The bass strings on a 25" scale are fuller sounding than some 24-3/4" instruments, which can sometimes sound muddy. Mandolin: scale length around 330mm (classical) - 350mm (bluegrass) Tuning: Accepted tuning for mandolins is the same as violins, GDAE from low to high, with unison strings, that is, with pairs of strings in the same octave. Modern American mandolins modelled after Gibsons have a longer scale, about 13 7⁄8 inches (350 mm). Owing to the shape and to the common construction from wood strips of alternating colors, in the United States these are sometimes colloquially referred to as the "potato bug" or "potato beetle" mandolin. The strings in each of its double-strung courses are tuned in unison, and the courses use the same tuning as the violin: G3–D4–A4–E5. Scale length 42cm, tuning one-fifth below mandolin, CGDA. [33], Samuel Adelstein described the Lombardi mandolin in 1893 as wider and shorter than the Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallower back and a shorter and wider neck, with six single strings to the regular mandolin's set of 4. Laminated-wood presstops are less resonant than carved wood, the wood and glue vibrating differently than wood grain. While occupying the same range as the octave mandolin/octave mandola, the Irish bouzouki is theoretically distinguished from the former instrument by its longer scale length, typically from 24 to 26 inches (610 to 660 mm), although scales as long as 27 inches (690 mm), which is the usual Greek bouzouki scale, are not unknown. The mandocello, which is classically tuned to an octave and a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin: C-G-D-A. The instrument was primarily used in a classical tradition with Mandolin orchestras, so called Estudiantinas or in Germany Zupforchestern appearing in many cities. [33] They are shorter and wider than the standard Neapolitan mandolin, with a shallow back. Works for mandolin or with major parts for mandolin. Std Gibson mandolin scale length is 13 7/8 inches and classical (bowlback) scale is 13 inches. Other mandolin varieties differ primarily in the number of strings and include four-string models (tuned in fifths) such as the Brescian and Cremonese, six-string types (tuned in fourths) such as the Milanese, Lombard and the Sicilian and 6 course instruments of 12 strings (two strings per course) such as the Genoese. A musical ensemble with more than two solo instruments or voices is called trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, septet, octet, etc. By far the most common tuning is the same as violin tuning, in scientific pitch notation G3–D4–A4–E5, or in Helmholtz pitch notation: g–d′–a′–e″. [48] Brent's mandolin was the luthier's solution to Brent's request for a loud mandolin in which the wood was clearly audible, with less metallic sound from the strings. As far as scale goes the easiest way to determine that for us math-challenged is to measure from the nut to the 12th fret and double it. A typical Board Nut Offset (the distance from the end of the board to the nut slot) is .250″ (1/4) but it can be as little as .125″ (1/8). Generally, in the United States, Gibson F-hole F-5 mandolins and mandolins influenced by that design are strongly associated with bluegrass, while the A-style is associated with other types of music, although it too is most often used for and associated with bluegrass. Following its invention and early development in Italy the mandolin spread throughout the European continent. The bandolim is a Portuguese variant of the mandolin family. Other tunings exist, including cross-tunings, in which the usually doubled string runs are tuned to different pitches. The Greek laouto or laghouto (long-necked lute) is similar to a mandocello, ordinarily tuned C3/C2–G3/G2–D3/D3–A3/A3 with half of each pair of the lower two courses being tuned an octave high on a lighter gauge string. [20], The Neapolitan style has an almond-shaped body resembling a bowl, constructed from curved strips of wood. [13] It is a flatback instrument, with a wide neck and 4 courses (8 strings), 5 courses (10 strings) or 6 courses (12 strings), and is used in Algeria and Morocco. Of course, the MANDOLIN is by far the most popular. The McDonald Patent Universal String Tension Calculator (MPUSTC) is a handy calculator to figure string tensions in steel-string instruments. Other American-made variants include the mandolinetto or Howe-Orme guitar-shaped mandolin (manufactured by the Elias Howe Company between 1897 and roughly 1920), which featured a cylindrical bulge along the top from fingerboard end to tailpiece and the Vega mando-lute (more commonly called a cylinder-back mandolin manufactured by the Vega Company between 1913 and roughly 1927), which had a similar longitudinal bulge but on the back rather than the front of the instrument. Specs. This is especially true of violin music, since the mandolin has the same tuning as the violin. [45] However, mandolinists and luthiers have been experimenting with them since at least the early 1900s. Note that the numbers of Hz shown above assume a 440 Hz A, standard in most parts of the western world. More recently, the Baroque and Classical mandolin repertory and styles have benefited from the raised awareness of and interest in Early music, with media attention to classical players such as Israeli Avi Avital, Italian Carlo Aonzo and American Joseph Brent. The bridge is held to the soundboard by the strings. Some players use an A up to 10 Hz above or below a 440, mainly outside the United States. The body width is 12 1/4th inches and overall body length measures 37 ½ inches. Within that range of mandolin scale length (13 7/8th and 14) the boards would be slightly different or the intonation would be off. 7, Symphony No. There were a variety of regional variants, but two most widespread ones were the Neapolitan mandolin and the Lombardic mandolin. [49] It is made by one manufacturer in Israel, luthier Arik Kerman. Mandolin banjos were and are always played with a flat pick. The body has a rounded almond shape with flat or sometimes canted soundboard. [24][31], Another family of bowlback mandolins came from Milan and Lombardy. [42], In the early 1970s English luthier Stefan Sobell developed a large-bodied, flat-backed mandolin with a carved soundboard, based on his own cittern design; this is often called a 'Celtic' mandolin.