Mandolin Player: The instruments: The alto mandola

The alto mandola



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This particular page was created 06/01/2005 and last updated 17/05/2005
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Picture from Music123

    Data:
  • Body shape: Lute
  • Top: Flat, bent or arched
  • Back: Flat, arched or bowl
  • Frets: Fixed
  • Strings: 8
  • Courses: 4 ( 2 - 2 - 2 - 2)
  • Scale: 380 - 515 mm
Usually simply called mandola and occasionally incorrectly tenor mandola, the modern alto mandola is the big brother of the mandolin. The standard tuning is c-g-d'-a' (like a viola), but there are a number of alternative tunings as well.
  
The scale length of the alto mandola can vary significantly. Traditionally it had a fairly long scale (420-515 mm), but around 1900 Gibson introduced a mandola with a much shorter (380-402 mm) scale.
  For a while the short scale mandola was the dominating variant, but today the long scale version seems to regain popularity.

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