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Thread: Mandolin Oddities

  1. #1
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    Looking at all these builders' renditions of the F-5 sure is awesome, but it has been mentioned on here before that it can get a little boring. Anyone have any little oddities they'd like to show off? There's the watermelon mandolin, but I'm sure there are more. So, post away!

  2. #2
    Registered Mandolin User mandopete's Avatar
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    My favorite.

    (A.K.A. the "Bat-Mando")
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    Well, there's the reverse scroll Unicorn&Mustang at Gryphon:



    Sounds great, too.
    Fiddles
    Arches F4 / Newson F5
    Crump B1 / Old Wave GOM

  4. #4

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    Before I started doing this for a job,I did it as a hobby. I liked to do whatever can to mind ,but sometimes the mind got ahead of good design and proper construction techniques. So,#12 was unleashed on the earth, and oddity is the only word that defines it, other than maybe "bad idea".Sounds pretty odd, too, although Steve Stone said I should put a pickup on it and sell it to a jazzer. But I think it will just remain a curiosity on my wall.
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  5. #5

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    The photo's don't do justice to it. How asymetric its anyway. I anyone has ever seen Irving Sloane's book on how to build a steel string guitar, you would see the most bizarre method of making a mold for the rim. That's what I tried here, and it's not a good way to do it. This was one way to waste a nice piece of wood.
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  6. #6

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    Charlie, don't sue me! I think I had recently been looking at Mother Maybelles L-5,and I really liked that peghead look. Kind of overdid it on this one, though. The inlay is another Gibson rip-off,but I took it off one of those vintage guitar calenders,and could barely tell what it looked like, so this is quite a bit different than the ones you see on those old white A-styles.
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    Jim, I was thinking about doing something like that, in the spirit of the 60's hollowbody electrics, but never got around to it. I think for my first electric I'm going to try a Tele replica

  8. #8

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    I've got one of those,too. I've got quite a few "oddities" around the house.

  9. #9
    Registered User Harrmob's Avatar
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    I found this on the net looking for John Duffey's duck. I kind of like this one....
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  10. #10
    Registered Mandolin User mandopete's Avatar
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    Another one of my favorites, the Coleson Flying-V
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  11. #11

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    Here's my #1, finished in September of -03. #2, #3, #4 and #5 are currently on the way.
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    No photos, but Neil Gladd did make a few copies of the solidbody Gibson Flying-Vee as an 8-string electric mando. I really wanted one, but no one would sell theirs. Handsome instrument.

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    Hey kyswede,
    That's a sharp looking mando. What are the specs, etc?
    Paul

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    I love the lightning bolt f-holes on mandopete's V

  16. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by (FolkMusician @ Mar. 04 2004, 15:19)
    I love the lightning bolt f-holes on mandopete's V
    It's not mine (I wish it was), but rather a Coleson built up in Alaska. He builds a real nice F-5.
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  17. #16
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    kyswede, I really like your sound holes. Good work-everybody has f holes. I like the change.
    Life is short - Pray hard - Pick fast !

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    That is totally awsome!!!

  19. #18
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    With the possible exception of the hardware store items (which are truly oddities and cool in their own special way), those are some great looking instruments. Perhaps all weren't acoustically successful, but you gotta play to win, as the saying goes. Must be tough finding cases for some of those rascals, though.
    Bob DeVellis

  20. #19
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Great thread!

    I posted this picture elsewhere some time ago, but I think it bears repetition. This is a OM built in 1931 by an Italian-American named Achilio Puccinelli in Chicago.

    Jim
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  21. #20
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    Another oddball. Not sure what the maker intended. Nicely made (with dovetails) box with a mando neck. Lots of soundholes, tho.

    Jim
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    (Carnival barker's voice) Step right up, stick and stay and don't go away, one tenth of a dollar! Amaze your friends with stories of oddities that you won't believe...How about you sir, are you MAN enough to see the wonders of the mandolin world?

    (great thread, by the way)
    Forget with the cowbell, already...

  23. #22

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    Thanks for the praise, guys!

    They're all Sitka tops. #1 has a mahogany neck, while 2, 3, 4, and 5 will have curly maple. #1 and #2 have poplar sides, whereas 3, 4 and 5 have curly maple. Tips are mahogany and backs are all curly maple, most of them one-piece. Fret boards are all ebony, flat on #1 and radiused on the rest of them. Although the first is not bound, the rest of them are intended to be. TruOil worked so well for me on the first one, I intend to stick with it. I'm intensely happy with the sound, which I think is something a little between an f-hole and an oval-hole, something I'm guessing is due to the sound holes.

    Again, thanks for noticing!

    Magnus

  24. #23

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    I know this does not look very odd style wise. What I am building here is a "mando-guitar". Strings 6th--3rd will be singles and 2nd--1st will be double. Tuning will be standard guitar tuning--I do play in DADGAD but I am not sure what that will sound like w/this instrument.

    The scale length is 15 3/4". I did this because the standard mando scale is too close for guitar fingering. Fingerboard width at the nut is 1 7/16" and 1 13/16" at the 12th fret.

    I would be interested in hearing your comments.

    Matt
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  25. #24
    Mando-Accumulator Jim Garber's Avatar
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    Here's one I came across tonight. Well-made but blatantly bad Gibson clone.

    Jim
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  26. #25
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    Funny how they used "The Gibson", but didn't even put a Flower pot on it.
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