[43][44]. The most popular traditional design is the F-style body with its ornate hand carved scroll. Flat-backed instruments are commonly used in Irish, British, and Brazilian folk music. Traditional mandolin orchestras remain especially popular in Japan and Germany, but also exist throughout the United States, Europe and the rest of the world. Mandolins evolved from lute family instruments in Europe. They're more-or-less mandolin-shaped, have a tenor-guitar-like (or octave-mandolin-like) 21" scale length, and doubled courses. Of course, the MANDOLIN is by far the most popular. It has a scale length of 14 inches, a body width of 10 1/8th inches and an overall length of 27 1/4th inches. Like the double bass, it most frequently has 4 single strings, rather than double courses, and also like the double bass, it is most commonly tuned to perfect fourths rather than fifths (a trait all other chordophones in the violin family possess): E1–A1–D2–G2, which is also the same tuning as a bass guitar. The relatively rare eight-string mandobass, or "tremolo-bass", also exists, with double courses like the rest of the mandolin family, and is tuned either G1–D2–A2–E3, two octaves lower than the mandolin, or C1–G1–D2–A2, two octaves below the mandola.[18][19]. The pairs of strings are actually Read more… Carved arched top and back. Its own lineage dates it back to the Renaissance. [1] There has also been a twelve-string (three strings per course) type and an instrument with sixteen-strings (four strings per course). This article is about the musical instrument. The Algerian mandole was developed by an Italian luthier in the early 1930s, scaled up from a mandola until it reached a scale length of approximately 25-27 inches. Travelling mandolin virtuosi like Carlo Curti, Giuseppe Pettine, Raffaele Calace and Silvio Ranieri contributed to the mandolin becoming a "fad" instrument in the early 20th century. In the case of Weber, the scroll joins the instruments top and back in a hand carved swallow tail. It is tuned a fifth lower than the mandolin, typically to C, G, D, and A. A mandolin is a 'floating bridge' instrument, with a scale length of around 330-350mm. Figured blackwood sides and neck. Much variation exists between makers working from these archetypes, and other variants have become increasingly common. Like all the hybrid banjo family, it takes its name, tuning, and playing style from its neck. Mandola It was derived from the Greek bouzouki (a long-necked lute), constructed like a flat-backed mandolin and uses fifth-based tunings, most often G2–D3–A3–D4. Back in the early 1900s, mandolinist Ginislao Paris approached Luigi Embergher to build custom mandolins. The mandocello is classically tuned to an octave plus a fifth below the mandolin, in the same relationship as that of the cello to the violin, its strings being tuned to C2–G2–D3–A3. Like the cello is to the violin, so is the mandocello to the mandolin. However, another archtop exists, the top made of laminated wood or thin sheets of solid wood, pressed into the arched shape. [46] The sticker inside one of the four surviving instruments indicates the build was called after him, the Sistema Ginislao Paris). [36][37] The mandolin was tuned in fifths, like the Neapolitan mandolin. The life of Giovanni Vailati, the Paganini of the mandolin: from the cremaschi cafés to the theaters of Europe]", "Stefan Sobell Guitars » Mandolins and Mandola", "Joseph Brent's Brian N. Dean Grand Concert Mandolin", "Re: Avi Avital and the Arik Kerman mandolin". Not carving them correctly can lead to a dull sound. [25], Prominent Italian manufacturers include Vinaccia (Naples), Embergher[26] (Rome) and Calace (Naples). Because it’s just one example, and because it wouldn’t have fit into the conventional Mandolin Orchestra concept back then (being halfway between a Mandola and Mandocello), it may be that this was a one-off, custom instrument. The instrument has a variant off the coast of South America in Trinidad, where it is known as the bandol, a flat-backed instrument with four courses, the lower two strung with metal and nylon strings.[12]. walnut solid body (chambering & hollowbody optional) flame ebony fingerboard & headplate. [25] The shape of the back of the neck was different, less rounded with an edge, the bridge was curved making the G strings higher. Concerto: a musical composition generally composed of three movements, in which, usually, one solo instrument (for instance, a piano, violin, cello or flute) is accompanied by an orchestra or concert band. Privacy Policy | Website designed & developed by ToolStudios, Website designed & developed by ToolStudios. Artist To Artist: 10 Minutes With Avi Avital. Bowlback mandolins (also known as roundbacks), are used worldwide. Typically 19, 21, 22, or 24. This new style is credited to mandolins designed and built by Orville Gibson, a Kalamazoo, Michigan, luthier who founded the "Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Manufacturing Co., Limited" in 1902. [38] Also, he felt they had a "less pleasing...hard, zither-like tone" as compared to the gut string's "softer, full-singing tone. Johnson, J. R.; 'The Mandolin Orchestra in America, Part 3: Other Instruments', Andante and Variations in D major WoO 44b, "Radiused vs. flat fingerboard on mandolin? As a result, the fingerboard (although still a 13 7/8" scale) has to be moved. Its 6 gut strings (or 6 courses of strings) were tuned as a guitar but one octave higher: e-a-d’-g’-b natural-e”. Following this continental popularity of the mandolin family local traditions appeared outside Europe in the Americas and in Japan. 