The "modern octave mandolin" probably does date from the 70's, or maybe 80's, with companies like Flatiron and Weber making intermediate-size instruments between mandolas and mandocellos. I'm not sure they were actually satisfying an existing market, so much as doing it because it was a fun project, and the companies were small enough to play around with some ideas and see if people were interested. I'd love to know more about the history of that, if anyone can dig it up.
However, any history of the "octave mandolin" still has to account for that one existing (as far as we know) example of a
Gibson octave mandolin from 1904, mentioned in an earlier thread here. I guess we still don't know if it's a one-off custom order, or an experiment to test the waters, or if more than one was ever built. Either way, at least
someone on the American side of the pond was thinking about the utility of this shorter-scale (21 1/4") neck on a body sized larger than a mandola and smaller than a 'cello. And with a carved archtop too! Because that was the tone the American players (mostly classical?) at the time were shooting for, whether it was a mandolin, mandola, or mandocello.
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