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Burgess Custom Ten String Pancake Mandolin & Gig Bag
Estimated price for orientation: 750 $
Category: Mandolins
Class:
Description Brand: Burgess Dexterity: Right Handed Body Style: Pancake Skill Level: Intermediate Body Material: Maple Items Included: Case Top Material: Spruce Country/Region of Manufacture: United States Number of Strings: 10
Last year I commissioned two luthiers to each make for me two instruments. Two were A Style carved ten string mandolas and two were ten string Pancake mandolins (one of the normal thickness for mandolins and one 3/4" deeper). All had 16" scales, even the mandolins. All four had Cumberland Acoustic ebony fretboards and bridges. They all had super long lasting stainless steel frets, had zero frets, and bone nuts. All used a set of flatwound mandola strings plus two plain E strings. I found that while they all sounded very good, this was the only one of the four with a tone that could hold its own in a jam accompanied by a fiddle. So I kept this one and sold the others. This was also the prettiest. But now I'm strapped for money, and I need to sell it. A ten string mandolin or mandola is tuned CGDAE: a combination of mandala tuning (CGDA) and mandolin tuning (GDAE). Its range starts on the fifth string, third fret of a guitar, so it has most of a guitar's range. The C strings open a wonderful range of soloing and chording options, but if you ignore the C strings, it plays just like a mandolin.This mandolin was made to my specifications by the luthier Brian Burgess of Glasgow, Kentucky. It is his 93rd mandolin. It is a "Pancake" mandolin, so it has a flat top and a flat back and extra bracing to support the stress. The top is spruce from Washington State. The sides are spalted curly maple, and the back is bookmatched spalted curly maple. Burgess cut and split the maple himself. The neck and headstock are clear maple. The headstock veneer is a thick slice of lacewood. I designed the headstock. The finger rest is also lacewood. The tuners are new StewMac 12 string tuners for vintage guitars with two tuners cut off. The tailpiece is a nickel-plated cast ten string tailpiece made by the Allen company: $100. Cumberland acoustics makes the best ebony fretboards and mandola bridges, so they were used here: another $120. A zero fret was used because it provides the best action possible at the first fret. The fretboard has position markers on the side only because I like the elegant beauty of the plain black ebony and stainless steel frets. The mandolin body has a sound port to push extra sound up to the player. This does not decrease the volume to the audience, but lets the player hear more of the tone that the audience is hearing. The fretboard is 1 5/16" wide at the zero fret and 1 3/4" wide at the 12th fret. The string spacing is the same as on my Collings mandolin, plus the C strings. Can you play a 16" scale if you are used to a 14" mandolin scale? Sure. If you were to put a capo on the second fret, you would have a 14" scale. It's hard to tell the difference, except that the neck is a little wider. The action is excellent: as low as it can go without buzzing at the first fret and, as I recall 5/64" at the 12th fret. The tone is very well balanced--better than my far more expensive Collings, actually--with the transitions up to the treble strings very smooth. There are sixteen frets plus the zero fret. The fretboard has been filed down above the sixteenth fret to avoid pick click. This comes with an Alpine Boulder Series mandola gig bag / backpack. The seams have given way in a number of places and been resewn. Alas. BUT, these cases aren't made anymore, and it's the only one I have, and it actually fits the longer neck. It's hard to find mandola cases, and most mandolin cases are too short. This works just fine. (I've traveled with this on airplanes several times without problem. I get a window seat, then the neck slides between the plane body and the seat in front of me and the mandolin body and case takes up two inches of legroom and nestles next to the plane wall. I've never had a flight attendant complain.)You can hear this mandolin here, along with its slightly thicker brother. The one for sale is the one in the second half of the video: https://youtu.be/2jhvYhRC6x4. Just paste it into your browser. The price I'm asking is what I've invested in it, with the case thrown in.
Description
| Brand: | Burgess | Dexterity: | Right Handed |
| Body Style: | Pancake | Skill Level: | Intermediate |
| Body Material: | Maple | Items Included: | Case |
| Top Material: | Spruce | Country/Region of Manufacture: | United States |
| Number of Strings: | 10 |
Last year I commissioned two luthiers to each make for me two instruments. Two were A Style carved ten string mandolas and two were ten string Pancake mandolins (one of the normal thickness for mandolins and one 3/4" deeper). All had 16" scales, even the mandolins. All four had Cumberland Acoustic ebony fretboards and bridges. They all had super long lasting stainless steel frets, had zero frets, and bone nuts. All used a set of flatwound mandola strings plus two plain E strings. I found that while they all sounded very good, this was the only one of the four with a tone that could hold its own in a jam accompanied by a fiddle. So I kept this one and sold the others. This was also the prettiest. But now I'm strapped for money, and I need to sell it.
A ten string mandolin or mandola is tuned CGDAE: a combination of mandala tuning (CGDA) and mandolin tuning (GDAE). Its range starts on the fifth string, third fret of a guitar, so it has most of a guitar's range. The C strings open a wonderful range of soloing and chording options, but if you ignore the C strings, it plays just like a mandolin.
This mandolin was made to my specifications by the luthier Brian Burgess of Glasgow, Kentucky. It is his 93rd mandolin. It is a "Pancake" mandolin, so it has a flat top and a flat back and extra bracing to support the stress. The top is spruce from Washington State. The sides are spalted curly maple, and the back is bookmatched spalted curly maple. Burgess cut and split the maple himself. The neck and headstock are clear maple. The headstock veneer is a thick slice of lacewood. I designed the headstock. The finger rest is also lacewood. The tuners are new StewMac 12 string tuners for vintage guitars with two tuners cut off. The tailpiece is a nickel-plated cast ten string tailpiece made by the Allen company: $100. Cumberland acoustics makes the best ebony fretboards and mandola bridges, so they were used here: another $120. A zero fret was used because it provides the best action possible at the first fret. The fretboard has position markers on the side only because I like the elegant beauty of the plain black ebony and stainless steel frets. The mandolin body has a sound port to push extra sound up to the player. This does not decrease the volume to the audience, but lets the player hear more of the tone that the audience is hearing. The fretboard is 1 5/16" wide at the zero fret and 1 3/4" wide at the 12th fret. The string spacing is the same as on my Collings mandolin, plus the C strings. Can you play a 16" scale if you are used to a 14" mandolin scale? Sure. If you were to put a capo on the second fret, you would have a 14" scale. It's hard to tell the difference, except that the neck is a little wider. The action is excellent: as low as it can go without buzzing at the first fret and, as I recall 5/64" at the 12th fret. The tone is very well balanced--better than my far more expensive Collings, actually--with the transitions up to the treble strings very smooth. There are sixteen frets plus the zero fret. The fretboard has been filed down above the sixteenth fret to avoid pick click. This comes with an Alpine Boulder Series mandola gig bag / backpack. The seams have given way in a number of places and been resewn. Alas. BUT, these cases aren't made anymore, and it's the only one I have, and it actually fits the longer neck. It's hard to find mandola cases, and most mandolin cases are too short. This works just fine. (I've traveled with this on airplanes several times without problem. I get a window seat, then the neck slides between the plane body and the seat in front of me and the mandolin body and case takes up two inches of legroom and nestles next to the plane wall. I've never had a flight attendant complain.)You can hear this mandolin here, along with its slightly thicker brother. The one for sale is the one in the second half of the video: https://youtu.be/2jhvYhRC6x4. Just paste it into your browser. The price I'm asking is what I've invested in it, with the case thrown in.