Northfield Big Mon Limited NFB-F5Altd Antique Cremona Adirondack Mandolin – New

Northfield introduced the Big Mon 15 years ago and it quickly became one of our most popular premium mandolins. To celebrate the model’s 15th anniversary, Northfield is offering a limited edition Big Mon. This mandolin is crafted with an Adirondack spruce top and a highly figured one-piece maple back. It has a hand burnished vintage-style finish. The bare wood is sealed with spirit varnish and top coated with fine layers of Nitro cellulose lacquer. It’s fitted with a set of newly designed deluxe Gotoh tuning machines. The headstock boasts a new inlay design: Astrafell. This inlay is crafted with a delicate wire-and-pearl technique that marries tradition with modernity.

The Big Mon is of course named after the famous Bill Monroe tune, and like his iconic Lloyd Loar F-5 it has the black-white purfling lines on the sides (instead of on the top and back). But you don’t have to play like Monroe to get what this model is about, that becomes clear with just a few chord chops and quick runs with your flat pick.

In a nod to function for the contemporary player, the fretboard has a radius and the fingerboard extension is shortened and slightly scooped, giving your flatpick better access to that “sweet spot” just past the 20th fret where an F-hole mandolin yields the warmest, most bubbly, tone. It’s hard to believe this is a brand new mandolin, and when those brassy-sounding new strings are broken in a bit the tone will be even more convincing.