Mike Reinhardt
I love the look of 's hollowbody electric mandola (left). He writes: "The scale length of the mandola is 16 inches, nut to bridge. The pickup is a Schatten mandolin bridge pickup. Made in Kitchener, Ontario, they are listed in the Stewart-McDonald catalog. The fingerboard is all ebony. As you will notice, there is blond ebony in the fingerboard, which inspired the bovinelike stain."
     Mike apprenticed for a while in a violin shop in Toronto, if memory serves, but decided to move to China. When he did, he sold me one of these mandolas as an unfinished kit, and I've engaged another luthier to finish it before the decade is out. I'll let you know how it ends up.
     In the center and on the right are the ideal Valentine's Day gifts: a pair of Cupid-inspired Reinhardt mandolins. The center instrument also sports a Schatten pickup; the one on the right adds a humbucker.