New Millennium Acoustic Design (NewMAD)

[Scott Tichenor]

Some information that came my way today I thought would be of interest and worth sharing. Peter Mix, formerly of Rigel Instruments has formed a company taking the name New Millennium Acoustic Design, a builder of carbon fiber mandolins. The images that follow are the initial moulds. I apologize for not knowing more about these but Peter and I have played phone tag today and his last message said to post these if I wished as I'd mailed him that request. Guessing the first three images are the mould made by Will Kimble. The remaining images are the moulds made by the company that will actually perform the process of shaping the instrument by whatever process they use.

[Scott Tichenor]

[Scott Tichenor]

[Scott Tichenor]

[Scott Tichenor]

[Scott Tichenor]

[Scott Tichenor]

[Glassweb]

Absolutely fascinating! It seems like there's a brave new world in the "mix". Best of luck to all involved. Thanks for the posts Scott.

[gwalt]

Is this a in the garage type venture? Or are they looking for investers? It might be kind of fun to get a little mandolin cafe members, grassroots kind of thing going.

[glauber]

No folk art!

[Lane Pryce]

This will be nice to follow. An all weather mandolin that doubles as body armor.

Synthetic materials have served Ovation well. Pete may be on to something here. Lp

[fretmasher]

Rats. My MAS has been in remission for over a month now. If I can get a parrot painted on the back, I'll send in my $500.

[Will Kimble]

I believe these are technically not the molds, but the pattern being prepped to create the molds. #

Thanks for the interest and support,
Will Kimble

[jmcgann]

This is very exciting, a meeting of some great mando minds looking forward into the future!

The MSA company makes carbon fiber pedal steel guitars. I played one last year- lightweight and sounded warm and wonderful.

These molds look classic, and I'm excited to play and hear and feel them when they are released.

Very best of luck to Peter, Will and the other explorers!

[Hal Loflin]

Will...Any idea as to what the costs will be?

Very interested...Thanks, Hal

[floyd26]

can't wait to hear'em and see'm strung up. I'm an old school type of guy, but it sure would be nice to throw your mando across the room on those frustrating days, when your just not playing up to par.

[siren_20]

Like everyone I'm eager to see/hear/play the finished product... very neat stuff. I'm also very interested to see how these will sound plugged in. I know Rigel had a great internal piezo setup to begin with, and since carbon fiber guitars with built-in piezos have a good reputation (or so I've heard), the combination of the two is pretty enticing.

[mikeo2]

This is very exciting! I can't wait to see a finished product.

[Dale Ludewig]

Fascinating. It almost looks like the prototype body forms are Photoshopped out of Rhino3D. Or milled similarly. I'm really interested in how this will work out. Best of luck to all involved.

[Antlurz]

I wonder if the necks will be hollow?

Ron

[Will Kimble]

Hi Dale and friends,

The patterns are carved out of solid mahogany. #I carved a solid rim, then carved top and back plates as usual with no graduation on the inside. #I carved a neck and cut a dovetail as usual, then glued the neck in and the back on. #I made a fingerboard and clamped it to the neck with locating pins and carved the neck to match the fingerboard. #

My understanding is that the pattern will generate three carbon fiber pieces: #1) back, sides, neck #2) top #3) a long narrow piece that will serve as the face of the headstock, the gluing surface for the fingerboard, and the fingerboard extension. #The fingerboard will be made of ebony and bound in a traditional manner. #

The pictures of the grey patterns on the white boards are still the same mahogany patterns that I built, except they have been sprayed with some type of primer to fill the pores of the mahogany and make it easier for the molds to release from the pattern. # #

I will try to answer a few other questions - it is my understanding that the necks will be hollow, but the neck cavity will be closed off from the body cavity. #

These mandolins will come with a built-in pickup as standard equipment, just as the Rigels did. #But I believe these pickups will be MUCH better - I am reluctant to spill the beans here and will defer to Peter Mix for more details about the pickup. #I will also defer to Peter for any information about pricing. #

I will be happy to answer any more questions about the process, but please understand my expertise is in building mandolins out of wood. #My job was to make it easy for Peter's team - who are already building violins, violas and cellos out of carbon fiber - to make a mandolin out of carbon fiber. #I can provide more insight than most, but am still pretty limited. #

Have I mentioned how excited I am to hear one of these new mandolins? #

Will Kimble
www.kimblemandolins.com

[groveland]

Are Octave Mandos/Bouzoukis in the plans?

[fwoompf]

Same question! I'd love to own a CF Octave.

Also, when these come out, you guys should do some publicity on Youtube by staging some really funny situations that cause the instruments to be thrown, dropped, kicked, etc, and then you recover them and show that it's not damaged.

[DryBones]

The most important question.... can I get a lefty?

[Peter Mix]

The grey pattern in the photos is indeed Will's mahogany A5 prepped for overlaying the mold material. That process is well underway and now we're just a couple of weeks away from the prototype.

It's going to be extremely beautiful and should sound fabulous if the bowed instruments are anything to judge by and I believe they are.

We'll be using the new Schertler piezo, an internally-mounted version of the Dyn-M, in these instruments as I believe they are the finest on the market. This will push our price a bit higher, but the goal is to produce a world-class performance instrument that has a superb acoustic voice and can be plugged in as needed.

The necks of these instruments are hollow, but the neck/body joint is sealed to prevent the hollow neck from acting as a secondary sound chamber.

We now anticipate a retail price of about $3500, but do bear in mind that no one has done this before and we're learning as we go. We'll be presenting them to the music world at the NAMM show in Anaheim CA in January. If you plan to attend, you'll find us at the Schertler booth. Please stop by and try them out. I want to know what players think.

I've been immersed in the world of mandolins for most of my life and I am as excited as a child on Christmas eve. I love fine carved mandolins- some might even say I am obsessed by them ;-) The carbon fiber version will be nothing short of wonderful. The material is so resonant
and so strikingly beautiful that it provides the means by which to build a great and gorgeous instrument that is virtually impervious to humidity and heat.

The instrument will be called the Mix A5. Will already has his name on the headstocks of many wondrous mandolins and my name is so much shorter that it fits neatly on a headstock and a tailpiece cover. It's very hard to wait for the prototype after so much time in planning and designing, but it will be here soon.

Thanks so much for your interest. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.
# # # # # # # # # # # # # # Peter Mix

New Millennium Acoustic Design
978 Oakes Road
Waterville VT 05492
802-644-5607
newmad@wildblue.net