Octave Mandolin: Why Not?

[Shuksan]

Originally Posted by emsparks

I have built nine instruments, including electric guitars and basses and my next build is going to be an octave mandolin. I only build for myself for gigging and recording, not to sell. I did build an eight string guitar a long time ago. It is similar to a 12 string without the Low E and A courses. But, this time I want octave mando tuning and the strings are very different than on a guitar. Seeing what you all have said has inspired me to get it started! Thanks!

That's a really cool instrument.

I built my first octave mandolin about a year ago and am on my third now. An interesting thing about octave mandolin is that it's a pretty loosely defined instrument. Many different body shapes, archtops, flat tops, and a wide range of dimensions including the scale length and nut width. The diversity of designs can wither be daunting or freeing when launching into designing and building one, depending on how you look at it.

I found these two books to be helpful references. They focus on conventional designs but were still very helpful even for building an octave mando with a flat top guitar type body.
The Bouzouki Book by Graham McDonald
The Mandolin Manual by John Troughton

Here's a photo of the first design I built. It's about the same size as a baritone ukulele. The one I'm building now has a body that's parlor guitar size.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Rudy4]

Very nice, Shuksan.

Here's a 19" scale "Low Tuned Mando" that I played many times in our band to better match my vocal range. Tuned A E B F# and designed to fit a Baritone Uke soft case:

[Shuksan]

Rudy4 - That's a great sounding instrument and nice playing. I like the tune a lot. Is it an original tune?

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Shuksan

Rudy4 - That's a great sounding instrument and nice playing. I like the tune a lot. Is it an original tune?

Thanks much for the kind words.

It is an original tune. I'm slowly sticking up my self-written stuff on Youtube. I wrote my first song when I was 14 and have written songs and tunes pretty much continuously since then, fifty-three years and counting!

[SongwriterFan]

Check out Dammann instruments:

https://dammanninstruments.com/our-innovative-designs

Their "mandocello" is very interesting . . combining an octave mandolin and a mandola in one instrument (using five courses of strings).

I bought one . . . probably should've bought one of the ones shaped like a guitar, though, to make it easier to play without a strap.