Electric Mandolins (E-mandos)

I've always enjoyed making the occasional solid bodied instrument; I like the sculptural process of shaping a large solid piece of wood by hand. So, it's only natural that I find myself building e-mandos. An electric, solid body mandolin offers a robust alternative to an acoustic instrument for the gigging musician or an interesting variation for the player who wants a different voice.

There are many possible designs and here you can see some of mine, including 4 and 8 string octave mandolin variants.

Ash/Cocobolo/Maple

humbucker & piezo pick-ups with stereo output

Maple/Rosewood

humbucker & piezo pick-ups with stereo output

Black walnut left handed version 

humbucker & piezo pick-ups with stereo output

Ash/Maple

 Twin humbucker & piezo pick-ups with stereo output

Left-handed Figured Sapele/ash/maple

 Twin humbucker & piezo pick-ups with stereo output

Octave E-mando  

Wenge/Mahogany/ebony

4 string Octave E-mando  

Wenge/Mahogany/ebony

Sycamore and cocobolo, single humbucker, adjustable bridge

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

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

Cedar with a black walnut arched (carved) back