Mandobeest Guitar

Everyone wants to sell long necked guitar designs but hardly anyone thinks about engineering them correctly.

There seems to be an unspoken consortium of denial about this elephant in the room. I call it “ramp” and it is the single most limiting factor in modern long neck instrument designs.

Careful engineering proves a point. I have been extolling the virtues of static reinforced necks for some time now. I much prefer these to adjustable necks, which are so fickle, bad sounding, and prone to failure. Static reinforcement and carefully controlled geometry of even the longest neck yields superior stability, longevity, and tonality.

The Mandobeest has a heel at the traditional twelfth fret where an additional 1/4” of thickness is added. This extra thickness adds reinforcement and is combined with about 1/100” fall off in the fretboard to net out dead flat. This is critical for optimal playing geometry, and is so often overlooked in ambitiously long necked designs.

Peghed brand planetary flamenco tuners are very lightweight and precise to keep the instrument balanced and in tune. The deep body is 2” thick also in the interest of balancing the instrument.

The Mandobeest has just enough room to comfortably fit a full size hum bucker in the bridge position. There is a coil tap activated by a push pull potentiometer. 
A Macassar fretboard, body cap and head plate lend a monochromatic flair to the maple and alder neck and body.

The inlay on the Mandobeest is in black pearl with a white crescent thrown in on the headstock. It is a subtle tree of life motif. Dreary and winding, craggy and torn, this endless limb reaches upward to a distant silent moon on the headstock. The monochroma of all the Macassar Ebony serves as a night sky to absorb five octaves of glimmering sound.

All in all, this very ergonomic instrument sports a five octave range in an acrobatic package with simple controls and a basic “string through” hardtail bridge. Couple careful engineering with superior hardware and electronics, and you have a sonic masterwork. A hot bed for creative expression.