A little while back I wanted to do something different. Being a fan of Celtic music, I decided to build an octave mandolin. An octave mandolin is like a regular mandolin, 4 pairs of strings, only it is tuned a full octave lower. The Irish Bouzouki is an octave mandolin. I built what is called a ‘flat top’ mandolin (as opposed to a carved top like a violin) though the top and back are not flat. Both the top and the back have a 15 foot radius.
This was also a chance for a bit of experimentation. I laminated the walnut sides. Three pieces of 1/16” walnut veneer, pre-bent on a hot pipe, and then laminated together using the octave mandolin form I made. They came out great, very stiff and accurate in shape with no spring-back. (You can never have too many clamps!)
The top is Alaskan yellow cedar with an X braced system that is the merging of a couple of different plans. I also did a ‘Picasso’ rosette, gold mini-guitar tuners and frets.
The instrument came out really well. Lovely to look at (I really like that teardrop shape) and it is really loud and has sustain that goes on forever. I had a chance to show it to a Celtic band and the bagpipe player said he likes mine better than the commercial octave mandolin his band-mate was playing. You can see the instrument here, look under “Ukuleles – Gallery” (where else to put pictures?)