[martinedwards]

I had a guitar buddy round the other night and were talking out of the box things and decised that, after looking at mandocasters ....

and mandobirds......

that a strat would be the thing.......

prolly a 4 string.......

so then it was what KIND of strat.........

a Jem?

or an EVH frankenstrat?

this started out as going to be painted up like the Vanhalen strat, but the ash is just too pretty yto cover up so it'll be staying natural.......

also, EVH likes maple fretboards......

I don't!!

the bridge is a cut down squier vintage trem bridge and the pup is half a split precision bass pup.

hopefully I'll get this sorted tomorrow and I'll get the first coat of finish on before the weekend.......

[beanbag]

all I can say is that it's so...cute! it looks like a mini bass, even though the neck is proportionally too short. I can honestly say I've never seen a guitar-shaped mandolin before.

I am very interested to hear how it sounds when you're all finished.

[Sean.thomson]

Dude, you never cease to amaze me... What's next? A Hurdy Gurdy? A mohan veena? A Sitar?

[martinedwards]

and to put it into proportion......

heres a pick with it's (slightly) older sister......



and here's me playing the monster!!!



and a wee linky to a sound click........

this is the mando into a squier sp10 practice amp. nothing else.......

http://soundclick.com/share?songid=7076143

[Skeeter]

Oh man, I want that so bad. Nice work. That's a gem, for sure.

[Ashleigh]

Thats awesome ! although i dont know about single strings instead of double strings for a mandolin, it just doesnt seem right to me. Looks sweet anways, good job.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

OH MAN I thought that thing looked cool, but I love the sound. I now must get myself a mando neck and make me one of those. I was wondering how you did that bridge.

[martinedwards]

Bridge was easy. I had a squier strat bridge that had cracked the threads where the trem arm screwed in.

I undid the 3 screws that held on the block then cut off plate under the two lower saddles and the trem arem hole.

And Ashleigh, there are a bunch of 4 & 5 string e-mandos out there..... its allowed, HONEST!!!

[BillSPrestonEsq]

so essentially, a parts needed list would be.

One bridge, made out of another bridge, preferably hardtail for ease...

4 tuners
one fingerboard
one truss rod,
one jack
two pots
one capacitor
wires
one half a p bass pickup.
ash.

I think I have all but a few of those lying around. Am I forgetting anything?

[martinedwards]

maple for the neck, frets, polystyrene sheet for the scratchplate......oh yeah, a nut!!

I used a trem bridge without the block and it was just dandy.

start with a damaged squier bridge.

remove the damaged block and discard.....



cut off the extra two saddles and trem hole.....



I used the screw holes that should have attached the block to the top plate to attach it to the body and left the other 4 holes empty.

[LC7rock]

That's awesome... can you actually bend notes a little bit since it's only got four strings?

[Fandrew]

If I ever won one of your guitar giveaways, I now know what I would ask for.

[beanbag]

it looks and sounds great! nice work.

[BillSPrestonEsq]

Okay Martin, I have a few questions...

Is bothering with a truss rod worthwhile on such a short length in your opinion?

If you had two halves of a bass precision pickup, would you use both and set it up like a gigantic humbucker, or no?

I am debating making its cousin. I now have a bunch of bridges.

How did you determine where to put your pickup?

Part of me wants to make a little tele, and part of me wants to make a little les paul. I would do the paul for sure, but I only have strat bridges and am afraid that would look funky.

You think mahogany would sound alright?