of these instruments."
I wonder what he meant by that? Just that eventually they would market them? Or does he mean several levels of Breedlove mandolas? Or a whole Breedlove mandolin family? Given how long it took for another Zenkl model to surface in public I'm not holding my breath, but it would be interesting to know that at one point there may have been something bigger planned... Eh, maybe it's just wishful thinking/lost in translation.
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Originally Posted by (Ken Sager @ Feb. 16 2008, 06:03)
Maybe that was an extra cost option I didn't see...
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