Bill Bussmann Melon Octave Mandolin

Specifications

The World’s First & Only Melon shaped Octave Mandolin. 21.5” scale. Carved Colorado Engelmann Spruce top (harvested near the headwaters of the Navajo river in 1998). X braced with Adirondack Spruce. One-piece Carved Hard Red Maple back. Curly Maple sides. Curly Maple neck. 24 fret, 16 inch radius Ebony fretboard. Ebony peghead veneer. “F” style Schaller mandolin tuners. Maple and Ebony adjustable bridge. Bison femur bone nut. Randy Allen cast tailpiece (ball end strings). Custom Melon oil paint job by international folk artist Bonita Barlow of Hualapai, AZ.

Third Raffle Instrument

This instrument sounds utterly unique. Very clear and open with a lot of bass for such a small body.

Bill Bussmann says, “Hopefully it will not only become a useful tool for the musician who wins it, but also live up to the classic CoMando dealers roundtable comments of George Gruhn”:

Perhaps the greatest surprise I have encountered for playability and
sound was two watermelon theme mandolins made by Bill Bussmann. His… watermelon mandolins were such oddballs that few people would take them seriously. These two instruments were shaped like a slice of watermelon and were painted with the green and white watermelon rind and red interior. They had multiple watermelon seed shaped soundholes and were so odd that virtually every one who saw one broke out laughing. The workmanship was very good but…the sound, volume, and playability of these instruments on the other hand was absolutely remarkable. They were some of the finest sounding new mandolins I have ever encountered. It was my opinion that they surpassed instruments I have played which cost many multiples more.

Scale: 21 1/2”
Nut width: 1 5/8”
Body length: 15”
Body width: 12 3/4”
Body depth at sides: 2 7/16”
Body depth at center of arch: approx. 3”
Neck/Body joint at 15th fret.

$3500 value.
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Video Demos

NEW! Played by Chipper Thompson. This and all other raffle instrument videos available at the ZoukFest YouTube video channel.

Played by Roger Landes. This video available at YouTube here. Other video links below, including original QuickTime files (higher quality than YouTube).