17inch scale length octave mandola / mandolin On ebay a large variety of these Celtic-star instruments, from the mandolin family.are available. 1897 Advertisement for a Lyon and Healy made, Cremonese mandolin with four strings, from an 1805 book by. As a reference, on the piano, the low G is tuned to the G just below Middle C (C4), or G3. Although the Irish bouzouki's bass course pairs are most often tuned in unison, on some instruments one of each pair is replaced with a lighter string and tuned in octaves, similar to the 12-string guitar. One example of rediscovered 18th-century music for mandolin and ensembles with mandolins is the Gimo collection, collected in the first half of 1762 by Jean Lefebure. Usually, courses of 2 adjacent strings are tuned in unison. [15] For a mandocello tuning using fifths C2 C2 G2 G2 D3 D3 A3 A3 (E4) (E4).[16]. The problem with thinking of them as a modern octave mandolin, though, is that people usually over-string them and they arrive with a typical set of structural issues. There are usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic f (f-hole). A duet or duo is a musical composition for two performers in which the performers have equal importance to the piece. [35] When Adelstein wrote, there were no nylon strings, and the gut and single strings "do not vibrate so clearly and sweetly as the double steel string of the Neapolitan. Its scale length is 24 3/4 inches, its body width is 14 1/4th inches and its overall length is 41 1/8th inches. It most commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 strings, although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. [29], German manufacturers include Albert & Mueller, Dietrich, Klaus Knorr, Reinhold Seiffert and Alfred Woll. They come in solid body and acoustic electric forms. Flatback mandolins use a thin sheet of wood with bracing for the back, as a guitar uses, rather than the bowl of the bowlback or the arched back of the carved mandolins. A less intricate pear-shaped design is known as an A-style body. This means that the scale patterns are the same all the way up and down the strings. I build classical mandolin", "Mandolin (neapolitan, Round Back, Bowl Back...)", "Historia et imago Cremae. "[38] 18-1/2” scale length. These were made by the Gibson company in the early 20th century, but appear to have never been very common. Tuned in fifths just like a mandolin (G,D,A,E, from low to hihg) and a scale length from 13 to 14 inches, the mandolin banjo was popular during the 1920s. [59] His 4 small pieces date from 1796: Sonatine WoO 43a; Adagio ma non troppo WoO 43b; Sonatine WoO 44a and Andante con Variazioni WoO 44b. Some players have sought out contemporary composers to solicit new works. [36] In his 1805 mandolin method, Anweisung die Mandoline von selbst zu erlernen nebst einigen Uebungsstucken von Bortolazzi, Bartolomeo Bortolazzi popularised the Cremonese mandolin, which had four single-strings and a fixed bridge, to which the strings were attached. The bridge is a movable length of hardwood. Electric guitar Acoustic guitar Bass Banjo Mandolin Dulcimer Ukulele. The mandolin's paired strings facilitate this technique: the plectrum (pick) strikes each of a pair of strings alternately, providing a more full and continuous sound than a single string would. Scale length is 38cm [7] The bridge is kept in contact with the soundboard by the downward pressure from the strings. Like the violin, its scale length is typically about 13 inches (330 mm). The courses are typically tuned in a interval of perfect fifths, with the same tuning as a violin (G3, D4, A4, E5). Carved and engraved clamshell inlay. Vivaldi created some concertos for mandolinos and orchestra: one for 4-chord mandolino, string bass & continuo in C major, (RV 425), and one for two 5-chord mandolinos, bass strings & continuo in G major, (RV 532), and concerto for two mandolins, 2 violons "in Tromba"—2 flûtes à bec, 2 salmoe, 2 théorbes, violoncelle, cordes et basse continuein in C major (p. 16). [41] The French and Germans called it a Portuguese mandolin, although they also developed it locally. These have become increasingly common in the world of internationally constructed musical instruments in the 21st century. The F-5's more complicated woodwork also translates into a more expensive instrument. The tuning of the mandolin, low to high, is: G, D, A, E. See the graphic below. [5] The necked box instruments include archtop mandolins and the flatback mandolins. It has 4 courses of paired strings. Like the violin, its scale length is typically about 13 inches (330 mm). [38][37], Like the Lombardy mandolin, the Genoese mandolin was not tuned in fifths. The Neapolitan style has spread worldwide. Using a common Arabic oud tuning D2 D2 G2 G2 A2 A2 D3 D3 (G3) (G3) (C4) (C4). [35] The strings were fastened to the bridge like a guitar's. I prefer a longer scale length for mandolas than some as I feel that it makes a more resonant tone while still retaining the inherent punchiness of a mandolin.