Eastman MDC804 Oval Hole Mandocello New

This Eastman MDC804 has a carved solid Spruce top with with a single oval soundhole and flamed, solid carved Maple back and sides. It has a 25″ scale length, a 1 3/4″ bone nut, and a 12″ radiused Ebony fingerboard. The body is accented with full Ivoroid binding. It has a gloss Truetone finish with a rich, ruby red color. To our ears, this version with the oval soundhole has a slightly warmer, rounder tone than the MDC805, which is the same size but has two f-holes

The Eastman MDC805 Mandocello is a wonderful instrument that is almost too much fun to play. In case you haven’t seen one before, the mandocello is to the mandolin what a cello is to a violin. They are tuned in fifths to CC-GG-dd-aa, one octave down from the more common mandola. For an obscure member of the mandolin family, the mandocello has made a few surprising appearances in recent years. Cheap Trick’s Rick Neilson wrote a song called Mandocello, which he plays on a solid body electric version of the instrument and Bon Jovi’s Richie Sambora and Drive By Truckers’ Patterson Hood have both recorded with them.