2 Cremonese mandolins I built

And here's a sound and video sample (please excuse my lockdown-belly in this one )

So the origin of the mandolin is in a four stringed instruemtn, rather than in a double stringed four course instrument, eh? I was amazed how you still managed to get the mandolin "trill" out of an instrument without the double strings. I love your luthier work, it has a real authentic feel to it.

Barbablanca said:

So the origin of the mandolin is in a four stringed instruemtn, rather than in a double stringed four course instrument, eh? I was amazed how you still managed to get the mandolin "trill" out of an instrument without the double strings. I love your luthier work, it has a real authentic feel to it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your kind words. I guess it depends when you consider the mandolin to become a mandolin! The mandolin started as a small lute (with doubled courses apart from the top course, called the chanterelle, as with all lutes). Then during the renaissance came the mandore, with either single or doubled courses. The during the baroque period the mandolin (by that point called by that name) had 4, 5 or 6 doubled courses (all double). Up until this point they were all tuned in fourths and a minor third, like a lute and guitar. Then came the mandolin tuned in fifths, like a modern mandolin, with either single gut strings (like this) or double steel strings like a Neapolitan mandolin (nowadays the standard). You can see a great graphic of the mandolin family here, with this instrument on the bottom right of the picture: http://www.embergher.com/timmerman/..._Italian_Mandolin_-_A_Family_tree_PDF_WEB.pdf