Beautifully handcrafted octave mandolin by West Yorkshire Luthier Thomas Buchanan. This instrument was recently made but the current owner has decided to move to tenor banjo and now offers it for sale at a fraction of the new cost price. This one has a scale length of 500mm making it one of the shortest in the market. The body back and sides are made from solid figured maple with spruce top, rosewood fretboard and mahogany neck. The bridge is rosewood with abalone rosette, solid mahogany binding and Gotoh individual tuners.

Technical details:

• Scale length 500mm,
• nut width 34mm,
• width at 12th fret 42mm,
• total length 850mm,
• body depth 100mm,
• body width 335mm.

About the Luthier

Thomas Buchanan has been working with stringed instruments for over 30 years. In that time he has produced a great number of fine instruments which have gone all over the world with many now in the hands of some fabulous musicians.

Each instrument is built by thomas from start to finish. There are some basic machine tools in the shop for sawing and cutting but on the whole they are all hand built in solid timbers. Hide glue is used throughout on some instruments whilst on others some processes will use titebond. All rosettes , purfling and bindings are made from solid wood . fronts will be in either spruce or cedar with the back and ribs in a choice of timber. Cross bracings are used which are pushed into formers to create a gentle arch on the top, then hand worked until light and resonant.

Mahogany, maple and utile are some of the timbers used in neck construction. Each instrument is hand carved to shape and fitted with an adjustable aluminium truss rod with the exception of the mandolin which is non adjustable brace.

Fronts, backs and sides are cut and bookmatched. Instruments are finished in a nitro celulose lacquer an comes in high gloss or satin finish. All bindings and purfling are solid wood made in the workshop.

The octave mandolin comes complete with a TKL padded gigbag. 

Check out his website Thomas Buchanan musical instruments