Looking for input on double neck mando- octave mando - created 02-24-2010

Bonnell, Jim - 02/24/2010.23:42:32

A friend of mine wants me to build him a double neck mandolin - octave mandolin. Were looking at 13.75" scale and 20.5" scale, octave being the bottom neck. He want a piezo on each bridge. I've looked at Pick Up The World which carries under the bridge piezo films for both mando and octave bridges. This will be either a solid body or semi hollow body. Will a semi hollow body really make any difference with this type of pickup? It will be a flat top and I'm wondering if there is any reason why I couldn't use an adjustable bridge for an archtop and just sand the bottom flat. Does it seem like this is a project that might work,or are there big holes in my logic so far. I'm open to all input on this. Thanks.

The big question for me right now is the pickups, the sound and what he is expecting it to sound like. If you have a solid body or a semi-hollow, it won't sound very acoustic. Those pickups you mention "hear" the whole body tone and if used here they will sound tinny with not much bass and it'll produce a very thin tone.

From your description it sounds like he wants an acoustic tone, but from an electric style body. that is very hard to do in any case. If you ask me, a couple of magnetic pickups would be the best bet for this one.

Thanks Mark. I have never used piezos so I didn't know if it would work or not. Yes, he is wanting something more acoustic sounding. Like you, I felt the magnetic pickups would be the best bet. I was thinking about DiMarzio DP-188s for this do you have any other suggestions? I put a GFS double lipstick in a four string mando I built and it sounded pretty good I thought , but looked a bit big. I originally put in a EMG 89 [a much better pickup] but it just didn't sound right for a mando. I had to use the double lipstick to fill the cavity. The lipstick had a some what jangly sound that worked out OK.

I'm not a fan of big guitar pickups on mandolins, they just look terrible because they are so big and I think of a mandolin as a delicate instrument. I'd make pickups for it if it were me...otherwise, maybe you can get by with P-bass pickups. Use half the pickup for one mandolin.

Thanks Mark. I've been looking into building a winder and have put together a few parts for it, but I'm not there yet. Still struggling along with my builds as it is without adding more to the mix.

Unless your customer wants the appearance of two necks why not put a capo on the neck (12th fret) to get the mandolin scale?