Re: Octave Mandolin/mandocello...that thing that's an octave lowe
I had an 18" scale tenor guitar made (a variation of a mandola design) so I could use standard fingerings at the nut, it still won't do chop chords, but that's ok since barre chords do just fine for me, and they do an ok chop.
It can be strung either GDAE or CGDA. I wanted GDAE, it's a bit short scale for that but sounds ok (as opposed to great).
I had a 21.5" OM, and it was too long for comfort.
The idea for an 18" tenor came from an Eastwood 18" electric mandola where I learned to love that scale. I restrung it in GDAE to try things out and it wasn't horrible, so I commissioned the acoustic right after that. I just called 18" scale mandola builders and asked for a larger body and lighter bracing for 4-string. I already knew they had the right neck's in the stock.
In your case you want 8-strings, so a larger body would work, but not lighter bracing. The trick is you want to keep as much of the neck exposed as possible so playing up the neck is still easy. In my case that meant a deeper and wider body, but not taller. It ended up being a body nearly identical in size to the trinity college OM. And fits in the same case. That's the sweet spot for a short-necked OM IMHO.
Davey Stuart tenor guitar (based on his 18" mandola design).
Eastman MD-604SB with Grover 309 tuners.
Eastwood 4 string electric mandostang, 2x Airline e-mandola (4-string) one strung as an e-OM.
DSP's: Helix HX Stomp, various Zooms.
Amps: THR-10, Sony XB-20.
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