2012 Circle Strings Guitar-Style Octave Mandolin

Well this is a bit of a fascinating piece of kit. It was made by Adam Buchwald (of Circle Strings and Iris Guitars and Allied Lutherie fame) back in 2012 and it's a high-quality "guitar-shaped octave mandolin." I suppose it could also be a double-strung tenor guitar, though, too, with a restring to CGDA tuning.

It has a lattice-braced (like... many smaller x-braces) top with ladder braces above and below the soundhole. The neck is double-bolted into the body and features a support for the fretboard extension mated to the tenon joint of the heel so it's very easy to unbolt the neck and reset its angle with shims if need be for a quick adjustment while traveling. This is similar to the Taylor neck-bolt system.

The top is solid spruce while the back and sides are solid, flamed maple. The binding appears to be rosewood or similar and I think the owner mentioned that the neck is as well. The bridge and fretboard are ebony and it has a bone nut and saddle and ebony pins.

A Lyric pickup (microphone) is installed under the hood with a mini-control capsule accessed at the soundhole and an endpin jack is installed as well with a 9V battery bag fit near the neckblock inside.

The center seam below the bridge looks like it dried-out a bit before and it was sealed, repaired, and cleated some time back and is stable. My own work was minor and now that it's properly-adjusted it plays like a champ and sounds lush and full with just enough bite to work as a melody-centric octave mandolin.

Repairs included: a fret level/dress, bridge reglue, and setup work.

Top wood: solid spruce

Back & sides wood: solid flamed maple

Bracing type: lattice

Bridge: ebony

Fretboard: ebony

Neck wood: walnut

Action height at 12th fret: hair-over 1/16" bass and 1/16" treble (fast)
String gauges: 40w-30w-20w-11 (doubled) GDAE tuning

Neck shape: slim-medium C

Board radius: flat

Truss rod: adjustable

Neck relief: straight

Fret style: medium

Scale length: 23"

Nut width: 1 3/8"

Body width: 13 5/8"

Body depth: 4 1/4"

Weight: 3 lbs 12 oz

Condition notes: it's quite clean overall with just minor use/playwear by way of very light scratches here and there throughout and a few tiny dings along the binding and headstock. It does have a center seam repair to the top (below the bridge) however. I've also modified the bridge a little bit by adding string ramps coming-up to the saddle to achieve better back-angle from the rear pinholes.

It comes with: a good hard case with stickers on it.