Davidson - Custom Maple 'Deluxe' Mandolin - Phil Davidson - Hand Built

The fitting of high quality Schaller plate geared tuners enhances the balance and feel of this instrument. The profile of the neck is very comfortable to play. The Body Assembly… The back and sides are built from solid curly maple with attractive ‘birds eye’ flecks throughout, the back of the body measures 260mm (10.25”) x 340mm (13.375”attractive lace-wood binding protects the front and back joints. The depth of the body is 51mm (2”) tapering to 41mm (1.614”) at the heel.

The carefully selected soundboard (top) is built from solid Norway spruce and has a black/white chequered binding around the sound-hole and outer edge adjacent the lace-wood binding. The round sound-hole is 54mm diameter (2.125”). A fixed height ebony bridge with a ‘Corian’ compensated saddle is fitted to the soundboard for maximum transmission of sound.

The heavily nickel-plated tailpiece is custom made by PD and designed to accept loop end strings. A nickel strap button is fixed in the centre of the tailpiece. The Neck Assembly… The maple neck is centrally spliced with a strip of ebony; it has an internally fitted adjustable truss rod. The ebony fingerboard is fitted with nineteen nickel silver frets precisely positioned, honed and polished. Pearl dot markers are inlaid at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 12th & 15th frets …small black side position marker dots are inlaid in the lace-wood neck binding at the same positions.

The fingerboard is fully bound with lace-wood binding to match the body. The precisely cut nut is made from natural bone. The ‘snake-head’ shape headstock is faced with ebony and inlaid with a mother of pearl Davidson ‘D’ and ‘leaf’ insignia.

The oval truss rod cover is ebony. A set of Schaller high precision geared plate tuners are fitted for positive, trouble free tuning. Finish:

Natural High Gloss Scale Length: 352mm (13.85”)
Width at nut: 30.00mm (1.181”)
Overall Length: 635mm (25.00”)
Weight Approx: 0.879kg (1lb 15oz)