Airline H35 Batwing
Price: 499 EUR – 499 EUR
Price history
Availability: 2/10 (Very rare)
A modern tribute to the 1960s Harmony H35 electric mandolin used by John Paul Jones and Yank Rachell: a tone-chambered flat-top body trading the original's fully hollow, feedback-prone build for stage-usable solid-body stability.
About the Airline H35 Batwing
The original Harmony H35 was a fully hollow archtop electric mandolin built in the 1960s, sharp-cornered rather than curved like a traditional F-style - the "batwing" name refers to that angular silhouette. The vintage design's massive internal neck block and full hollow body made it prone to feedback and awkward to build; Eastwood's modern Airline reissue keeps the batwing shape and single-pickup layout but switches to a flat-top, tone-chambered body for weight relief and resonance while resisting feedback at stage volume, closer to a semi-hollow electric guitar than a true acoustic mandolin.
Construction is a bolt-on maple neck with rosewood fingerboard at a 14-inch scale and 1 1/8-inch nut, with body and neck binding. Electronics are a single mini-humbucker with master volume and tone, through a fixed hardtail bridge with per-string-pair adjustable saddles - simpler and more stable than an acoustic mandolin's floating bridge, tuned in standard mandolin GDAE.
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Sound character of the Airline H35 Batwing
A mini-humbucker generally sounds warmer and less noisy than a single-coil, and the tone-chambered body adds a touch of natural acoustic resonance, but the flat-top design and fixed hardtail bridge keep it much closer to a semi-hollow electric guitar than to a true hollow archtop mandolin - controlled and stage-ready rather than airy and acoustic.
Technical data for the Airline H35 Batwing
| Body | Tone-chambered flat-top |
|---|---|
| Neck | Bolt-on maple |
| Fretboard | Rosewood |
| Scale length | 14" |
| Nut width | 1 1/8" |
| Pickup | Single mini-humbucker |
| Tuning | GDAE (standard mandolin) |
Price history for the Airline H35 Batwing
Cheapest seen: 499 EUR · Most expensive seen: 499 EUR
The history of the Airline H35 Batwing
The Harmony H35 (later the H835) became notable through use by blues musician Yank Rachell and, more prominently, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones on stage; Eastwood Guitars revived the design decades later as the Airline H35 Batwing after crowdfunding demand from players wanting a modern, gig-reliable version.
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