1970s Aria M-300 Two-Point Electrified Mandolin

This project almost made me feel bad. It started-out as a pretty-decent, solid-top, ply-back-and-sides, Japanese-made two-point mandolin in the hippy-dippy bluegrass fashion. It was a good player as it was when dropped-off. But... but... the owner wanted it electrified.

And -- if you're going to stick a magnetic pickup on something -- why not just go whole hog?

This is how it wound-up getting a P90-sized rout cut in the top, a wiring harness installed, and an Alnico II mini-humbucker fit to it aside from the usual setup-side work. I even had some spare Thomastik flatwound strings for it as pull-offs from a different instrument. Luck! Fate!

So, yes, while it was a little sad to cut the top, the end result is much cooler than where it began and it's already out playing shows and loving its new life.

As a note: I don't really install magnetic pickups in mandolins unless the polepieces are adjustable. Standard guitar-use pickups tend to make the A-course super-loud, the E-course very quiet, and the G&D somewhere in the middle. The adjustability is why this mandolin sounds even all the way across the strings -- which is in direct contrast to the average mass-market electric mandolin.