Luthiery Laboratories

This body is maple plywood over a hollow pine core, double-bound. It came out very lightweight, too light to balance even a guitar neck. This was originally going to be the 12-string, but I realized that it would never balance. So I shuffled parts and bodies between some other projects - a planned six-string got canceled and became the twelver. That left this body free. I thought about it a while and decided it would make a good mandolin.

The mandolin on the right is a 17" scale, with double courses of strings tuned EADG one octave up from a guitar. The bridge is a Bronco modified with threaded brass rod saddles. There is a single pickup in the sound hole. The fretboard is oak. The strings are all from the junk box.

Both of these short necks have fixed steel truss rods, although they probably don't need them. Both are finished in polyurethane, with masonite pickguards.