MIMF

Hi Mario. From what I said I wasn't meaning to imply that Gibson-style mandos are the only ones out there. I'm well aware of the history of the mandolin and the neapolitan mandolin etc. Maybe I didn't phrase my reply correctly. In my limited experience the a-style and f-style mandolin are the ones t...

1. Tradition. Gibson set the standard with their archtop mandolins 100 or so years ago. The "copied from violin" hypothesis seems valid as Orville Gibson's designs were based on violin design. I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that some modern mandolin builders such as Stefan Sobell have bu...

You can buy Chinese-made electric bridges and tailpieces off Ebay very cheaply, though the ones I have seen are Gibson-style. I'm sure with a bit of searching you'd find a fender-style 12-string bridge. Of course this brings with it the question of whether the quality is the same as that made in, sa...

Yes, i'd definitely say it's a mandolinetto. Everything points to it being that. Thanks muchly Clay!

The Scale length is 13 inches. It has a floating bridge whereas the Martin taropatches had a fixed bridge. I forgot to mention that it has no label or markings on it. It's 1 & 1/8 inches wide at the nut. I guess it's possible that someone fitted it with mandolin strings at some stage; the soundb...

This instrument was given to me as it had a broken head-stock. They told me it was a Taropatch but all the references I have found online say the taropatch is a gut/nylon strung instrument and this instrument was fitted with mandolin strings. It also has what looks to me like a mandolin tailpiece al...

Count me in...i'll cover shipping to Australia