Eastman MDC805 mandocello, and what I did about it

[Marty Jacobson]

A friend of mine recently got an Eastman mandocello. As the well-known story goes, they are nicely made, look great, and sound quite nice as well. But they are usually not very playable out of the box.

I have to say, once it was set up well, which took a fair amount of experimentation to get the spacing dialed in, this is the first Eastman I've played which I think is really a good instrument. Not "a good instrument for the price", it's a good mandocello, period. I'm comparing it to several other good mandocellos I've played, mostly old Gibsons, as well as the guitar-to-mandocello conversions I've made myself.

The nut spacing I used, which is a kludge since the strings do not sit centered on the neck, does not feel like kludge in practice. You forget all about it. There's nothing wrong with the neck shape. I wouldn't feel the need to reshape or narrow the neck if this were mine.
After playing all evening on this thing, my hands felt no more fatigued than if I'd been playing jazz on my Strat.

So anyway.. yeah. More mandocellos in the world. It's a good thing.




Nut pic and specs:

[Mandobart]

Marty - I've wondered (and its been suggested on this forum) that the Eastman could be modified to be a 10-stringer. There's certainly enough room; I have 2 10 stringers with narrower fingerboards. What are your thoughts? Thanks.

[Rob Zamites]

The more I hear these instruments, the more I think I'd like to build one. Thanks for the wonderful playing, Marty - it was beautiful!

[Bernie Daniel]

A friend of mine recently got an Eastman mandocello. As the well-known story goes, they are nicely made, look great, and sound quite nice as well. But they are usually not very playable out of the box.

I have to say, once it was set up well, which took a fair amount of experimentation to get the spacing dialed in, this is the first Eastman I've played which I think is really a good instrument. Not "a good instrument for the price", it's a good mandocello, period. I'm comparing it to several other good mandocellos I've played, mostly old Gibsons, as well as the guitar-to-mandocello conversions I've made myself.

The nut spacing I used, which is a kludge since the strings do not sit centered on the neck, does not feel like kludge in practice. You forget all about it. There's nothing wrong with the neck shape. I wouldn't feel the need to reshape or narrow the neck if this were mine.
After playing all evening on this thing, my hands felt no more fatigued than if I'd been playing jazz on my Strat.

So anyway.. yeah. More mandocellos in the world. It's a good thing.

Outstanding post - -Thanks!

[Marty Jacobson]

Marty - I've wondered (and its been suggested on this forum) that the Eastman could be modified to be a 10-stringer. There's certainly enough room; I have 2 10 stringers with narrower fingerboards. What are your thoughts? Thanks.

Hi Bart, it would make a good sounding cittern, I'm sure. Whether it makes sense to citternify a decent $2000 instrument is another question. Once you get that much into it, plus the cost of worthwhile ten-string tuning machines and the hassle of fitting them, you might as well add in another thousand or two and get a nice purpose built instrument with the scale length designed to work for the tuning you have in mind.
This instrument also has other ergonomics problems... It's big and it is awkward to hold it when seated. Using a strap and standing up is probably the solution to that.
Life is full of compromises... Designing one of these which is ergonomically superior is no weekend project.

[Bernie Daniel]

Hi Bart, it would make a good sounding cittern, I'm sure. Whether it makes sense to citternify a decent $2000 instrument is another question. Once you get that much into it, plus the cost of worthwhile ten-string tuning machines and the hassle of fitting them, you might as well add in another thousand or two and get a nice purpose built instrument with the scale length designed to work for the tuning you have in mind.
This instrument also has other ergonomics problems... It's big and it is awkward to hold it when seated. Using a strap and standing up is probably the solution to that.
Life is full of compromises... Designing one of these which is ergonomically superior is no weekend project.

I thought your comment on mandocello ergonomics was interesting.

Of course the Eastman MDC805 is basically an 8 string jumbo body (16" lower bout) guitar. I have several Gibson jumbos (i.e., L-7 & L-50) and as you know I converted another L-50 into a "K-50" mandocello. I really do not consider this platform to be an issue for holding or playing. I also converted a super jumbo (17" lower bout) and that is not really a problem to hold either. But clearly opinions will vary on that.

What do you consider the ideal configuration for a mandocello? An A-style (e.g., K-1) or F-style (e.g., K-4) or jumbo box with with a cut out on the treble side (e.g., L-5C) -- or something else again?

I believe that your point about scale length bears a lot of thought. Some on this forum and other places have argued for a mandocello with a 27" (cello) scale. How an instrument like this would be to play depends entirely on HOW it was played --chords versus picking melodies etc.

I do think the 24.75" scale on the Gibson L-50 I converted is on the boarder line of being too short. I felt the opposite about the 25.5" Epiphone Zenith I did earlier. The 25" scale Vega C-66 seemed closest to ideal to me?

[Rvl]

Marty - I've wondered (and its been suggested on this forum) that the Eastman could be modified to be a 10-stringer. There's certainly enough room; I have 2 10 stringers with narrower fingerboards. What are your thoughts? Thanks.

I have a Hathway mc strung up as bouzouki and I want to make it into CGDDAAEE or CGDdAaEe
So I wont have to change the tuners but I just have to calculate the nut spacing
I think that would be a better way to modify the Eastman

[tmsweeney]

Sounds great to me, nice playing as well, I was thinking about an Eastman, but shied away at the thought of having to mess with the setup, I guess I would like to play one before I bought it, hard to do in Upstate NY.

Appreciate the demo.

[wildpikr]

A friend of mine recently got an Eastman mandocello. As the well-known story goes, they are nicely made, look great, and sound quite nice as well. But they are usually not very playable out of the box.

I have to say, once it was set up well, which took a fair amount of experimentation to get the spacing dialed in, this is the first Eastman I've played which I think is really a good instrument. Not "a good instrument for the price", it's a good mandocello, period. I'm comparing it to several other good mandocellos I've played, mostly old Gibsons, as well as the guitar-to-mandocello conversions I've made myself.

The nut spacing I used, which is a kludge since the strings do not sit centered on the neck, does not feel like kludge in practice. You forget all about it. There's nothing wrong with the neck shape. I wouldn't feel the need to reshape or narrow the neck if this were mine.
After playing all evening on this thing, my hands felt no more fatigued than if I'd been playing jazz on my Strat.

So anyway.. yeah. More mandocellos in the world. It's a good thing.




Nut pic and specs:

Hi Marty,

I've been wondering how to adjust the spacing on my Eastman mandocello and this looks interesting. Did you also make the same compensations at the bridge? If so, would you mind posting the measurements [similar to your bridge spacing diagram]? Did you have to make a new bridge?

Thanks in advance,

[Marty Jacobson]

Hi Mike. I did not have to do anything to the bridge, it seemed fine. Good luck!

[Markkunkel]

What do you consider the ideal configuration for a mandocello? An A-style (e.g., K-1) or F-style (e.g., K-4) or jumbo box with with a cut out on the treble side (e.g., L-5C) -- or something else again? Ah, Bernie, I think Marty has something in mind: http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/gr...301&do=discuss