Mendel, Joe Learn More +
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Brand New Mendel Octave Mandolin, Katalox/Sitka Spruce
Here’s something we don’t see every day! Our friend and fine luthier Joe Mendel has brought us a punchy and powerful flattop-style octave mandolin upgraded with a multiscale fretboard for easy lefthand work. Combined with the guitar-style body’s smooth waist, this makes for a very comfortable playing experience—no more fighting to keep the neck up like you’d have to with a traditional mandolin-shaped design! Joe outfitted this beauty with EVO frets, Katalox back and sides, plus Sitka Spruce on top, and Curly Maple bindings throughout.
Other keywords: al petteway, mandalin, octo, fan fret, multi scale, multi-scale, flat top, flat-top, mendel stringed instruments, 017097
SOLD Add to cartScale Length 22.875 in - 23.375 in Nut Width 1.25 in String Spacing 1.56 in Woods Spruce - Sitka, Katalox Add to CompareBrand New Mendel Octave Mandolin, Maple/Sitka Spruce
Here’s something we don’t see every day! Our friend and fine luthier Joe Mendel has brought us a punchy and powerful flattop-style octave mandolin upgraded with a multiscale fretboard for easy lefthand work. Combined with the guitar-style body’s smooth waist, this makes for a very comfortable playing experience—no more fighting to keep the neck up like you’d have to with a traditional mandolin-shaped design! Joe outfitted this beauty with EVO frets, Maple back and sides, plus Sitka Spruce on top, and Curly Maple bindings throughout.
Other keywords: al petteway, mandalin, octo, fan fret, multi scale, multi-scale, flat top, flat-top, mendel stringed instruments, 017098
SOLD Read moreScale Length 22.875 in - 23.375 in Nut Width 1.25 in String Spacing 1.56 in Woods Spruce - Sitka, Maple Add to CompareNew Mendel 12 Inch Open Back Banjo Padauk/Fiber
Joe Mendel has been building excellent instruments for over three decades now, with an impressive and diverse body of work to showcase his mastery of the craft. From Mandolins and Guitars to numerous varieties of Banjos, Joe’s offerings are wide-ranging and eclectic but all share his gift for voicing and his eye for beautiful (sometimes exotic) woods.Take this 12″ Open Back Banjo in Paduak: gorgeous red hues imbue the Paduak neck and rim with a thoughtfulness and sonority that is echoed in the dark, complex tonality of the instrument’s voice.
Let Joe’s ultra smooth neck profile guide your hands into new and exciting tonal territory. Mendel voices his banjos to have an earthy, complex voice, and he achieves that in part by employing more wood components, and this particular batch of Paduak gives this banjo a dynamic, warm, and woody voice, with all the projection we traditionally associate with banjos.
Add to CompareNew Banjo reclaimed maple Maple/
Here’s a great open-back banjo by Joe Mendel of Chesterfield, MO. It features solid Maple (reclaimed from a 100 year old Michigan farmhouse) construction, with and integral tone ring. It’s perfect for clawhammer-style playing, and has excellent projection and sustain, thanks, in part, to the laminated maple neck. It’s a whole lotta banjo for not much scratch!
Add to CompareNew Octave Mandolin Granadillo/Sitka
Here we have a beautiful Mendel octave mandolin in Granadillo and Sitka Spruce. As the name suggests, this wonderful instrument is intended to be tuned an octave below standard mandolin tuning, but is equally happy in alternate tunings. The sound is at once familiar yet refreshing. The unison-string chime of the mandolin family is present, but the strident, higher-pitched wail of the mandolin is replaced with a warmth and intimacy that harkens back to the Old World. And because of the larger air volume within the body, notes ring out and sustain like a church bell. An exquisite instrument that’s different in all the right ways.
SOLD Read moreScale Length 22.75 in Nut Width 1.34 in String Spacing 1.56 in Woods Spruce - Sitka, Granadillo
My gut tells me it’s not a thing most people take much time to think about,
their biography, their story. Certainly, I have not, but the exercise of pulling
this together is illuminating, and so I recommend that you take a moment
to pull together some words that tell your story. You might discover
interesting things.
Looking back, I find two interests that trace back to my youth that, through
my persistence, ultimately came together as the foundation for my work
crafting instruments. My interest in the playing the drums while attending
grade school was as non-productive as my first efforts with a cross-cut
saw. Many of us learn throughout life that persistence is the key – we are
compelled by certain interests and must confront that a great deal of work
is required to master them.
Through my youth, piano lessons were a part of life. The Beatles
appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show was the moment that I became
certain the guitar would be how I would make music in the future. As soon
as my sister lost interest in her guitar, it became mine and piano lessons
changed to guitar lessons.
My grade school efforts making sawdust matured in my teens and I built a
progression of projects. A checkerboard or a table can easily not earn a
second glance by those passing by, but if you’ve made them from raw
lumber, they are very meaningful, no matter their imperfections.
My interests in guitar and woodworking intersected when a repairman
suggested I learn about a supplier to the instrument building trade,
Stewart MacDonald. A workplace friend reacquainted me with the
bluegrass music that I had first experienced in guitar lessons and inspired
me to build dulcimers and mandolins from kits. My skills impressed others
to the degree they would ask me to work on their instruments.
Life brought me to a challenging time, the unanticipated end of my
everyday traditional manufacturing work for General Motors. But with the
support of my wife, I travelled to South Plains College Texas to attend a
luthier program to learn the craft. That education provided me the
foundation to apprentice and then take on repair work from multiple retail
music stores for more than a decade.
My acquaintance, with Joe Carr, a teacher at SPC and writer and editor
for Mel Bay invited me to interview mandolin and ukulele builders for their
internet publications. The success of that project led to a request to build
an octave mandolin for Joe, beginning my transition from repairing the
work of others to crafting my own instruments.
Hearing music created by award winning musicians performing using
instruments I have designed and built from materials I selected is an
experience I would never have imagined in the days of my youth, but the
persistent work over a lifetime has brought me there many times over. A
friend tells me the old saying goes “By the work, one knows the
workman”, and believes it to be true of my instruments. I’d be grateful for
your consideration