page_title: Electric mandolin
section_title: Solid-body electric mandolins
hierarchical_section_title: Electric mandolin / Solid-body electric mandolins
caption_attribution_description: English: An Epiphone "Mandobird VIII" electric mandolin.
context_page_description: The electric mandolin is an instrument tuned and played as the mandolin and amplified in similar fashion to an electric guitar.
  As with electric guitars, electric mandolins take many forms:
  Most common is a carved-top eight-string instrument fitted with an electric pickup in similar fashion to many arch top guitars.
  Solid body mandolins are common in 4-, 5-, and 8-string forms.
  Acoustic electric and semi-acoustic mandolins also exist in many forms.
context_section_description: Both four-string single-course and eight-string double-course solid body mandolins have been produced by several makers, as well as five-string models combining the tonal ranges of the mandola and mandolin.
  From 1956 to 1976, Fender produced a four-string version, the Fender Electric Mandolin, with a body shape was based loosely on the Stratocaster, and popularly nicknamed the "Mandocaster." More recently, Fender produced an eight-string semi-acoustic electric mandolin with a very similar body shape, and reissued as the Mando-Strat in both four- and eight-string models.
  Gibson manufactured the EM-200 solid-body electric mandolin from 1954 to 1971. They recently produced a solid-body mandolin known as the Mandobird, based on the Gibson Firebird body and sold under the Epiphone label, in both four- and eight-string versions.
  Eastwood Guitars manufactured a solid-body eight-string electric mandolin as the "Mandocaster" with a Telecaster-style body and two single-coil pickups. (Eastwood also offered the "Mandocaster 12," actually a short-scale six-course twelve-string electric guitar, tuned an octave higher than a standard guitar making it a so called 12 String Electric Soprano Guitar.).
caption: Epiphone's Mandobird solid body electric mandolin
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