“The Duck” Mandolin

The shape of this instrument was inspired by the “Duck” mandolin built by the late John Duffey of the original Country Gentlemen and the Seldom Scene. The points on Duffey's "Duck" were a little larger and more extreme than ours. I have not seen a record of anyone building this style of asymmetrical two-point shape recently; it provides more mass than a standard A5 model and sounds like an F5. All my mandolins are X-braced; I feel that this gives them a punchier tone than the tradional tone bars.

The instrument shown is European spruce and European Maple with an Ebony fingerboard, Allen Monteleone style tailpiece, and Randy Wood Vintage style bridge. Available back/side woods include American and European Maples; top woods include European Spruce, Red Spruce and Sitka Spruce.

Here is a picture I took of John Duffy playing his Duck mandolin at a festival (Indian Springs, I think) in the early 1970's.  I (thankfully) didn't find this picture 'till after I had finished the mandolin; his points were really extreme & would need a custom case.  Mine fits in a standard F-model case.