New Evil

That was cool, talk about a one man band. The electroics sound a lot different than the acoustics, The double course strings seem to loose some of their dynamics. Could just be the amps or the recording.

Very cool indeed! Doesn't make me miss playing mandolin, but reminds me how much I love mandolin in the hands of a real player. Thanks for sharing wrnchy, and nice to see ya again!

Yeah that name needs fixin'...good thing we have that power here Moeville...🤪

I'm just not a player but I fake it okay to get by and not pull the band down the toilet. My brain cells swim around in a thick soup while real players exceed the speed of light. Maybe cuz I eat too much bacon. But anyway, I'm lucky to have been introduced to this mando guy and his twin brothers all named Eric.

The instrument was a result of me finding standard mandolin string spacing and scale being too small to navigate. I'm doing mandolin lessons on mandolessons.com. The scale length is 15" which is right at the point where a standard .010" E-string wants to break with any excuse. I'm forced to use D'Addario NYXL alloy strings to achieve pitch. Totally proven on my bench, the NYXL strings are stronger than standard GHS Boomers and Ernie Ball Slinkys. Ernie ball is manufacturing a stronger alloy set but they are not currently available as singles.

This is a prototype. Using a scale tension calculator, it seems that I'll return to the safe zone if I bring the scale length down to 14.25". I did a lot of questions on a mandolin forum while building this instrument. The majority of electric mandos are made with four instead of eight strings and there are a number of reasons why but I wanted eight. I notice that there seems to be a loss of the chorusy tone of double course strings but its still slightly there -- just less than I expected. I suspect the pickup might be having a part in this. Its patterned from a P90 but overwound with 13,000 turns (6.8K if you're curious) pushing it into I suppose being hot with the associated loss of certain harmonics -- way too complicated to anticipate WTF its doing but I should have stayed at 10,000 turns or less. The single volume pot is 1M audio. It certainly cuts through the mix with enthusiasm which was my first surprise. The character of the tone on its own is a little harsh.

For my new friend(s) all named Eric, he tells me that he has a little bit of a problem with the longer scale. 13.7" is about standard for a mandolin. He also doesn't enjoy the wider string spacing but finds he can work with it. The prototype is about 0.2 wider at the nut (1.45") than typical -- sort of what you'd encounter on a Ric 12-string -- annoyingly narrow for a guitar player but wider than a mandolin player is used to. I'm shortening the scale length but I'm staying with the string spacing. The fretboard is radius-ed to 14" while standard mandolins typically have a flat radius -- no complaints from Eric and the mandolin forum tells me that a few builders are radiusing their fretboards lately. Frets are stainless .078 wide from Jescar much bigger than standard mando but so far no comments from Eric. The frets were precision tension leveled to my best ability and the action is far lower than any acoustic mandolin could tolerate. It seems to appreciate nearly zero relief.

Something kinda cool is I'm using persimmon for the fretboard. Some of it just kinda appeared at my local mill in 3ft long 4" X 4" boards. Not at all expensive. Its supposed to be a relative of ebony. Its very hard wood but has a grain more like open grain ash while being much harder. I like working with it. It doesn't seem to eat my saw blades like bloodwood or bubinga. Fretting it was a snap with easy insertion and good grip. I like the lighter color of the fretboard. Its very yellow when fresh but the yellow fades quickly. I applied two coats of wipe-on Formbys tung oil to prevent dirt from discoloring the surface but actually I don't think it would be a terrible thing if over time the fretboard showed use -- might look good. in a unique way...

The body and neck are a type of mahogany but I don't think even my local mill knows exactly what it is. The wood for the neck was especially a bit of a mystery. Looks like a true mahogany but when cutting it on a machine or sanding it, there is a god-awful taste to the saw dust that's enough to make you gag. Even the residual sawdust in my shop when it gets stirred up is unpleasant. I've asked on a number of forums if anyone knew what this wood could be with no answers. The taste makes you say, "Gaaa!". But it cuts and carves just like mahogany. I gotta go back to the mill and ask some questions.

This has been a fun adventure and I hope to continue it.