This is an ongoing project; an archive of the many instruments that I have built over the years.
If you have a photo, video clip or sound recording of your “Nava” and would like to have it included here, please let me know.
Thanks for looking and be sure to come back- there’s bound to be something else to see!
Cheers Gary
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
Chambered body electric mandolin #1:
Carved spruce top with Koa back & sides
The chambered body is designed to enhance the
natural resonance of the emando and you can see its internal construction (and
other details of how I built this emando) in a series of YouTube
videos.
Solid body, Tasmanian Blackwood with Bird’s eye maple neck.
Twin humbuckers
Chambered body electric mandolin #2:
Carved spruce top with English walnut back & sides
The chambered body is designed to enhance the natural resonance of the emando and you can see its internal construction (and other details of how I built this emando) in a series of videos
Chambered Body Electric mandolin #3
English walnut back & sides, Sitka spruce top
Figured Walnut and alder body
Single humbucker & piezo pick-ups with stereo output
You can find out much more about this mandolin by watching this YouTube Video
A recent addition to line of instruments (Sept 2025). This
short-scale (30 inches) bass guitar was inspired by my work restoring vintage,
Japanese instruments. I have always enjoyed playing bass and even more so,
making them! You can get the full story on my YouTube channel.
