Custom Fretless Mandolin Build

[Kyle McGonegle]

I just finished up this custom order and thought you all might be interested. It was quite fun to build!
A few specs;
Western Red Cedar top
Maple back, sides, and neck
Ebony Bridge (the pics show a compensated bridge but I replaced it with a thinner non-compensated)
Dadarrio flat wound strings with light E and A strings.

I thought it had a delightful resonance and crisp clear tone, even though it was very hard for me to play!

Here is what the customer had to say;
"The note spacing is about that of a viola...
It's lots of fun to play and has a great range of sound and sound shaping possibilities! In addition to more traditional mandolin sound recalling and playing all kinds of tunes, from the music of "The Little Rascals" to Mahler's First Symphony. I already love this mandolin just knowing a small part of it's musical potential at this point"

[Marty Jacobson]

Cool, that would be fun to play around with. Nice job.

[JEStanek]

I would love to hear it.

Jamie

[G7MOF]

I would love to hear it.

Jamie

So would I. Any chance of a sound clip?

[Skip Kelley]

Nice work, Kyle!

[Tobin]

I'd like to hear it too! I would think intonation would be difficult on the double courses, which would mean getting one's finger angled just right at every note to depress the double strings exactly the same. Otherwise, the unisons would never sound like unisons, and it would always sound out of tune.

It's an interesting concept, though! Being able to slur like a violin would be awesome, though I'm not sure how effective it would be with plucked notes. Need to hear it!

[T.D.Nydn]

That is pretty awesome,,I always wondered about a fretless mandolin......

[Tom C]

I'd like to hear it too! I would think intonation would be difficult on the double courses, which would mean getting one's finger angled just right at every note to depress the double strings exactly the same. Otherwise, the unisons would never sound like unisons, and it would always sound out of tune.

It's an interesting concept, though! Being able to slur like a violin would be awesome, though I'm not sure how effective it would be with plucked notes. Need to hear it!

Just the very, very short scale length it is not going to be forgiving.

[objectsession]

Cool! Did you make any design choices due to it being a fretless (besides not putting in frets)?

[Petrus]

I'd like to hear it too! I would think intonation would be difficult on the double courses, which would mean getting one's finger angled just right at every note to depress the double strings exactly the same. Otherwise, the unisons would never sound like unisons, and it would always sound out of tune.

Flush frets or flat frets would help with that problem.

[Bernie Daniel]

Cool! Did you make any design choices due to it being a fretless (besides not putting in frets)?

Good question! I was wondering too what is the action at place where the octave (12th) fret would be? Is there anyway the new owner can be requested to post a video of it being played or even an audio file?

So is it possible to do a vibrato with a double string? If not does the tonal richness suffer?

[Jackgaryk]

nice job...can you add frets later?

[Explorer]

I have to admit, I can only imagine that sustain on a steel-string fretless mandolin would be much less than on a nylon-strung oud, a full-size fretless steel-string guitar, or a fretless bass.

The consistent pitch in a given course doesn't strike me as being a big issue, at least given the success of the oud in that respect.

[Kyle McGonegle]

I would think intonation would be difficult on the double courses, which would mean getting one's finger angled just right at every note to depress the double strings exactly the same. Otherwise, the unisons would never sound like unisons, and it would always sound out of tune.

This was precisely something I was worried about as well but it wound up not being an issue at all. The notes ring out as unisons, at least to my ear and the sensor in my tuners!

[Kyle McGonegle]

Cool! Did you make any design choices due to it being a fretless (besides not putting in frets)?

I made several choices specific to it being a fretless, including shorter scale length (13"), tighter string spacing, and light uncompensated bridge. I also built it on the lighter side in general, using cedar for the top and going a bit thinner than normal to accommodate lighter strings, possibly even nylons. One might also notice the lack of a fret board extender in the pictures, which I stole from the violin world. The ebony was solid enough without the fret slots compromising the integrity.

[Kyle McGonegle]

Also I received a short video of the customer playing some Bach on the fretless mando. I will check with him if he is comfortable with me posting it. Can I post directly here or do I need to upload to youtube first?

[Paul Busman]

Still waiting for video, or at least audio.

[aphillips]

This is the one - sounds cool! I'd love to hear it with a pick!

[DroneAlone]

sounds about 10 times better than I thought it would. I would love to hear it with a pick, too.

This mandolin (and the playing) suits bach's music extremely well. I wonder how fiddle tunes would sound... or a fretless mandola...

Peter

[mandomentch]

A nice looking instrument....congratulations.

This is an oud-inspired fretless octave mandolin that I made a couple of years ago. I found that playing in tune was quite a challenge.....

[Explorer]

I have two fretless basses, and then I actually started on fretless guitar. I have two, and love them for their sensitivity to the right technique. I use just normal fingering, as opposed to nails like some oudists.

I'm now tempted to pull out my electric violin and see what it's like to play it as a mandolin....

That's a beautiful instrument, incidentally.