A year or so ago I built an electric solid-body mandolin for my son. The body is solid birds-eye hard maple (thanks to Kettle Moraine Hardwoods). Neck is lamination of maple and cherry with a rosewood fretboard (StewMac). It was a bit difficult finding parts, so built some and modified others to make this work. Plays well (had it professionally set up). Was an interesting activity.
A couple of build notes. The bridge is a standard guitar tune-o-matic with the outside two bridge saddles removed and the inside four notched for 8-strings. The pickup is home brew made with wood plates and hardware store bought screws and magnets. 42 gauge magnet wire. Not sure how many windings - just kept spinning the drill until it filled up the space.
The knobs are hand turned on my drill press and use bronze screw heads from the Denis Sullivan tall ship out of Milwaukee. Electronics are the Gibson single pickup set from StewMac.
Let me know if you'd like any additional details. Posting a few pictures here - have more if interested.
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