I've done this a number of times and really enjoy the result. But this is from the perspective of a guitar player that has never really attempted to play mandolin. Making these instruments is the only reason that I joined this forum - for-real truth. 24.5 to 25.5" scales yield an instrument that you can call either an 8-string tenor guitar, an octave mandolin, or a bouzouki -- nobody who has come to my shop has threatened me because I call it something incorrectly. You can also set it up as a mando-cello
What I think may be a problem for true mandolin players is that they'll be unable to manage a few of the traditional chord shapes among the the first six frets. The distance is too great. But the tuning interval totally changes the voice of the guitar into something different which I find quite beautiful. Again, this is from the perspective of a guitarist. I typically thin the width of the neck at the nut by about 1/2" total and I thin the width at the last fret by whatever I can cosmetically and technically get away with depending on whether or not it is a set neck or a bolt-on neck.
One of the coolest conversions was a Taylor Big Baby acoustic guitar. It was a very easy conversion.
I keep the pairs of E and A-strings as unison pairs but split the octaves of the D and G-strings. I haven't tried keeping the D and G-strings as unison pairs. I also always have made these as eight string instruments rather than 4 strings. If I were to make a mando-cello with a low C-string, I'd probably make it a 4 string instrument.
I've done both conversions and scratch builds and for the foreseeable future I don't think I'll be making any standard guitars. I happy in this little niche and am able to sell what I make a lot easier than if I were making guitars.
Mini strats, the mini Epiphone LP, and the cheap knockoffs of these mini guitars completely lend themselves to conversion. You can take any of these, thin the neck profile, do some serious revision of the production line fretwork, and end up with a very respectable instrument. Six polepiece pickups work just fine. You can easily modify a traditional style strat-style trem to function with eight strings.
I do this work for the fun of it. If I can purchase a less than high quality guitar for cheap, I'll buy it and convert it. Then I'll sell it to cover the cost of my time. There is also a fun "Hey look what I can do" element to this at my shop. If anyone is interested in this, feel free to email me.
This is a scratchbuild 24.5 octavemandolin and you can call it anything you like.
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