Mandolin Mandolin A mandolin ( ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or "pick". It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison (8 strings), although five (10 strings) and six (12 strings) course versions also exist. The courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the soprano member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello and mandobass. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the "Neapolitan" or "round-backed" mandolin, the "carved-top" mandolin and the
Mandolin called a cylinder-back mandolin manufactured by the Vega Company between 1913 and roughly 1927), which had a similar longitudinal bulge but on the back rather than the front of the instrument. The mandolin was given a banjo body in an 1882 patent by Benjamin Bradbury of Brooklyn and given the name "banjolin" by John Farris in 1885. Today "banjolin" describes an instrument with four strings, while the version with the four courses of double strings is called a "mandolin-banjo". A resonator mandolin or "resophonic mandolin" is a mandolin whose sound is produced by one or more metal cones (resonators) instead