Editing Mandolin (section)

=== Flatback ===
{{multiple image|caption_align=center|header_align=center
 | align = right
 | image1 = Bandolim1.jpg
 | width1 = 130
 | alt1 = Picture of bandolim
 | caption1  =The bandolim is a Portuguese variant of the mandolin family. Instruments are flat on top and back.

 | image2 = Ozark flatback Mandolin - 2250 Army-Navy Special (by Jim Hutcheson).jpg
 | width2 = 115
 | alt2 = Army Navy Mandolin
 | caption2 = Army-Navy style mandolin
}}

Flatback mandolins use a thin sheet of wood with bracing for the back, as a guitar uses, rather than the bowl of the bowlback or the arched back of the carved mandolins.

Like the bowlback, the flatback has a round sound hole. This has been sometimes modified to an elongated hole, called a D-hole. The body has a rounded almond shape with flat or sometimes canted soundboard.<ref name=McDonaldp16>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=16}}</ref>

The type was developed in Europe in the 1850s.<ref name=McDonaldp16/> The French and Germans called it a Portuguese mandolin, although they also developed it locally.<ref name=McDonaldp16/> The Germans used it in [[Wandervogel]].<ref name=McDonaldp18>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=18}}</ref>

The bandolim is commonly used wherever the Spanish and Portuguese took it: in South America, in Brazil ([[Choro]]) and in the Philippines.<ref name=McDonaldp18/>

In the early 1970s English luthier Stefan Sobell developed a large-bodied, flat-backed mandolin with a carved soundboard, based on his own [[cittern]] design; this is often called a 'Celtic' mandolin.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sobellguitars.com/large-and-small-bodied-mandolins/|title=Stefan Sobell Guitars » Mandolins and Mandola|website=Sobellguitars.com|access-date=25 April 2019}}</ref><ref name=McDonaldp30>{{harvnb|McDonald|2008|p=30}}</ref>

American forms include the Army-Navy mandolin, the flatiron and the pancake mandolins.

==== Tone ====
The tone of the flatback is described as warm or mellow, suitable for folk music and smaller audiences. The instrument sound does not punch through the other players' sound like a carved top does.