# Octaves, Zouks, Citterns, Tenors and Electrics > Four, Five and Eight-String Electrics >  First E-Mandolin build

## Englishman

I thought I'd amuse you guys with my efforts to build my first electric Mandolin.

My "plan" is to build it as a mini Les Paul. 

Body will be one piece Basswood with a maple top.
Neck will be maple.
Fretboard will be ebony.

Here it is so far..

Well, it's just the top so far  :Smile:

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David Rambo, 

Marty Jacobson, 

MrMoe, 

soliver

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## Englishman

Gonna be pretty if nothing else!

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David Rambo, 

DavidKOS, 

Gunnar, 

soliver

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## Englishman

Progress.. sorta.



When I get the bridge I can figure the fretboard width and all that.

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## Englishman

Neck and body wood arrived.

Got the body rough cut. Is 1.75" too thick for this?

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Daniel Nestlerode, 

lenf12

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## lenf12

I don't think 1.75" is too thick. Is the body chambered (routed out) or is it solid wood simply routed for the p/ups and electronics? It could be kinda heavy. The top is some beautiful maple. Nice work indeed.  :Smile: 

Len B.
Clearwater, FL

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## mandrian

Hi,

My Farmiloe 5 string telemando is 1.625 inches.



Regards,

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DavidKOS, 

Englishman

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## Englishman

Hi Len,

The body is basswood so it's not too heavy, however I intend to chamber it also.

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DavidKOS

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## Englishman

Rough chamber done. Body is way lighter. I'll clean it all up when the bridge finally gets here, I'm not 100% sure where the four string-through holes will be.
Got the ebony board tapered too. I need to order smaller fretboard dots.

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## John Kelly

That is coming along well.  What are you using as your pickup(s)?  I noticed a six-pole humbucker in a scratchplate in the background in one of the photos.

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## Englishman

Gonna try this and hope for the best  :Smile: 



This is the build with the scratchplate, quickie mock up.

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## Englishman

There will be a short pause while I wait for USPS to actually do their job.  I was hoping to use a 15" truss rod I had laying around but there's way too much math involved so I ordered a shorter version. Also ordered cream binding, I think it'll look cool, just going with a round-over on the back.

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## Englishman

Can anyone give me neck thickness at the 1st and 12th fret? Front to back, not width just to be clear. TIA.

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## thistle3585

My necks are 1/2" thick at the nut and taper to 3/4" to the 12th then a small fillet to 7/8" which is the heel thickness.  I leave the board 1/16" proud of the top.  These dimensions don't include the fretboard.  Keep in mind the height of the bridge in relation to the fretboard so you have ample adjustment for the action.  A little bit of neck angle helps too.  No more than 1.5 degrees. Neck width at nut varies between 1" and 1 1/8" depending on number of strings.  A general rule of thumb is that the width of the fretboard at the 12th should match string spacing at bridge.  Also, If you plan to use a 3 way lever switch, you need to make sure you have room in the cavity.  I learned that the hard way on a body that was 1 5/8"  thick. I know this is more than you asked for but thought I'd throw it out there.

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## Englishman

Very cool, I appreciate the info. Going single pickup here.

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## Englishman

Put the fretboard together, went with 12" radius.

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## MrMoe

I put a marker at 10 rather than 9 however some of my guidance may have be questionable. It is looking super cool. Fun to see your progress!

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## Englishman

> I put a marker at 10 rather than 9 however some of my guidance may have be questionable. It is looking super cool. Fun to see your progress!


Well, the person that will be playing this is used to guitar markings, just thought it would be easier for him.

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## MrMoe

I wonder if we can get an argument going about whether or not the fret markers affect the tone. I say they do but so insignificantly that it is unquantifiable. I had a shop mate who accidently put markers at 11. He was scratching his head and starting to think about relocating the bridge before he saw the error. Thanks for the interesting posts, looking forward to more.

 Maurice

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## Englishman

So the 12 string bridge arrived (finally)




Pulled two saddles off, look like it will work.



Half top load, half string through







And gluing the top on.

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## mandroid

8 thru body into 4 ferrule on the FM61 is  PITA   when 1  E breaks you have to replace both, as  the balls jam together ..
 so you have to slack the unbroken one, to get the broken strings  ball end out .. 

 And returning the remaining E up to pitch a 2nd time tempts fate it breaks .. 
 before again getting up to E ..

 :Whistling:

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Rick Jones

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## Englishman

Got the truss rod channel routed as well as the binding channel for the body. Just realized I'm out of skinny masking tape :/

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## John Kelly

That's a neat binding channel you have cut there.  Looking good so far in your build.

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Englishman

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## thistle3585

Where are you located?  You need to use a more appropriate bridge than that one.  Either a TOM or hardtail instead of a string through.  Message me and maybe we can sort something out.  I hate to see you put something like that on such a nice looking instrument.

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## Englishman

Going with Grovers as I got them for a great price.

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## Englishman

Got the fretboard attached and started the neck profile. WOW it goes so quick compared to say, a 35" scale bass. It's about 1" at the second fret and that feels pretty good to me but since I've never held a Mandolin in my life, I just don't know.

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## Englishman

Got the neck pocket cut. Tight fit.. little too tight.

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## MrMoe

> Got the neck pocket cut. Tight fit.. little too tight.


 I think the fit of the neck in the pocket has a very quantifiable affect on the tone and sustain. It is a notorious arguing point for Les Paul vs Stratocaster . Too tight = job well done.

