Electric Mandolins

I’ve always enjoyed making the odd solid bodied instrument; I like the sculptural feel that you get when shaping a large solid piece of wood. Below are two of my solid bodied e-mandos; one with an ash body (2013) and the other maple (2014). Both have blade style humbuckers and piezo transducers in the bridge. You may notice the family resemblance to my Model 2 instruments!

Custom left handed version (2016)

You can find more information about my e-mandos' design here.

Twin Humbucker + 19 Fret neck (New design 2017)

Left-handed Twin Humbucker + 19 Fret neck (2019)

Archtop Mandolin

2018 saw the introduction of Archtop (or carved top) mandolins to my range. My archtops are not intended to be replicas of classic American instruments. The objective is to build a mandolin that is true to my aesthetic values and constructional techniques, based on decades of designing and making, whilst offering an instrument that has different tonal qualities to my popular and much-loved flat-tops. Each archtop mandolin is carved entirely by my hands from carefully selected, solid tonewoods- no CNC machinery or out-sourced pre-shaped plates are used.
Below is the first and you can see how it was made in a series of YouTube videos

Here is the second and again you can see how it was built in its own series of YouTube videos.

Nava Standard Plus Mandolins

I introduced the Standard Plus in 2012. The mandolin has a higher level of ornamentation than the regular Standard and it acoustically, benefits from my handmade tailpiece.

Indian Rosewood with Wenge neck

English Walnut, European Spruce

English Walnut, Cedar, Pearl Rosette

You can see and hear Chris playing this mandolin on his YouTube Channel.

Indian Rosewood, Red Spruce

 

Left handed; English walnut and red spruce 

Pau Ferro & Red Spruce

Quilted Maple with Black Walnut neck

(this mandolin lives in Japan)

Pau Ferro & Sitka Spruce

Macassar Ebony and few custom details!

Indian Rosewood and Redwood