I have a prototype mandolin, original design. It's designed to fit a market niche that's not being addressed by any American makers. I've tested it with good players in the Midwest and on the East Coast, and gotten very favorable responses. It's more or less in the A5 family. It sounds great as is, but I'd like to adjust the grads and bracing, maybe f-hole size, to get just a little more "bark", before I settle on the final specs for production. I'd also like to offer an oval hole model at some point. I know how to get the sound I want out of fiddles, but don't know much about tonal adjustment on mandos.
Do any experienced makers have a recommendation where to find the most reliable information on the principles of voicing mandolins? Any definitive publications or Web sources? Is anything useful published at all? I could make a lot more mandos and probably figure it out by cut and try, but I'd rather learn from other people's experience and save a few iterations. There's plenty more to learn as is.
Bookmarks