Mandocello build thread

[thecelloronin]

Would he be opposed to you doing a basic recording of some open chords and scales? I'm certainly not trying to push either of you, but the more mandocello there is on the internet, the better

[Timbofood]

I really appreciate your sense of compassion John! We just had to cut a vacation short due to a medical emergency and you can’t ever tell when something will come up!

[sunburst]

Things move slowly, sometimes.
I don't have any sound files featuring the mandocello, but I was alerted to this youtube where it was used. The guy playing it is the future/part owner. (He is gradually paying for it, and medical bills, and...life goes on...)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg8eSGaCHz4

[amowry]

Sounds great! Cool song too!

[dan in va]

John, i'm not always a fond of how mandocellos sound, but i thought yours was really good sounding in the video. It's quite a gift to be able to make so many different instruments sound so good, almost as if each one is all you build, able to dial in the sound. Quite amazing. Lastly, your F5 is the most graceful my eyes have ever seen. i struggle with asking you to build one for me someday. Thanks for posting and all the work you've done on my humble instruments when you lived down the road. -dy

[scordatura]

Hi John,

I watched the YouTube video - your mandocello sounds great. Looking back on the thread, I noticed that the depth of your mandocello seems a bit more than that of the Gibson K-2 I have on loan. I might be wrong?

Side by side with my traditional cello, the K-2 body seems to be half the depth and length of it. Can increased depth/body-volume play a role in how good the mandocello sounds? -- Trev

[sunburst]

...Can increased depth/body-volume play a role in how good the mandocello sounds?

Yes.
I did some research before starting this build, part of which was consulting with Dr. Dave Cohen. Turns out, the K2/K4 shape and size is less than optimal because the resonant frequency of the air mass does not couple as well as it could with the resonant frequencies of the plates. That leads to relative weakness of the C (bass) string compared to the rest of the instrument (among other things). The air resonance tends to be too low and/or the plates too high for best coupling. How to improve that? Well, to make the plate resonances lower we can make them bigger, and to make the air resonance higher we can make the internal volume smaller. How to do both at once? Make the body thinner.
The outline of this 'cello is bigger than a K4 and the body depth is shallower (at least shallower than any I've measured). No big scientific calculations to determine how much bigger and how much shallower, just a shot in the (semi)dark. Any move in that direction should be an improvement, until it would eventually get too bag and too shallow and the coupling mismatch would go the other way.

So that's a somewhat long winded way of saying that I made the outline bigger and the body depth shallower in order to attempt to improve upon the sound of the Gibson K design.

[Timbofood]

I’m never going to build one but, this thread has been a lot of fun to follow, thanks John!

[soliver]

I know this is an old thread, but a friend has been pining for a 'cello. I did a search for Mandocello build threads and found this one. I have been skimming through it and reading bits here and there for the last few days. I have thoroughly enjoyed the read and here is what I have learned:

A. What a wealth of knowledge and giving nature is John Hamlett!
B. What a great thread!
C. What a beautiful instrument!

I myself have exchanged a good deal of emails with John about my own builds and for those of you who don't know, John is super nice, giving with his knowledge and always a big help. So even though this instrument sis 5 yrs old now, I offer massive respect and kudos for it!

Unfortunately the Youtube link is broken now, so after all that reading about it, I still don't know how it sounds

[Denis Kearns]

This thread was a new read for me and quite a delight to see just all the work it takes to make an excellent mandocello. Thanks Spencer for resurrecting this thread and kudos and thanks to John for sharing the process with us, and for enriching our world by constructing works of art that we can make music with.

The Cafe is a nice place to hang out….