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Beautiful!

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"Act your age, not your shoe size" - Prince

What I have been building is Basically a guitar shaped Mandolin , However I have a slightly larger body and Mandola fret board "2 frets longer" I have had positive response from people in Folk Music and some in Bluegrass . They are basically built the same as a Acoustic Guitar with alot less top bracing . I have NOT tried carved top yet but may in the future.

This one : http://www.facebook.com/wudwerkr/media_ ... 065&type=3

Has a wider neck at the nut than a Mandolin

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=150 ... =3&theater

Video of it being played and this fella said he would love this in a recording sitch.

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Todd,
I recently had the pleasure of hearing an octave mandolin made by Daniel Roberts. I can tell you that my picky ears were very very impressed with it's resonance and voice in performance. It was really an exceptional sounding instrument.
I did not have a chance to get my hands on it, so I cannot speak intelligently about its specs. I was only able to get the basics from his website. He builds them using one of his proprietary shapes. Please refer to the link below.
Happy R & D my friend. I'm sure I speak for many when I say that we will be anxious to see and hear the results of your searches.
http://www.danielrobertsstringworks.com ... ndolin.htm

When I did the layout for my Bouzouki build I was torn between doing a 0 sized cutaway body and a Trad shaped Irish Bouzouki and decided on the traditional shape. I did mine with a larger and deeper body and am really pleased with the result. Much louder and smoother sounding than the thinner smaller instruments but still a bouzouki tone. My next project will be the guitar shaped one when I get to it.

I play it a lot at our local Celtic sessions and it cuts through the mix better than a guitar but is still quieter than the tenor banjo, accordions and fiddles. For a solo or vocal accompaniment instrument I think the larger guitar instruments are much mellower sounding and suit the music. Here is a video taken at a festival when it was only strung up for 3 days, the tone and volume have increased quite a bit since then.

If this is off topic I apologize but a bouzouki and an octave mandolin are basically the same thing except the Bouzouki is built with a longer scale length, as much as 26" though mine is 24.9"



Fred

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Fred Tellier
http://www.fetellierguitars.com
Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/FE-Tellier-Guitars/163451547003866

I can't offer much permanent insight into your question but I do want to thank you for posting that video of keep your lamps trimmed and burning. I haven't hear that son in 20 years. We sang that I our choir and of one reason or another, I just loved it. Naturally, this version is quite different than 65 of us singing it with 8 part harmonies in a choral arrangement that somehow still honored its rootstock spiritual origins. It really is neat hearing I this contexts, the songs are very different yet very much the same. Anyway, thanks for bringing back a memory from my youth.

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Bryan Bear PMoMC

Take care of your feet, and your feet will take care of you.

Nice looking and sounding instruments Todd and Filippo .... I've wanted to do a guitar shaped one for years... maybe I'll try one based on a size 5 body.... really nice and inspiring ...

As usual when these topics come up, my advice is that you head on over to Mandolin Cafe and check out the CBOM (Cittern, Bouzouki, Octave Mandolin) section, there are plenty of builders over there that can give you advice.

I've only built one guitarbouzouki / ocatvemando whatchamacallit, getting ready to build another now. I've done a couple of guitar / 'zouk conversions. These are all flat top instruments, so they sound pretty much like, well, guitars (no big surprise there). Generally, I think you can say the differences between flat top and arch top mando family instruments are similar to those between flat top and arch top guitars. Projection and punch vs. complexity and warmth etc.

I've shown this link many times before, but here is Andreas Aase playing a traditional Norwegian dance ("Halling") on the one I built

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Gee they make a great complimentary pair, it would be a damned shame to separate em i reckon.

Steve

I build what I call a "double strung tenor guitar", which is based on an LG 3/4 size pattern. I make the body extra deep and use a 21 1/2 in. S.L.. I generally string them gGdDaAee but they can also be tuned with the typical CGDA tenor tuning, or GDAd as some do.
I like the smaller size and shorter body of the LG 3/4 shape. I think it works well for the shorter scale.