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## Englishman

Quickie mockup.

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David Rambo, 

MrMoe

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## thistle3585

A couple comments based on your posts..  I target 3/4-7/8" thick at the first fret(includes fretboard) and 1" at the 16th fret(my neck joint).  I like for the fretboard to be 1/16" proud of the top.  1/16" gap plus 1/4" thick fretboard plus .010" frets plus .030" action puts you at 11/32" on a 3/8" tall bridge. Any more than that and you'll end up limiting your range to adjust the action.  I'd encourage you to run a straight edge down your fretboard to see how it compares to the height of the saddles.  It seems high to me.  Sorry for the unsolicited suggestions but hate to see you glue that in and it be too tall.

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Englishman, 

MrMoe

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## Englishman



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## lenf12

She's looking great Englishman!! I like the looks of the all yellow for an electric but the burst will be nice too.

Regards,
Len B.
Cleawater, FL

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Englishman

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## Englishman

Hey thanks. The original intent of this build was for the guitarist in the band who exclusively uses a burst Les Paul, I thought it would be amusing to echo that in this build.

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## Englishman

Wanted to get most of the body staining done before gluing the neck in, save a lot of masking off.

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## MrMoe

Impressive work! What glue will you use? I have wondered about that for a while. It is most likely covered in a past thread that I have not found yet.

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## Englishman

Thanks. Titebond 1 all the way!

- - - Updated - - -

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MrMoe

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## Englishman

I ordered a set of strings from Emando.com on the 8th. Hopefully they will arrive eventually.

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## thistle3585

Its looking good.

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Englishman

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## Englishman

Tru Oil coats drying.

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## Englishman

By way of an update. The finish is curing and I might as well wait for the strings from Emando.com to arrive.. which on Friday will be ONE MONTH since they shipped them.

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## Englishman

It just occurred to me how dumb I'm being. 
I can just get two sets of D'Addario 10s and put a set together, yeah?

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## Soundfarmer Pete

Hey Englishman, presumably you are in England then?
If so, try Strings Direct ..... they sell single strings so you can make your own set up.
I suggest D`Addario XL electric guitar strings in following gauges.... 0.010", 0.014", 0.024"W and 0.036"W

Incidentally, these strings are ideal for Mandobirds and the early Mandocasters with a compensated bar type tailpiece as intonation can be set up perfectly.

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## Englishman

> Hey Englishman, presumably you are in England then?
> .


Ahh, no, I'm actually in the Detroit USA area. Thanks though.

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## Englishman

Well, got strings on, everything works... except.... the double A string is buzzing open.. big time. It's fine at the first fret so I have to conclude the zero fret is too low. I left it for a day hoping the string tension would introduce some relief, but it didn't. Zero tension on the truss rod. I leveled the frets but didn't include the zero fret. I suspect that if I had, I would have noticed it was low, the first fret was a little low but they easily leveled. Amazing how quick it goes compared a 24 fret Jascar fretted bass neck. It seems my options are limited to:
Level the frets again, but lower than they need to be so as to make the zero fret 'higher'.
Install a higher Zero Fret.
Shave the neck so it is more flexible and will bend with string tension.
Toss it in the dumpster and buy a Harley Benton/Eastwood ready made.

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## Englishman

Since I had a pile of fretwire here, I selected a piece that would work and replaced the zero fret. Success!

I looked up three chords.

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David Rambo, 

MrMoe

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## zoukboy

> So the 12 string bridge arrived (finally)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Pulled two saddles off, look like it will work.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Won't the string spacing be wonky if you just use the center four saddles on that bridge plate? I recently used Gotoh 12 string saddles to convert my Mandobird VIII's bridge and had to move the centers.

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## Englishman

I guess it depends on what you regard as 'wonky'. I didn't come across anything really definitive on bridge spacing.

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## zoukboy

> I guess it depends on what you regard as 'wonky'. I didn't come across anything really definitive on bridge spacing.


IIRC the Gotoh 12 string courses are spaced at 10mm, but the coursed on my Mandobird VIII were 12.5mm (I increased that to 13mm since there was room on the bridgeplate and neck to go 1.5mm wider overall).

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## thistle3585

My bridges are 11mm on center for mandolins and increase to 12mm on center for tenor guitars.  I think what Roger is suggesting as "wonky" is that the bridge base is off center, to the center line, but the strings are centered.  The 12 string bridge he used is 10.5mm on center.  A wider spacing, 11mm to 11.5mm, would put the strings right over the pole pieces. Did you wind the pickup?  For a first emando, it looks great.  Very much impressed by the hand rubbed burst.

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## Englishman

Hmm, the center screw for the bridge is right through the centerline. I can see where a slightly wider spacing would tidy things up a little but were I to do another I'd go for some kind of TOM bridge.As it is, it seems to play great to some of us non Mando players and it's already in the possession of the guitarist that will be using it for two songs with the band. I didn't wind the pickup, I kinda like the maple bobbin covers and surround though.

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## zoukboy

> My bridges are 11mm on center for mandolins and increase to 12mm on center for tenor guitars.  I think what Roger is suggesting as "wonky" is that the bridge base is off center, to the center line, but the strings are centered.  The 12 string bridge he used is 10.5mm on center.  A wider spacing, 11mm to 11.5mm, would put the strings right over the pole pieces. Did you wind the pickup?  For a first emando, it looks great.  Very much impressed by the hand rubbed burst.


Yes, Andrew explained it better than I did!   :Smile:

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