“Dude, I got a Dood!” Not going to lie, I’m a sucker for a cool name. Dood Craft Guitars isn’t just a name though. Small batches of guitars hand assembled in Chula Vista, California for around $350 by one guy with a motto of “No More Boring Guitars” is also an attention grabber.
The Mandy is builder Capt. James Nelson’s most popular creation. The surf-inspired 6-string has some well-thought-out tricks up its sleeve.
First off, it’s a 24-fret neck bolted onto a shorter body. Scale length is 25.5,” comparable to a Fender Strat. Speaking of scales and Strats, The Mandy is a comfortable 6 pounds, almost 2 pounds lighter than my Fender American Standard Strat.
The pickups are a PAF-inspired design that come from the same source as Dood’s bodies and necks. More important than the what though, is the where. Because of the 24 fret neck, both the neck and the bridge pickup sit a little closer to the middle of the body. The result is more of a woody snap than extreme darkness or brightness. Both pickups share a master volume and tone control along with a 3-way pickup selector.
A few more notable perks of The Mandy are; locking tuners, graphite nut, mahogany body, rosewood fretboard, Strat-style tremolo with whammy bar, a 12” playing radius, Certificate of Authenticity and a hardshell case. Since there’s no one to blame in a one man operation; each Dood guitar comes setup and intonated with low action, ready to play.
The Mandy, with a case, retails for $350.
Clip 1—Here’s a tour of the pickups starting on the bridge followed by the middle position and finishing up with the neck pickup. I cranked up a Fender Blues Jr and rolled back the volume on the guitar to let PAF-style pickups do what they do best.
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Clip 2—Well now we have to crank the volume all the way up on The Mandy, and hear it really drive the amp on the bridge pickup.
Clip 3—While I wasn’t crazy about the middle pickup selection with overdrive, it really made up for it on the clean channel! Here’s the nice fat clean tone with a Boss DD-7 delay.
For more info on Dood Guitars and the Mandy, you can stop by their website.
You can't believe everything you read on the Internet, but Billy Voight is a gear reviewer, bassist and guitarist from Pennsylvania. He has Hartke bass amps and Walden acoustic guitars to thank for supplying some of the finest gear on his musical journey. Need Billy's help in creating noise for your next project? Drop him a line at thisguyonbass@gmail.com.
