A-style Mandolin

Nut width: 30mm
Scale: 355mm
Fretboard: Puriri, 10 inch radius
Frets: Jescar EVO Gold
Finish: Nitrocelulose Lacquer
Inlay: NZ Paua abalone, bone, black mother of pearl
Tuning machines: Rubner
Bridge: Gibson style, adjustable in ebony, rosewood or puriri
Tailpiece: hand-cut 2mm brass

My A-style Mandolin is based loosely on the classic Gibson A-00 but with a host of tweaks to make it my own. It’s designed more for Celtic music than the bluegrass player, although it’ll still chop when you want it to. The body is deep, which helps round out the sound, and the Western Red Cedar top gives a warmth to the tone that makes it sing on melody.

Sound holes can be F or D shaped depending on your preference, and carved back and the sides can be made from NZ natives Rimu, Kauri or Tawhai, or occasionally reclaimed mahogany if I can find it. Tawhai is my recommendation though – it’s hard and closed pored like maple, with a lovely clear tone. It also shows spectacular figure. My fretboards are usually puriri.

Frets are evo gold for toughness, and tuning machines are by Rubner. The tailpiece is hand-cut from 2mm brass. Fretmarkers are NZ paua abalone and bone, and it’s topped off with my rabbit logo, which is hand-cut from black mother of pearl.

These have plenty of power, and really cut through in a session. I was playing one in a busy Edinburgh session one afternoon when one fellow player (who owns a Sobel, a Taran and a 1920s Gibson and proclaimed my instrument the best set up instrument he’d ever played) came back from a wee break to say he could still hear me from the toilets out the back. Hopefully I was playing the right notes.

Prices start at NZ$2,500