10 String Nathan Sweet Mandolin / Cittern

These only show up once or twice a year. Nathan Sweet is a luthier who has been making stringed instruments for years. His specialty is the stranger, rarer instruments, such as the langspiel and the hurdy-gurdy (both expensive). He also makes mandolins and citterns. This cittern is like playing a mandolin and a mandola at the same time. It is tuned CGDAE: A mandolin with a low C. I find these ten string instruments easy to learn and play and very useful. David Grisman and Mike Marshall both own 10 string mandolins made for them by Lawrence Smart. If you’ve been thinking that you’d like to try a 10 string, this is a good one, given that it sounds nice and isn’t very expensive.

The action is about 8/64ths at the 12^th fret. It’s all solid wood, though I’m not sure what wood it is. I think the top is cedar. The binding is a light wood. It has sealed mini guitar tuners. No cracks. Nothing loose. A few scratches, as seen in the photos. String it up with ball-end mandolin strings (easy to get at www.juststrings.com) and two 0.047 acoustic guitar strings (available there as single strings).

I prefer PayPal payment. Second choice is USPS Postal Money Order. I also accept personal checks, other money orders, and cashier’s checks, but in that case I don’t ship until the bank says they have cleared your bank, which can take two weeks at times. Shipping by Priority Mail and insurance is $30 in the US. Thanks.