BRW elliptical hole mandolin (ft-ms-e)

[BRW]

Here is a new model I am making. It's a hybrid oval hole style. The mandolin is basically an F with X bracing and an elliptical hole. The 15 fret neck joint places the bridge in a different place than the F4's and the elevated fingerboard and X brace totally change the way the top works. It has a nice hybrid sound that has a deep full bass with that cavernous oval hole sound, but it still has the poppy strong midrange of the F and you can even get some "chop" with it too. I really like this configuration a lot and I find it very useful for melodic picking. Anyway, here are some photos.

-Ben Wilcox
www.brw-instruments.com

[BRW]

the back

[sgarrity]

If you don't stop posting pics of your new oval holed mandolins, I'm just gonna have to buy one! This one is gorgeous.

Shaun

[BRW]

the elliptical hole and rosette

[swinginmandolins]

Awesome work!! I bet it sounds amazing!

[Ken Sager]

Lovely work, Ben. I do admire your clean details, plus I absolutely love the blonde top.

Best,
Ken

[amowry]

Beautiful, Ben!

[Skip Kelley]

Really nice work! I love the blonde top!

[stevem]

Mmmmmm...two tones.

[Don Grieser]

Could we please see the headstock? How about one in black too?

I have a Red Diamond A oval hole with the long neck & elevated fingerboard. I really like the tone that combination gives. Would love to hear this one!

[Austin Clark]

very cool.... I like the torch, too!

[Lane Pryce]

Very impressive. Lp

[Salty Dog]

Because of the photo quality, you can't really see up close the quality of Ben's workmanship. #I can tell you as the proud new owner of Ben's #61 (regular F style, Engelman top), that the workmanship and quality will not take a back seat to anything on the market. #While the Engleman top #takes a while to age out and open up, #61 is already nearly ready to go on stage even though it only gets played every other day as its older brother (#12) damands equal time.

[tattiemando]

Really nice mandolin, your instruments look awesome.

[Brian Ray]

Fantastic Ben...

[Don Grieser]

I found the photo of the headstock in the thread on Waverly tuning machines. WOW!!! That's just incredible work! Wonderful design and perfect execution!

[Eugene]

I still don't quite get the appeal of the F style...but I'm a little closer now. Yummy.

[James P]

Suddenly I find myself looking at the other instruments in the quiver going, "hmmm..."

[MandoSquirrel]

Looks terrible, you better send it to me, I won't let it get out & embarass you.

[BRW]

Hey everyone. Thanks for your replies.

I took a look at this post from some other smaller monitors and noticed a problem that I wanted to mention. The message board seems to automatically resize the images depending on the width of your browser or screen resolution. I noticed that on a 1024x768 monitor that the images had all been automatically shrunk and there wasn't anything I could do to see them at their full size. My usual resolution width is 1440 so I don't have a problem and I did not anticipate it when posting these nice large pictures.

I recommend that if you would like to see the true quality of these images that you do a few things. 1: If you have a higher screen resolution make sure that automatic image resizing is turned off in IE. Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Multimedia > uncheck "enable automatic image resizing. 2: Right click > Save Picture As > add a .jpg extension to the end of the file name > then open the image you have saved in a viewer or IE and you can see the full image at original resolution. 3: you can see the large images by navigating to my website at http://www.brw-instruments.com/FT-MS-E.html and clicking on Gallery. In the gallery you can click the thumbnails to see larger images, and then you can click those larger images to see the full size 1024 x 768 versions of the pictures.

I'm sorry about the reduced quality because of the automatic resizing but I wanted to post some large pictures so that you could see the details. Unfortunately the board scripting does it's best to make sure all the content fits on your screen and therefore resizes the images. If anyone knows anything I am missing or has questions about navigating on my site for the pictures just let me know.

Thanks again,

Ben Wilcox

[Lee]

Ben,
Nice work! I'm sure your site will be getting lots of hits.

[ethanopia]

Super cool, I can tell without even playing that it would be the perfect mando for honkin on some Typsy Gypsy!!! Love It!

[Mark Walker]

That's a beautiful instrument Ben! Keep up the great work!

[telepbrman]

That is a cool looking Mandolin, dy.

[bush-man]

That is a stunning looking mando, very beautiful. kudos!

russell