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Mandocello conversion

#41
brianrost said:
Slightly OT. My all time favorite Cheap Trick tune, with Rick Nielsen playing a mandocello (probably a Gibson) for the intro and then titled the song "Mandocello". Nice T-Bird tone on this one :roflmao:



Ovation made some nice Adamas-style mandocellos for a few years in the 1990s, got to play one a few times. I was in a Celtic band with a guy who bought one and retuned it like an Irish bozouki. Beautiful sound!
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Yeah, that’s right, forgot about those ovations! They were cool!
 
#42
Verner said:
I held off on a bandsaw for years because I thought I needed something huge with a 1hp motor. I feel silly now. Outside of re-sawing over 6”, there is nothing this saw can’t do for me.
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My 12" Delta had a 6" capacity, but I added 3" of rise to the yoke so I could re-saw to 9", which lets me book match the occasional drop top or acoustic guitar top / back plates. I use a 3 tpi 1/2" skip tooth blade on everything, even 3/8" brass or 2024-T4 "aircraft" aluminum bar stock.
 
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#43
rudy4444 said:
My 12" Delta had a 6" capacity, but I added 3" of rise to the yoke so I could re-saw to 9", which lets me book match the occasional drop top or acoustic guitar top / back plates. I use a 3 tpi 1/2" skip tooth blade on everything, even 3/8" brass or 2024-T4 "aircraft" aluminum bar stock.
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Did you have any problems with frame flex after installing the riser?
 
#44
Ok, had to do dinner and bath time and homework time and bedtime. In between math problems I would run to the next room and cut a fret slot. That is one thing I won’t be able to do in an outbuilding workshop.

Since this is an odd scale (26”, I am adding the quarter inch) I don’t have the fancy guides with stops for this on my fret slot mitre saw (lmii not stewmac, for no particular reason). That’s no big deal though, I use the ekips fret location pdf generator online. Just plug your numbers in and print. I used to use this and a square to freehand cut slots.

So I just draw my centerline on the blank, cut my guide and line up the centerline (I cut the guide thin so the tape sticks to the fretboard and I don’t have to use adhesive). I put it in the fret slot box and use light taps to get the lines directly under the saw. Then I clamp the board and cut. When it is done I just pull the tape off and the paper comes with it, no residue!
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#45
For anyone interested, here are some Gibson mandocello specs from the mandolin cafe forum posted by Allen Hopkins in 2010:

Nut width 1.5 inches
Width of neck at 12th fret 2.0 inches
Length of head stock from tip to the nut 6.75 inches
Width of headstock at widest point 2.75 inches
length of body 18.25 inches
width of body at widest point 14.25 inches
body depth 3.25 inches
height of carved arches hard to tell on mine, since the top's flattened a bit; maybe 1/3 inch
scale length 24.75 inches
inside width of the C,G,D and A courses (how far apart double strings are from each other) 3/16 inch
space between the C-G course 7/16 inch
space between the G-D course 7/16 inch
space between the D-A course 3/8 inch
height of bridge 1.0 inch

 
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#46
My plan is to use these measurements, adapted to my scale length. The only thing I am unsure of is radius, I feel like this is less of a chordal instrument than guitar. I have a 9.5” radius beam, and an 11” block. Leaning towards the flatter radius. Google says the Gibson radius was 12”.
 
#51
Videojunkie said:
I was wondering, it seems a bit like a sister instrument to a balailaka, and those have flat fretboards.
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The balalaika evolved from the domra, which does have a bowl back, but I’m not sure where that one came from. I did build a balalaika last year though! I can muscle through the Tetris theme and nothing else.
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The balalaika has a lot in common with the three string lap dulcimer, tuned E E B (although there are lots of variations in tuning).
 
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#58
Verner said:
The balalaika evolved from the domra, which does have a bowl back, but I’m not sure where that one came from. I did build a balalaika last year though! I can muscle through the Tetris theme and nothing else.View attachment 4434581

The balalaika has a lot in common with the three string lap dulcimer, tuned E E B (although there are lots of variations in tuning).
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If I have to resort to 3 strings it's gonna be something I can easily play! ;)

 
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