Purple heart mandolin

Continuing my run of large bodied mandolins is this not-so-little number in Purpleheart wood.

It's a fascinating wood to work with, hitting Janka hardness scale with 2,520 lbf. It is harder than rosewood and working it you will find yourself stopping to sharpen tools all day.

And then there is the colour itself. Only developing while the wood oxidizes when you first cut it its a light orangey brown hue slowly working its way towards the purple it is famous for.

This mandolin is on the 372mm scale length giving it a little extra string tension to work that bigger top. The result is a full bodied sound with a rich low end.

The larger body size at a whopping 310m across the belly makes it a really comfortable choice. Particularly for those who find themselves folding over a smaller mandolin.

This long-scale mandolin comes complete with a small fingerboard extension for a player that loves hitting that high Bb up the (usually) dusty end of the instrument!