The Algerian mandole (mandol, mondol) is a steel-string fretted instrument resembling an elongated mandolin, widely used in Algerian music such as Chaabi, Kabyle music and Nuubaat (Andalusian classical music).
The name can cause confusion, as "mandole" is a French word for mandola, the instrument from which the Algerian mandole developed. The Algerian mandole is not however a mandola, but a mandocello sized instrument.
The instrument has also been called a "mandoluth" when describing the instrument played by the Algerian-French musician, Hakim Hamadouche. However, the luthier for one of Hakim's instruments describes it as a mondole.
Structure
The Algerian mandole is a stringed instrument, with an almond shaped body, built in a box like a guitar, but almond shaped like the mandola with a flat back, raised fingerboard, and wide neck (as a guitar's). It can have eight, ten, or twelve strings in doubled courses, and may have additional frets between frets to provide quarter tones. A variation is to have the thickest strings be single strings instead...