The Octave Mandolin

Years ago, I started looking for an instrument that I wasn't entirely sure existed in the form I wanted.

I had played mandolin for years, along with guitar and violin, and I wanted something that occupied a different space. I wanted the tuning and fingering relationship I already knew from the mandolin family, but with a deeper voice and enough range to function differently in an ensemble.

In other words, I wanted to go lower.

That started a search that lasted for years.

What was I actually looking for?

There were instruments that came close.

Mandolas existed, of course. So did mandocellos. Irish bouzoukis and citterns occupied some of the same territory, although builders and players weren't particularly consistent about what those names meant.

What interested me most was what we now commonly call an octave mandolin: an eight-string instrument tuned G-D-A-E, like a mandolin, but one octave lower.

Today it's easy to type "octave mandolin" into a search engine and find instruments, builders, recordings and discussions.

At the time, it wasn't nearly that simple.

So I kept looking.

The Weber Gallatin

One of the instruments I eventually encountered was a Weber Gallatin octave mandolin.

I had an opportunity to play a Gallatin at Woodkerne, and it gave me a much clearer sense of what I had been looking for.

It wasn't simply a large mandolin.

The lower register changed the role the instrument could play. It could carry melody, but it could also provide

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