According to an article in the October 1980 Frets on The Boys of the Loch, Dave Richardson's first double strung instrument was based on a the size of a Levin mandolin body with a 19" scale (tenor banjo) neck and built by Gerald Short from Chesterfield. That was around 1970. The Short instrument was replaced by a Sobell in 1975. What Dave probably didn't realise at the time was that Levin had been making flat backed tenor and octave mandolas since the 1920s, though I have no idea of their availability in the UK.
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