Maple Quintar

I posted pics of the first one of these a couple of years ago, it's a unique design, the owner was so pleased that he ordered another, made from different materials. This time, Quilted Maple and Sinker Redwood. I decided to use Flamed Maple for the neck, partly because it seemed to make sense, and also because I had offcuts from another project which I will tell you about soon.

It's an extended mandolin, with a low C on the bottom. We've made all sorts of five course mandolins, but each one is compromised by conflicts in body size and string length. The body of the Quintar is deliberately large, and we used compound strings, similar to Viola strings, which completely solve all the string length issues. It's a massive success, and isn't it pretty?