Apitius Yorkville

Aaron Weinstein demonstrates his new jazz mandolin.

April 12, 2021

“I’m not a big gear person,” Peghead Nation instructor Aaron Weinstein says in the gear demo portion of his Chord Melody Mandolin course. Aaron’s F-style Red Diamond has served him beautifully ever since he got it in 2000, but his status as a one-mandolin guy took a turn when he discovered the instruments built by Canada’s Oliver Apitius a couple of years ago. Various email discussions of what an ideal acoustic-electric jazz mandolin might look like led to Oliver starting work on a custom Yorkville model for Aaron in 2019, and a few weeks ago, the instrument was finally completed. We already featured a performance clip of Aaron using the mandolin to play “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love,” and in this video, he demonstrates and talks about the instrument.

The Yorkville is one of two archtop guitar–inspired jazz mandolin models Apitius offers (the other is the Club Jazz). Taking cues from vintage D’Angelico New Yorker guitars, the instrument has a single-cutaway body, three-piece neck construction, and D’Angelico-like inlays and appointments. It is constructed with traditional archtop tonewoods: maple back and sides and a spruce top. A specially developed “floating” humbucking pickup is installed at the end of the fingerboard, and Schaller Grand Tune tuning machines keep the Yorkville in tune.

Aaron has often found himself struggling to be heard in loud stage situations, so the ability to plug in was a big factor in his attraction to the instrument. “What I like about this is that it’s been so difficult for me to find a mandolin pickup system that gives me the mandolin sound that I want, amplified,” he says, adding that he can now get a great sound just by plugging directly into his small AER Compact 60 amp.

Aaron also demonstrates the Yorkville’s acoustic sound, which has a big, rich tonality, thanks to the instrument’s body size, which is larger than a typical A- or F-style mandolin. “I couldn’t be happier with it. It gives me all the sounds I want for this music that I play, which is straight ahead, traditional jazz.”

To study mandolin with Aaron, enroll in his Chord Melody Mandolin course on Peghead Nation!

Apitiusmandolin.com