2010s Samick Greg Bennett MA-2E 4-String Electric Mandolin Conversion

I took this little fella in trade for work. There are lots of these Samick electric mandolins out there under various brand names in an 8-string format and toting a stock, humbucking, blade-style pickup that's never balanced string-to-string and that basically makes them wallhangers.

I decided to convert this one to a 4-string (people have been asking for them from me from time to time) and also install a proper pickup with adjustable poles. This makes it into a nice little player that's different and also tone-ful. The 4-string format is fun if you like Tiny Moore-style electric mandolin playing or just want to go somewhere else with your e-mando journey. I find it frees me to play more interesting lead work than on 8-string electrics.

As a bonus, it sounds pretty decent as an acoustic, too, despite its all-ply, no-brace construction.

Repairs included: fitting a replacement pickup, adding a tailpiece ground wire to the wiring harness, 4-string mod to the headstock and fitting quality, older Gotoh tuner. I also recut the bridge a little to give more action adjustment room up/down.

Setup notes: action is a hair under 1/16" at the 12th fret, the neck is straight, and it's strung with 34w, 24w, 15, 11 gauges with nickel-wound basses (you have to use stainless or nickel-wound strings on these, FYI).

Scale length: 13 3/4"

Nut width: 1 1/8"

String spacing at nut: 7/8"

String spacing at bridge: 1 5/16"

Body length: 13"

Top width: 10 1/4"

Side depth: 1 3/4"+arching

Top wood: ply mahogany

Back/sides wood: ply mahogany

Bracing type: none

Fretboard: rosewood

Bridge: rosewood, adjustable

Neck feel: slim C-shape, flat

Condition notes: it looks pretty good at a glance but when you look at it more carefully you'll notice light playwear and usewear throughout with small scratches, nicks, and dings. I have to admit that I did a fast, sloppy fill of the holes at the headstock because the factory reamed them out-of-round when they made it and I didn't realize that until I took the tuner ferrules out. It's not obvious unless the light's glaring on it at an angle. I took a photo of that.

It comes with: a hard case.