anyone ever seen a Van Halen mando?

[martinedwards]

Hi troops, I have a bundle of bass guitar pickups on theb way from ebay land, and included are 7 or 8 split pups.

I've HEARD that these can work well on a solid mando......

so last night I had a guitar buddy over and we got talking (no alcohol involved, honest!!) and I told him about the idea to build a 4 string electric.....

I showed him pics of a mandocaster and a mandobird and he suugested a mando tribute to Eddie Van Halen's frankenstrat (all be it with a hard tail bridge......)



after a search I was amazed that I couldn't find a strat mando ANYWHERE, let alone a EVH copy......

the paint job would be easy, but does anyone know any reason (other than good taste) why there aren't any strat shaped mandos out there?

[Eddie Sheehy]

There's a guy in Germany selling Strat Mandolas. I bought one last year but I didn't like it. It was a full-width guitar neck. Just too much space between the strings. There aren't on Ebay right now but they do show up from time to time...
I used it the previous year's Halloween when I dressed as Eddie Van Helsing.

[Eddie Sheehy]

Here'sa couple of pics of the Strat Mandola...

[martinedwards]

yup, I can see the neck's very wide.....

but still no reason not to go for it.....

all I need now is a name......

Mandocaster is gone........

Frankinmando?

stratolin?

mandohalen?

Vanhalendolin?

[delsbrother]

Well, there was the Pentasystem... (not to get in a pissing match)

And Bahian Guitars... (look up "Armandinho" on emando.com)

You gotta have the whammy bar! If you're going to do it, do it right!

There are all kinds of other "mini-guitars" just waiting for 6-5 or 6-8 conversion... IIRC EVH has a "mini" Frankenkramer himself.

[AlanN]

How about Eddie Vandolin, kinda rolls off the tongue (and on to the floor!)

[Paul Busman]

Wideass string gap on that mando!

At a glance the closeup looked like it was triple strung

[Scott Tichenor]

You might check some of the sites from builders on this page.

[Daniel Nestlerode]

An EVH-dolin would be pretty cool.
Make mine a 5 string short scale octave (17 or 18") with a B above middle C as the first string (GDAEB).

Daniel

[Eddie Sheehy]

Mandohendrix: reversed-strung and played upside-down - preferably with the teeth.

[Eddie Sheehy]

BTW, the German guy who sold the Stradoline (sic) is knownknight (ebay id). He's got some fretwire on there right now.

[martinedwards]

Make mine a 5 string short scale octave (17 or 18") with a B above middle C as the first string (GDAEB).

I'll get one built before I start taking commissions!!

[mrmando]

There are a few Strat-style emandos out there. Both Joe Glaser and Schwab have made a few, and I've seen a really nice one from George Weisel in Montana.

[delsbrother]

[mrmando]

Interesting, Darrell. The little guy in front looks like it could be mando-fied. And what's a collection of electric guitars without a matching cordless drill?

[martinedwards]

Well, it's started.

I projected a pic of a strat onto a wall with a projector and then scaled the image so it had a 13 7/8" scale.

the nut was a hair too narrow for me so I widened the pic to make the nut spot on the inch, then traced the body onto a piece of paper which became a template to cut it out of a big old plank of Ash I had in the pile....

pics to follow......

[Eddie Sheehy]

If it doesn't work out you can always make a hurley out of it....

[delsbrother]

Interesting, Darrell. The little guy in front looks like it could be mando-fied.

There are lots of those floating around (there's another one on the left of the photo above). Here's another pic of one, from the set for "Hot For Teacher":



I seem to remember a pic of EVH playing one, but can't seem to find it at the moment...

And what's a collection of electric guitars without a matching cordless drill?

EVH actually uses drill motors to energize the strings on some tunes, hence the paintjob.:

Van Halen Poundcake video (probably not suitable for mixed company, unless you want her to lose all respect for you)

Sf course the drills are repro'ed by enthusiasts. Here's a better shot of the whole collection (note the stool):

Mini-Kramers, guitars, necks, furniture...

Edit: found the pic with EVH, but it's a mini-LP, not a mini-kramer:

EVH w/ mini-Les Paul on the Diver Down tour

[jefflester]

There was a super mini EVH guitar in the movie "Better Off Dead" :-)

[delsbrother]

[man dough nollij]

Wouldn't that be a Van Halin?

[martinedwards]

Under way!!

bridge scavenged from a squier strat.......



Body is a lump of ash from a dumpster, neck is lumberyard maple, fretboard is a stewmac 13 7/8" scale.......

[delsbrother]

As long as I'm being OCD about this, it really should have at least a maple fingerboard...

I mean if you're just going after a strat shape + an EVH paint job, I'm sure yours will look cool. But in that case wouldn't reworking the Cassandra Elk emandola have been a lot easier? That would've been closer to what Eddie actually did. YMMEVH.

[Keith Erickson]

Got to love that Hot for Teacher Video

[martinedwards]

I HATE maple fretboards!!

I have one in the workshop as a template and that's IT!!

it's not a TOTAL EVH tribute, just a mandostrat with the paint, That'll be shocking enough for most folks