Stoneman Travel Mandolin

[Chinn]

I travel a fair bit for business and love the comfort of home when I'm away from home. Years ago, I'd take a stack of harmonicas with me, but those don't work well in hotels because of volume.

I decided to see about a travel mandolin to take with me. I wanted something which would fit in my carry-on bag. The Sweet-Pea sounds pretty nice, but would not fit, and the same can be said for the Martin.

I found the Stoneman on Ebay and won the auction. As it comes, it is quite nice. However, I decided to make a few improvements.

First, I made a new bridge for it from some cocobolo I had. This helped quite a bit and rounded out the tone somewhat.

Next up, the tuners it comes with are adequate, but the large buttons seem to cause it to go out of tune fairly easily in transit (I think the stock are pings). I replaced them with Grover Uke tuners. The new tuners look great, but more importantly, they hold tune well.

Finally, it does come with fret position markers in the side, but I wanted something a little snazzier. I'm a Paua Abalone freak, so I got fret position markers for the top and side of the fretboard. I'd never installed any before, so my work is not perfect, but it looks pretty good anyway.

Back to the mandolin, what is the tone like? Well, its not a Loar, so I don't expect it to sound like one. The tone is thin and the volume is low, but that is exactly what I need for hotel room playing. The single string courses also take away some of the mandolin character, but the tone is pretty good anyway. It really is quite good at playing fiddle tunes and similar work. No chop really, and chords are not as well voiced as maybe the Martin is, but then again, its a different bird.

I've been playing the little instrument for a little over a month now, and my verdict is that it is a bargain for sure, and very good at what it is. It serves its purpose extremely well and I'm happy with it.

[Paul Busman]

Just out of curiosity I Googled these:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/STONEMA...packmando.html

The shop pics show various types of instruments in different stages of assembly. Looks like a nice legit maker, and a really nice little travel instrument.

[michaelpthompson]

Looks like a great little instrument Michael. I'm curious, with only four strings, why did you make the nut wider than a standard mandolin? Most of the ones I see a 1 1/8 inch, and my bowlback is only one inch. Not criticizing, just curious.

[Bernie Daniel]

Looks like a great little instrument Michael. I'm curious, with only four strings, why did you make the nut wider than a standard mandolin? Most of the ones I see a 1 1/8 inch, and my bowlback is only one inch. Not criticizing, just curious.

I don't think he made it -- he bought it on a auction and modified it. But I agree the fingerboard looks very wide - (says 1.25 inches on the web site). Other than that it is a pretty interesting idea I think -- might be kind of strange to hold on to for playing?

I think if I got one of those I would be looking into trying to make it an 8 string with a narrow nut and fretboard. It looks like the body and neck are one piece so it should be pretty stout? Also the back of the neck is a pretty atypical shape?

Pretty cool idea all things considered.

[Ed Goist]

According to the website, John Stoneman makes the neck width at the nut 1 1/4".

It seems wide boards are an ironic characteristic of travel mandolins (the nut width of the Martin Backpacker is 1 3/16").

Oh, and it seems John Stoneman makes a pretty mean looking e-mando:



Perusing his site, I am very impressed by his environmental and sustainable philosophy of luthery. I may need to look into one of these travel mandos...I wonder if he has a radius jig, and whether he'd be able to throw a 12" radius on that board if asked?

[Jill McAuley]

Oh, I like the look of that emando! - reminds me of the Rickenbacker emandos for some reason.

Cheers,
Jill

[Ed Goist]

...snip...
I think if I got one of those I would be looking into trying to make it an 8 string with a narrow nut and fretboard.
...snip...
Pretty cool idea all things considered.

Bernie; I think that's a Cracker Jack idea! However, where on earth would we put the 4 additional tuners?
I bet the super small peghead is the primary reason why he makes these four stringed.

[Nonprophet]

I'm wondering if the OP has been able to compare his Stoneman to a Weber Sweetpea or a Martin Backpacker? I travel quite a bit and would be interested in a decent travel mando....

I'm really curious to the sound quality of the Stoneman given it's only got 4 strings.....also, I'm not sure how much I'd like the square neck....but I would like to give one a test drive!


NP

[Chinn]

Yes, the nut is pretty wide and that takes a little getting used to. It also has a semi-rectangular neck, but those two things together end up working very well.

The construction is pretty ingenious and pretty bulletproof. It has a zero-fret instead of a nut, so nothing to get knocked loose there. The body/neck is one solid piece, so it is plenty sturdy for travelling and taking abuse (not that I abuse mine).

When I got it, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to install tuners to make it double course, but decided to just play it a while and see how it performed. I'm glad I left it as it is.

Nonprophet, I've played the Martin, but not the Weber (comment is based on recordings I've heard of the Weber). Both of those have more complexity and volume to them, but their size does not allow them to fit in a carryon suitcase.

[crazymandolinist]

With a bit of engineering He could do a setup similar to Rickenbacker 12 string guitars. They use slot head tuners and solid head tuners in a pattern so they can be stacked like so.....

[John Flynn]

Chinn

Very cool instrument. Having been a "road warrior" myself for many years, I really appreciate anything that will pack in a carry-on. What are the outside dimensions of the instrument?

[Jim Garber]

Chinn... since this comes from a one-person shop you might want to write to the maker and suggests upgrades/improvements. His bridges esp looks sort of clunky and yours looks like a vast improvement for tone.

[Chinn]

Not a bad idea at all Jim. Will have to do that.

John, the mando is 19 5/8" in length, and the body is 2 7/8" at the lower bout (if there is such a thing on this mando) and is 2 1/2" deep at the bridge. Fits nicely in my standard carryon bag that I've used for several years. He send the mando with a tubesock as a case and using that worked out quite well. The xray operators in the TSA line gave it a bit of a funny look at first then let it pass every time.

[shinerxl]

Well, of course I am baised, because I make them but:

http://www.selkiestrings.co.uk/micro%20mandolins.html

Mark Shiner.
Selkie Strings.

[Ed Goist]

Very neat design Mark!

[Jake Wildwood]

Looks like he's regluing bridges on guitars in those shots on his website simply using weight on the top of the soundboard... UGH.

Sorry, just had to point that out... :D

[shinerxl]

Looks like he's regluing bridges on guitars in those shots on his website simply using weight on the top of the soundboard... UGH.

Sorry, just had to point that out... :D

Who? Me? Nope, not me.

And thanks for the kind comments Ed

[Jake Wildwood]

Who? Me? Nope, not me.

And thanks for the kind comments Ed

Nope, on this Stoneman page:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/STONEMA...packmando.html

[mrmando]

I'd Google Stoneman Guitars before buying anything from him.

The guy also continues to build guitars with designs that I consider pornographic ... which for me is reason enough not to give him money.

[Ben Milne]

Two things I find "intriguing"... The amount of "inverted commas" used on the "website". And the travel "mandolin" has a "list price" which is mentioned several times, while the "instrument" is then "listed" for half the "list price" as a standard price for anyone who wants to make a "purchase".

[Beanzy]

I reckon Mark's got the best day job. Some of those phonecalls discussing customer designs must be verging on the bizarre.

It may be a bit of a sideline to mandolins, but I'm seriously considering the following SVC200 silent celloas a way to not have a five-day gap in my cello practice every fortnight. Could it be applied to travel mandolins? the idea of having fold-out rests to make up the familiar shape of the normal instrument it is a nice touch.