1980s Atlas 3-Course Mandocello Conversion

I've done a number of guitar-to-mandocello conversions and in the last few years I've been giving-up on the high (A) course and just doing the three lower courses. No tuners need to be swapped and only minor adjustments to the saddle, nut, and (if necessary) bridge pins are necessary. The instruments are also happy with the way the tension pans-out, too, and sound "natural."

I whipped this one up from this Yamaki (Japanese-made) dreadnought guitar that was in the shop for use in the "Tales from Ireland" show I did last week. I filled the nut slots, cut new ones, filled the pinholes, cut new ones, and adjusted the saddle's compensation. This is all after the work I'd done before to the guitar -- a fret level/dress and other necessary work to get it playing spot-on.

It sounds excellent in this format. compared to a lot of proper mandocellos, a dreadnought-bodied instrument with the pin-style load gives a wider, warmer sound and because these Yamaki-style guitars were built so light, it actually has oodles of projection and carrying-power. I was playing entirely acoustic for the performance with this and I definitely needed to hold back on the throttle to keep from being too loud. This is not normally something you hear in relation to instruments like this.

Currently it's tuned D-A-D low to high with unison strings in gauges 52w, 38w, 28w. It'd also sound good tuned C-G-D or C-G-C with gauges something like 56w, 42w, 30w -- but for my purposes, I found the key of D and a modal tuning more practical.

Specs are: 25 1/2" scale, 15 3/4" lower bout, 11 3/4" upper bout, 4 5/8" side depth at the endblock, 1 11/16" nut width, 1 1/4" string spacing at the nut, 2 1/8" string spacing at the bridge, and action 3/32" low to 1/16" high at the 12th fret -- though the adjustable saddle makes action-height changes easy and fast. The neck has a soft, mild-to-medium C/V shape similar to a late-'60s Martin and a 14" radius (or so) to the board.

Woods are: ply spruce top, ply mahogany back/sides, nato (or mahogany?) neck, and rosewood fretboard and bridge. The "pearl" trim is plastic but still eye-catching. The stuff in the board is real pearl as far as I can tell.

One change I made in addition to mandocello-ing-it is the swap-out for smaller, lightweight tuner buttons that I had in my parts-bins.

You can clearly see the filled-in old pinholes if you pay attention, but at a glance they're not obvious.

There are mild scritchy-scratches on the back but nothing serious.

I added Gibson-style strap buttons to the heel and endpin area.