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Mandolin Family Information:

Low Tuned Mandolin





Here's a couple of video demonstrations of my Low Tuned Mandolin:

Fairbury's Fancy


Hula Zen



The Smallest Difference



Low Tuned Mandolin features: The Low Tuned Mandolin was made to satisfy my need for an instrument that was a physically smaller and higher pitched than the octave mandolin, but still lower in pitch than the mandola. What I really wanted was an instrument that bridged the gap between the two and would more closely match my limited vocal range. The Low Tuned Mando as presented here matched up with my desires with its ability to be played in the keys of E and A without the need to be capoed. It has the added advantage of being sized to fit an inexpensive semi-rigid foam baritone ukulele case. The case I purchased was a "Lanikai Hardshell Baritone Ukulele Case", available from many on-line dealers at a cost of around $40, about half the total cost I invested in materials to build the instrument shown here. The concept was first proven by converting an inexpensive baritone ukulele to the nylon-strung version shown further down on this page, so I knew I wanted it to fit a commercially available case. The entire package is very light weight and makes an exceptionally fun and packable travel instrument.

I'm totally enthralled with the shape, sound, and ergonomics of this instrument and I'd like to see a lot more players become equally enthused about it. I'm not motivated to produce large numbers of these, therefore I'm making the full plan available as part of the construction guide package shown below to encourage other builders to follow suit.

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I've been unable to find anything like the Low Tuned Mandolin commercially available, but the option exists for a prospective player to have a copy built by a local luthier willing to custom build from the plan. A full size 35" by 35" printed plan, CD with 320 photos documenting my own experiance building this instrument, and accompanying descriptive text is available to guide anyone wanting to duplicate a Low Tuned Mando for themselves or if its desired to enlist the services of a luthier for a custom project.

Bluestem Low Tuned Mandolin Construction Guide on CD with full size plan!

The guide is currently priced at $25 with first class US post office shipping included within the United States, the cost is $30 to locations outside of the United States.

Please e-mail me with "Bluestem Info Request" in the subject line if you are interested in purchasing one of the guide packages by check or postal money order. I accept payment in any form you wish, although personal checks take an additional 10 days to clear my bank before the guide is shipped.

Note: Your purchase allows me to pay for the tremendous bandwidth and usage this site gets without the need to sell advertisement space.

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Desired Instrument guide


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Mandolin Family String Spacing Guide

Click HERE for a string spacing layout guide in PDF format. The guide is used to directly transfer string centers and pair spacings to nut and bridge locations on four course instruments.


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Nylon String 19" Scale Low Tuned Guitar-shaped Mandolin

Here's a Youtube of a Nylon Strung 19" Scale Low Tuned Guitar-shaped Mandolin that I made from a $30 Baritone Ukulele to test the practicality of the 19" scale and lower tuning format:



Nylon String 19" Scale Low Tuned Guitar-shaped Mandolin: I love playing my standard F style mandolin, but I also really like the lower pitch and resonant qualities associated with the octave mandolin. I had played a few octaves but was never quite comfortable with the stretches involved with the scale length. The mandola was also not the solution I was looking for, as the pitch was not optimal for me and the scale length was shorter than what I really wanted. What I was looking for was something a little shorter than the normal baritone, but at the same time pitched somewhere in between these two instruments.

I became intrigued by the size and guitar-like style of the baritone ukulele, so I ordered a Rogue baritone ukulele from Musician’s Friend for 30 dollars with free shipping. I felt that was economical enough to try the scale out without the need to justify a large investment in a higher priced instrument. As a baritone ukulele it held little appeal for me. The standard tuning of DGBE was really like playing an abbreviated acoustic guitar, while restringing and tuning it as a normal ukulele with the higher pitched fourth string (known as re-entrant tuning) didn’t do much for me either. I'm just too conditioned to the fifth interval fingerings of my mandolin!

With a whole 30 dollars at risk I decided to do a quick and dirty modification to convert the baritone ukulele to a double course nylon strung mandolin tuned in fifths, but in a more desirable range a whole step above an octave mandolin.

The conversion started with removal of the old tuners and plugging the existing holes. I had a spare set of Schaller A style tuners in the parts box, but I could have purchased an inexpensive set of 4-on-a-plate tuners if this spare set had not been available to me. The location for the new first and eighth string tuner posts were close to where the original first and fourth tuner posts were located, so the original locations were drilled out and plugged with a short section of 5/8” hardwood dowel rod to provide better support for the new tuner posts.

After drilling new holes and installing the replacement tuners I turned my attention to the nut. I fashioned a new nut from bone, spacing the string pairs 1/8” between centers and spacing the string pairs so there was 1/8” clearance from the outer string pairs to the edges of the fret board. Although the distances and spacing were somewhat arbitrary based on my knowledge of the Mandolin and Charango, they turned out to be quite acceptable.

The bridge was the last area needing attention. I marked locations for the new string pairs and drilled holes as needed for the strings to fasten through. Two of the original holes lined up with the new string locations and the remaining holes were filled with glue-covered toothpicks, trimmed flush with the bridge surface, and dyed with the tip of a black Sharpie permanent marker to match the bridge color. Drilling the new string holes proved to be an easy task, as I had a 1/16” drill bit in an extra-long 4” length. The bit was angled downward over the saddle slot so the drilled hole would exit the rear edge of the bridge without contacting the instrument’s top.

If you desire a “prettier” conversion a thin layer of standard 1/36” veneer could be added to the front face before drilling the new tuner holes and the rear surface of the headstock could be stained to match the existing finish. My primary interest in doing the “quick and dirty” version was to test the practicality of the mechanics of double course nylon strings and the actual feel of the resulting instrument before committing time and resources into making a more “professional” version. String tension from adding 4 additional strings isn’t a concern here as the final tension is about the same because the 4th string pairs are tuned down to A, 3rd string pairs down to E, 2nd string pairs the same at B, and the first string pairs raised to an F# from the standard baritone ukulele D-G-B-E tuning.

One note about nylon strings:
Add no more than ONE wrap around each string post when attaching each string as they will stretch to the point that there will be several wraps around each post before they finally stabilize. There WILL be a lot of re-tuning initially, although it will settle in after a while.

The original strings were reinstalled and a new set of baritone ukulele strings were added to make the double string courses. The instrument was tuned to A-E-B-F# low to high. I was pleasantly surprised by the mellow tone of the nylon strings combined with the richness of the low tuning and double string courses. The whole step higher tuning allows me to play key of A tunes with G fingering and key of E tunes in D fingering. Other common playing positions likewise yield a whole step shift upward. It’s a really nice alternative.

I certainly encourage anyone interested in trying out this configuration to go ahead and try a conversion like this if you have the capability of doing so. I think you’ll be very happy with the resulting instrument. For me, it was love at first strum. Sounds pretty good, especially if you hold it in a manner that allows the back to freely resonate and it plays like butter!

I liked this instrument's configuration so well that I’ve made a version of it using better woods and standard guitar construction techniques. The new Low Mando features steel strings and a pinless bridge on an induced arch top plate. The new version is outlined at the top of this page.

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Please visit my other website designed to provide information on musical instrument construction. There are free plans as well as construction tips and techniques available at the present time.

Rudy's Sketchbook of Musical Instrument Plans, Ideas, and Inspiration

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If you desire to contact me about Bluestem Strings products:

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