New mandola

**PT66** · May-12-2023, 7:28am

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Just finished. Guitar shaped mandala. American sycamore and spruce.

**b4idie** · May-12-2023, 7:30am

Wow ........ nice! Would not have thought of sycamore but it is beautiful.

**morgan** · May-12-2023, 9:03am

The sycamore back is beautiful. My understanding is that "sycamore" means different things to different people - is this the plane tree, Platanus Occidentalus, which I think is aka the American sycamore? Is that the natural color or is it stained?

I don't think I've ever seen it on a mandolin-family instrument before - are you pleased with the sound?

**timmy** · May-12-2023, 5:50pm

It looks outstanding! Have you made any recordings?

**PT66** · May-12-2023, 7:49pm

It is American sycamore purchased at a local saw mill in Illinois. No stain finished with Deft clear wood finish semi gloss in the can. I am happy with the sound. I just put strings on yesterday. Still settling in. I will try to record a friend of mine in a week or so. Much better player than I am.

**hubrad** · May-13-2023, 5:34am

Looks lovely! My David Lim mandolin is sycamore back and sides, but British sycamore so directly related to maple. Really sweet sounding.
I love the figuring in the back of yours.

**PT66** · May-13-2023, 7:53am

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I have another set of sycamore back and sides I will be using for my tenor harp guitar build.

**mrmando** · May-13-2023, 10:08am

Mandola looks really nice! Is it already spoken for?

And I'm intrigued by the idea of a tenor harp guitar. Got a harp mandolin hanging on the wall; haven't figured out what to play on it yet.

**PT66** · May-13-2023, 10:29am

Hadn’t really thought about selling it. At my point in life I build what strikes my fancy. Are you interested?

The harp tenor guitar has been on my mind for several years. I saw a harp guitar in the local museum that was built about a 100 years ago in my hometown of Davenport Iowa. Decided to pattern it after that one.

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**Dave Hanson** · May-14-2023, 1:04am

Why do builders want to make everything guitar shaped ?

Dave H

**PT66** · May-14-2023, 5:26am

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We don’t. I do a lot of different shapes. (I’ll admit I’m not into F shaped instruments.)

**Tavy** · May-14-2023, 6:29am

Originally Posted by mrmando

And I'm intrigued by the idea of a tenor harp guitar. Got a harp mandolin hanging on the wall; haven't figured out what to play on it yet.

OK, now I'm intrigued: does it have harp strings? Most of the vintage mandolin ones I've seen didn't, which seems to defeat the whole point?

**PT66** · May-14-2023, 8:21am

Yes the tenor harp guitar will have 4 strings on the fretted neck and 4 bass strings on the other neck.

**urobouros** · May-15-2023, 9:49am

That looks great! I’m a big fan of guitar bodied OMs & have always been intrigued with the GB mandola concept but never had the chance to try one. Hopefully there’ll be a video or sound sample in the near future