Hi there, new to this forum.

I was toying lateky with the idea of playing mandolin to add some licks to my guitar playing, and the web being what it is, I find the mando-cumbus (is it the right appellation?)
Anyway, this is the cumbus stringed with 4 double strings, 22" scale length, so mandolin-like instrument.

I have been attracted by the cumbus because it appears (to me) to be the turkish way to make a louder stringed instrument in the context of a sound environnement becoming louder, when, at the same historic time, and for the same reasons, the Dopyera brothers in USA and Mario Macaferri in France were pursuing the same goal. The Dopyera went to invent the resonator line of instruments, which have had great success in the hawïïannsound era in US in the 30's, and are today a staple in delta blues, and Macaferri went to make a serie of guitars for the Selmer company, which happened to please Django Reinhard and are consequently today the favorite model for the gypsy jazz.
These guitars were not originally designed to fit a particular style of music, but are now a bit stucked in somehow narrow niches.
Although I don't play gypsy jazz nor delta blues, I happen to like at the same time the Macaferri's guitars and the resonator guitar, because these guitar seems a good fit for my playing. (I came back to guitar 3 years ago, and found a somewhat personal style)

Finding a few days ago the existence of the dumbus family of instruments seemed to me like a good synchronicity.

So I received the mando-dumbus today, and here are my first impressions :
- I'm not sure if the tuners can keep the tuning.
- I like the crude simplicity of the neck/body assembly. Clever.
But : 1- I'm not sure this design is enough to, once again, keep the tuning stable,
and : 2- on mine, the neck has been screwed a bit off, so the strings are a bit off the neck also. An little piece of aluminium had been used to shim the angle, in a somewhat typical "middle-east" way (don't flame, please, I lived (and loved) enough in North-Africa and India to know what I mean), but the assembly needs some improvment. At first view, not really difficult.
- And it is fine, because, also, the fretboard and fretting itself is... let's say funky. Since my initial goal is to learn mandolin, I'm readily planning to put a mandolin fretboard (13" 7/8 standard mandolin scale) and correct fretting, and so will at the same time make a better fit to the neck/body joint.
Or maybe a complete mandolin neck would be a solution, but I also want a somewhat larger than standard neck, so add a thick fretboard would allow for a wider neck...

I wonder if any of you did make a similar modification, and would like to share experience.

Sorry for the lenghty post, but it is a first. And, being french speaking, you'll forgive my sometimes weird english.

Jean-Paul Bataille
www.fingerstyle-guitar.com/jean-p...taille/