Andy Irvine’s mandola

Legendary Irish musician Andy Irvine had a scare when his two main instruments vanished on a journey from Dublin to Denmark.  These were his guitar bouzouki and mandola, both built by me.

It was many weeks before they were finally found and returned, and in the meantime Andy asked if I had a mandola available. Unusually, I did, and he arranged to come to Northumberland to see it. By the time he arrived, the lost instruments were found, but Andy played the new maple mandola and, because he loved it, decided to take it any way.  Here he is playing it and showing off the Birdseye maple back and sides. He took this mandola on his latest UK tour.