2000s Rigel A-Plus Carved-Top A-Style Mandolin

This is a slightly-older Rigel A-style mandolin that was brought in for some glorified setup work. It's a beaut, made in Vermont, and plays and sounds like an absolute champ. These are very curvy in the body if you've never played one before -- think "carbon fiber feel" but in wood!

The maker, Pete Langdell, built them with cut-from-one-piece sides and the top is a disc that simply slots into the top so that he could fine-tune them dry-fit and then tweak as he built them so that the finished product would sound its best.

Years later, a business betrayal saga left Pete "holding the bag" with the business, so to speak. His business partner sold the rights to the Rigel name to Gold Tone who began to produce their own "licensed" Rigel copycat mandolins and that meant that the demand took a nosedive.

Anyhow, as you'd expect, this is a top-notch instrument, built to a high spec, and it plays and sounds it.