New emando line

[thistle3585]

I just wanted to show off my newest mandolin design. It seems like I've been working on this forever and I'm starting to see some light. I took the arching and recurve dimensions from an A style mando. The bodies will be semi hollow. I am working on a tun-a-matic stle bridge. This is the first top I made so I used poplar in case it went awry, but I plan on using figured maple. The bodies are walnut. I haven't quite decided yet on the headstock but I am leaning towards a snakehead style. Whatever I choose it will be symmetrical.

Thanks for letting me share
Andrew

[thistle3585]

Here is the top.

[thistle3585]

Here is the CAD rendition. It will give a better idea of the contours.

CAD Drawing

[Clif Wayland]

I like it! Do you use CNC machinery? Are you going to have to make the bridge also?
I love e-mandos (and e-fiddles)
Will it have f-holes or ??
Clif

[Ken Olmstead]

Looks cool! I think if it was a "gold top" with piezo blended with a real jazzy humbucker (cream color, stacked for the P-90 effect) combined with the sound chambers it would be very tempting for me!

[mandroid]

A bridge made to use 4 and 5 of the RMC bridge pieces would be ideal.
there is a wire coming out the bottom of each one.

they: a little gold plated sandwich with a Piezo wafer in the middle
Strat and Gibson tune O and Wilkinson bridge types
plus a set to fit into flattop and classical guitars.
and godin's A8 mandolins.

[Ken Olmstead]

A bridge made to use #4 and 5 of the RMC bridge pieces would be ideal.
there is a wire coming out the bottom of each one

yeah, that would be very cool!!!

[thistle3585]

Yes, I am cutting them on a CNC. Yes, I am going to make the bridge myself unless I can find a reasonable source. I'm not familiar with the RMC system, but I know GraphTech makes saddles for tunamtic style bridges. I hope to have one ready for the Midwest Mandolin Festival in Indy in June.

[Cliff D]

Sir, whilst I may not have the dough to by one of your creations I very much like where you are taking the electric mandolin. the favorite guitar in my own collection is a cherry sunburst Les Paul (bought back in 1988!). But why a tune-omatic type bridge? Ok, if you have the neck angled against the body I suppose you have to go that way, but if it is in the same plane as the body, would you not create a more versatile instrument by having a strat type bridge (& anchoring the strings in the body)?

[John L]

Looks really nice Andrew. A bit of a nod to Les Paul I think - very classic and beautiful. I like the idea of a snakehead headstock. Is there any structural reason why the snakehead was discontinued the first time?

[John L]

Which humbucker will you use on your standard version?

[mandroid]

Tune-o-matics , Cliff D, make intonation offsets a screwdriver adjustment.
Got one in a 4 string configuration was made as part of an A50 to EM150
conversion and strung as an E-Dola 4.
it has a tailpiece as usual .
(the mass of all that metal mutes a bit, as an acoustic though)

Stop-tailpieces, I recently learned , have been combined with adjustable individual bridgepieces.
PRS adjustable stoptail a worthy model to edit removing the redundant 6th string,
[and also the one more than the normal number of fingers, 5th too]

[Shelby Eicher]

I had a custom humbucker made for my emando by seymour duncan. It is based on the lil' 59 strat humbucker with a tele top(wider spacing)with 4 adjustable pole pieces.

[bobby bill]

The way you matched the grain of the poplar with the curves of the body is beautiful.

[thistle3585]

Actually, after more research I am thinking of going with a wrap around bridge like the Tone Pro bridge.

John, there is no standard version. Its whatever someone orders, so I will put whatever pickup on it someone requests. Initially, I am going to build a couple to work the bugs out, but not sure how I'll rig them.

Thanks Bobby, but it's luck. We just threw a board we happened to have on the table to cut them. The glue joint is actually off center. I didn't want to make the first cut using a $60.00 piece of maple.

[crazymandolinist]

Let me know if you get that tune o matics worked out. I'd like to buy some someday most definately.

[Brewerpaul]

Gee, you don't suppose you could retrofit mine, do ya?

Really nice work Andrew. I'm more than thrilled with my new Jerman. Torture of torture though: I got my Mando from you on the 15th, and we left on vacation on the 17th so I had precious little time to play it
On the plus side, we got home last night (Sat) and I don't have to go into work until Tuesday.

[Cliff D]

Since my post of May 20th I've taken a more of a look at the site, & note:

1) My assumption about prices was poorly judged, given information posted on the site.'')

2) I now know where to get a decent bridge from!

3) I think I have seen one or two wrap around bridges, although I think they fall into what I term (for want of a better name) the "bar" type.

I am a little curious about the reasoning behind the choice of a bar type bridge (I understand a tun-o-matic to be a fixture where height can be only adjusted at either end - usually by a thumb screw) over a fully adjustable independent saddle system, where the neck is not tilted back from the body. I have two guitars with this type of bridge, but were it possible to retro fit independent saddles I would (except that it would straight away devalue the instruments!) because they do not have sufficient compensation travel to permit the bass E & A strings to intone spot on (& I'm not insisting on strobe tuner accuracy!). Again the flexibility of the string gauges that can be used for a given string is prejudiced by the absence of individual height adjustment, & the curve that these bridges are manufactured to ignores that the bass will probably be set higher than the treble end. Granted, with four strings instead of six, such niggles could be less of slug in the salad. Anyway, if I'm missing a trick here, please enlighten me.

[mando.player]

On the guitars I have seen with stoptail bridges, there are a set of screws that run perpendicular into the studs. These can be used set the intonation. Not sure if your has them or not. Here's a link.

[mando.player]

And a pic of the bridge Jon Mann uses...see the screw holes near each stud.

[thistle3585]

I am designing an adjustable wrap around bridge like the one linked in Charlie's post.

[mandroid]

Tune-o-matics use individual bridge pieces which are threaded ,

and a setscrew adjusts their placement within a square hole.

So each string can be adjusted separately, to fine tune the intonation.

ends of each bridge piece rests on the edge of the square hole it sits in.

if the square hole is bottomless, the ends of each bridge piece support it,

then, an in-the-bridge-piece piezo, each with its attached signal wire,

can offer a divided pickup option for pitch to MIDI synth access.