(this page is for die-hard mandolin freaks only)

Simon Mayor writes...

I've been using Mike Vanden's mandolins for over 20 years now, and while there are a host of excellent makers around these days, I've never come under any serious temptation to change instruments.

My old, sunburst f-hole, on which I've done all of my recordings to date, continues to be a source of inspiration, but a couple of years ago Mike sent me down a prototype of a new model to try out. We'd been talking on the telephone (he lives about 500 miles away!) for some time about how a longer scale length might work and he also suggested increasing the body volume over a 'standard' F5 model.

The prototype is pictured here. It features a 360mm scale length (an f-hole mandolin is typically 352mm) and a body volume greater than a Gibson F5. Suffice to say that four years later, Mike still hasn't got it back.

It took a little while to familiarise myself with the longer scale: a couple of tunes with chordal arrangements down in first position needed a wider left hand stretch, but for players who move up to the dusty end there's definitely more room for your fingers.

I'm still using the same string gauges - Newtone mediums (11-40) - but of course the new scale length means they feel slightly higher tension.

On my old mandolin, I was always happy using D'Addarrio mediums if I ran out of Newtones, but on this new instrument they feel slightly too tight and I can't do finger vibrato so easily, so the Newtones reign. As an extra compensation, I'm using a very slightly lower action, but the whole neck/fingerboard setup is so accurate I can do so without compromising the tone at all.

The sound is 'instant': clean, bright, bell-like, very powerful and perfectly balanced across the range. It's the 'Strat' rather than the 'LP' of mandolins: work at it a little and there is a huge range of tone colours. Even when I'm using a microphone, its power makes my job easier. For me, it's the ideal concert instrument.

Mike Vanden has already made quite a few teardrop versions of the 'SM'; a scroll-and-points is planned soon.

Mike Vanden's website