Armrest for a Northfield Big Mon

[Deblues]

For all of you with Northfield Big Mon's and arm rest's on them, what kind do you use? I'm thinking the armrest has to be a little deeper than a normal armrest since the Big Mon is a little deeper?

thanks,

Debbie

[mandroid]

Viola Clamps are commonly used . try speaking in, how thick, measurements, rather than brand names, with the sellers of arm rests.

[Sheila Lagrand]

Mandolin Cafe member Spencer Oliver made me one of his Soliver armrests with a deeper clamp for my guitar-bodied octave mandolin (Fiona). I measured the depth of the instrument and traced the curve of the lower bout on the bass side and he came up with a perfect fit. I am a huge fan of his armrests.

[Chuck Leyda]

I would check with the Northfield crew. They're pretty responsive.

I had an NFF5S and my McClung armrest fit with some room to spare. I would think it would fit a Big Mon but when in doubt ask the maker.

[molad]

A couple of years ago I put one of the stock ebony mandolin armrests from Elderly Instruments on my Big Mon. It fits fine and I don't recall having any trouble installing it. Elderly's listing says it accommodates up to 1-3/4" thick bodies, which is the thickness of my Big Mon. I suspect that most other armrests will have a similar range, as long as the cork padding isn't too thick.

Northfield Instruments sells their own armrest on their website, so I'm sure they can verify if that one fits a Big Mon.

BTW, if you get a Tone-Gard, you'll probably want the "VintageGard" model for wider body mandolins. The manufacturer recommends against getting the standard model and trying to bend it to fit. I tried one, but decided against it because I did not like the extra weight and the Big Mon will no longer fit in the stock case with a Tone-Gard attached (the Tone-Gard manufacturer recommends leaving it attached as much as possible and not taking it off and on in order to reduce fatiguing the spring steel).

[urobouros]

For me, the only difference is the length of the barrels used. I like McClungs so ordered the longer barrels when I bought them. The ones on my Mon are 1 1/16". The trick to buying them online is matching the threads & it was easier getting them directly from Doug.

I can also confirm that the VintageGard is the size you want if you're also a Tone-Gard user. I hang mine & haven't taken it out of the house yet so the case isn't an issue I've had to confront as of yet

[Deblues]

Thank you all for your replies. I'll check out the McClung armrests. The Big Mon came with a tone-guard but I didn't really like it so I'm not using it.