McCARTEN LTD.

Gourd Mandola

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This is an "improvised" Mandola whos body is made from one half of a hard shelled gourd. Any gourd instrument has to be designed from the ground up since no two gourds are alike. I have to rely on experience and intuition since it is not like any previous projects. Each gourd yields two halves for bodies so I can make two instruments. In this case I made one mandola, and a tenor guitar. (see here)

In this case the Mandola has a 17 scale.

The top is Norway Spruce.
The neck and headstock is Black Cherry.