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Nice result Bill. It's a beautiful instrument. (And thanks for reminding me about Plektra.)

Nice mandolin. Why not just polish out the swirls with something like Meguiars? You could try it on the armrest first and see if you like the result.

I really like this Graham - the design, the wood selection, the quartet ambition, everything. I look forward to seeing its siblings.

If I remember your previous carbon bracing experiments right,...

Very nice Graham, and I like the Embergherish head. I've been thinking of building a low-arched, thin topped classical one myself, so I'd be very interested to hear how yours sounds.

Great project. I look forward to seeing how it progresses!

I did look a lot at Jacob Reuven's site, Jim, but didn't think to contact him. I will if I make another.

The fact that the Kermans have a wedge under the fingerboard to provide the right neck...

Thanks Bob. The back, sides and neck are Queensland Maple, the soundboards are European spruce and all the black is ebony.

As for the internal soundboard, I couldn't really picture how Kerman...

I just saw this thread after posting some pictures of my own recently finished Kerman copy in the 'Videos, photos etc' forum, if anyone is interested.

After listening to Avi Avital and Jacob Reuven recordings last year, and liking their sound more and more, I decided to have a go at making an Arik Kerman style of mandolin based on all the...

Very nice Graham. Out of interest, how dense was the bunya you used? I have a soundboard-size piece that is extremely low density compared to other bits I've got. There seems to be a big variation. ...

That's really nice. I like the contrast of the cedar neck, but it must also make the whole thing super light. I'd love to hear it.

Carving Huon would be a good way to forget the smell of smoke...

Chris Acquavella has two very useful repertoire lists on his website, one Baroque/Classical, the other Romantic/contemporary:
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I used this joint when I made a bowlback because I couldn't see any other good way to attach the neck (except making it integral with the block). It seems perfectly strong and secure.

Very beautiful. The headstock and rosette details are exquisite.

Out of interest, do you find any difference in sound between your bowl and flat-back Germans?

Lovely instrument.

I'd say the varnishes used by the Cremonese violin makers are pretty successful. Some of them still look great after 300 years. Although there's a lot of argument about how they were made, the...

Thanks John. Your observations on sustain give a lot of food for thought. The effect of tightening the bar on the bridge is certainly a mystery to me.

Another question: have you checked the body...

Thanks John. Great video and a very, very interesting design. Also beautifully executed. In some ways I wish you had separated the horn experiment from the neutral tension bridge/unbraced top idea so...

Very nice, as always.

What kind of mould/form do use when making the bowls?

The 1704 varnish is actually a spirit varnish, not an oil varnish. Because it dries fast it is tricky to apply, needing a good quality brush, long straight overlapping strokes, and no going back to...

Great stuff! I enjoyed that a lot.

You can tell that you haven't exceeded the open time of the glue if liquid glue squeezes from the joint when you clamp it. If the glue looks or feels 'jellied' while you're gluing up, then you were...

What's an easy way to remove oxygen? Is there such a thing as a heat proof vacuum bag?

Ah, I see! That makes much more sense of the side holes, which seemed quite redundant to me, though decorative. So those 'chimneys' must reduce the internal volume of the main chamber quite a bit....

[QUOTE
But then leads on to the decision to have a single sound port for the rear chamber, rather than the symmetrical pair that the Kerman's have. The port is on the side, purely because I...