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Thread: Sixteen string electric

  1. #1

    Default Sixteen string electric

    I just discovered this active and healthy forum section for electric mandolins and thought you all might like this.
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    I built this a few years ago and it sold the same week I put it into my shop before I remembered to take many photos. Mahogany body and set mahogany necks. The bound necks have those little binding nibs just like a Gibson. The mandolin has a scale length of 12.75" and the bouzouki has a scale length of 25". Pickups are US Fender P-Bass. The tail pieces are hand shaped from aluminum bar stock and the bridges are a rosewood base with a bone saddle. I was going to employ a piezo undersaddle pickup but decided that it would make the electronics unnecessarily complicated. The finish is Mohawk instrument lacquer white pigment with a few drops of amber. The guy who bought it is a professional Greek entertainer in Trenton NJ and I wish I could find him so I could borrow the instrument back and and trace out the body to a template. The whole project was done without any plans freestyle.

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  3. #2

    Default Re: Sixteen string electric

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  4. #3

    Default Re: Sixteen string electric

    That is very interesting.
    Gibson at some time, made a double neck EBS1250 a mandolin/tenor guitar which seems to be quite rare.
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  5. #4

    Default Re: Sixteen string electric

    Awesome. I googled this. I had no idea.
    I've built a number of double-neck guitars and have concluded that they're really never good for much else other than looking cool on stage and making some people think that you must have twice the talent if you play two instruments at once but then somebody will always come around and do something extraordinary. Kinda like Junior Brown
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3SIoK2YFLI
    Looking at the Gibson, I notice a few things. They used standard 6-pole humbuckers -- and that's ok. I've done quite a few conversions of mini strats and econo-brand mini and 7/8 guitars to mandola and octave mandolins and have never had a problem with six-pole pickups -- they look wrong but generally do not create string balance issues. The Gibson looks like its got a lot of excess and unnecessary body acreage that would make it unnecessarily heavy but my guess is that this was done to make the instrument balance better. Being neck heavy is one of the biggest downsides of a double neck.
    Easily 50% of my inspiration for an instrument like this is just to be silly and fun. The giggle gets me going with motivation and then I put everything I know into actually building a quality instrument.

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