Post a picture of what's on your bench?

[Jupiter Ukulele]

juneman, Its not spalted as I think of spalting. There's no difference in density that I can tell. Someone here called it something else, but I don't remember what. It usually occurs around worm holes. Stain seems to cover it pretty well. Heres a thread that shows a before and after I did.http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...ht=possum+head

That staining is usually called "Ambrosia Maple" and you are correct, the staining occurs around 'worm' holes. The holes are actually made by an ambrosia beetle. The beetle carries with it a fungus which it plants in the tree, and which causes the staining. The beetle eats the fungus, not the tree itself. It is simply a farmer with the tree as the 'ground'.

[Magnus Geijer]

[QUOTE=Dusepo;1900003]Cool! Are the sides of your nyckelharpa cut from solid? Is that the usual method of construction. I'd always assumed they were built like violins.

Yes, much to my surprise, the sawed sides are the traditional way. If you go further back, indications are that they were even hollowed out bowls with a top added, but I'm staying away from that. Some recent builders have gone to bent sides, and I might for my next one, but I'm sticking with (largely) the traditional on this one. It's been a blast to build so far. Sawed sides, flat back and a bent top certainly is faster to build than mandolins and violins. Getting into the keybox next, though, so I may have to eat those words.

[Tukanu]

On the Bench: Bowl back mandolin in Claro Walnut with maple veins.

[Dusepo]

My latest build, an Orpharion:

[Jim Imhoff]

Do I count 14 strings? Must be fun to tune--and how is it tuned, fourths? What is the regional/ethnic/cultural source of this?

[Charles E.]

Because just bending normal sides was too easy! Looks good Jo.

[Dusepo]

Do I count 14 strings? Must be fun to tune--and how is it tuned, fourths? What is the regional/ethnic/cultural source of this?

It's an instrument that was popular in Northern Europe during the renaissance, especially Britain, (what became) Germany and the Netherlands. It's tuned the same as a renaissance lute, but with iron and brass strings, instead of gut (or nowadays nylon). G4, D4, A3, F3, C3, G2, F2 high to low, with octaves on the lowest 3 courses.

Here's the surviving instrument from 1617 this was mostly based on:

That one actually had 9 courses! Mine only has 7 as you say. Stringing it up to start with is a bit of a pain, but once the strings settle tuning isn't too bad. Of course on a modern instrument it'd probably be made even easier by using machine heads or fine tuners.

Because just bending normal sides was too easy! Looks good Jo.

There's lots of crazy design decisions in these instruments. Check out the half-neck, for instance, which was on most renaissance citterns too. The idea was that your thumb rests in the gap. Not to mention the fan frets and bridge, which were a way of getting a good bass range before the invention of wound strings.

The strings are still settling on this one as I only finished it yesterday, but if you'd like to hear how they sound, here's one I built about a year ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTu85pkxlGE

[PT66]

I admire your work. Not something you can throw together on a weekend. My question is what is the market for historic reproductions?

[Dusepo]

I admire your work. Not something you can throw together on a weekend. My question is what is the market for historic reproductions?

It's actually most of my market! My favourite to build is probably the oud but most of my customers want historical instruments.

[soliver]

Time to start shaping the neck!

[John Kelly]

Great work, Jo. I see the fingerboard has fan frets too - an interesting bit of measuring to be done there!
There is an excellent museum of musical instruments in Edinburgh, St Cecilia's Hall, just off the Royal Mile near the Cowgate. Well worth a visit if you are ever up in Scotland; you have probably visited it at some time already. They have a reasonable collection of stringed instruments and an amazing collection of keyboard instruments. There is a repairer/restorer based in the hall too. I was last there a few months ago and had the place almost to myself.

[Marty Jacobson]

Second time this mandolin's been on this bench. Last time, it was a 10-string fanned-fret instrument, now it's got a new lease on life as an 8-string mandolin.

[oldwave maker]

Salamander stenciled. A mix of mica, titanium oxide, and iron oxide in a bit of tru-oil. She will be providing her own tiny led stage lights inside the oval hole box!

[PT66]

literally on my bench. Selmer influenced mandola. American sycamore and spruce.

[Dave Cohen]

On my bench now, also on my dining table. I'm building another mandolin from more orphaned parts. This one has a redwood top plate, curly maple sides, and a carbon fiber composite shell neck. All trim, including headplate, pick guard, fretboard, and other parts yet to be made are ebony. I don't yet have a back plate. Will have to buy a nice piece of curly maple for that. The binding is curly maple and katalox.

This mandolin evokes my "Fronkenshteen" lab mandolin, but with more refinement and only one screw. The neck is a bolt-on, utilizing a 1/4-20X 2" aluminum machine screw and a homemade aluminum captured nut buried in the neck heel. The rest of the body construction is conventional.

[Richard500]

Nice project! Motivation for the aluminum bolt - at 1/4 seems a bit light, or is a dovetail doing most of the work?

[sunburst]

Is the CF neck made in a mold? Any further shaping after it is formed? How is it finished?

[Dave Cohen]

The single 1/4-20 aluminum bolt has held up satisfactorily since 2010 in Fronkenshteen. The aforementioned homemade captured nut was made from a 3/8 dia. aluminum rod, drilled and tapped for a 1/4-20 thread. There are about 8 threads (+/- 0.5 threads) in that 3/8 cross section. So it is technically a barrel nut. A 3/8" hole was drilled vertically through the heel filler block (basswood) and a 5/16" hole was drilled perpendicular to the 3/8" hole for the bolt to access the nut. The barrel nut was slid into position in the 3/8" hole, then sections of 3/8 wood dowel filled the remainder of the hole.

The CF neck shell was made in a mold. No further shaping, but I had to do quite a bit of work to get it to its final form. The headstock portion was completely hollow out of the mold, but I glued in 1/2"x11/16" wood bars along the edges to help support the tuners. I drilled for the tuners before gluing on the ebony headplate, and reamed for the grommets after gluing on the headplate. I probably could have saved some more mass by just putting in thinner maple strips at the bottom of the interior of the headstock, maybe some additional strips on the underside of the headplate. What I did was less work than that, not too much more mass. The fretboard extension support is maple. I first glued it in place in a small rabbet in the heel filler block, then routed for and installed two small CF bars (~3.5" long) to reinforce it such that it doesn't flex any. The extension is almost completely floaating over the body, making contact only at the very edge of the mortise. The mortise is very slightly dovetailed. Mass of the entire assembly, sans tuners, is about 235 grams. Subtract out the masses of the fretboard, frets, and extension, and that gives a neck mass (including captured barrel nut) of about 140 - 145 grams, which does save some mass over one of my conventional necks, even more so compared to a conventional neck with a conventional adjustable triuss rod. I finished the Fronkenshteen neck with only a light French polish. Haven't decided yet what I will do with this one. With only very light sanding w/ 400 grit paper, the neck shaft surface is pretty smooth. So It is probably possible to forego finish altogether on the CF neck, except that I want more protection for the headplate and binding. I'll experiment w/ nitro on some scrap pieces of the shell. I have another shell blank. I'll post a picture of that later (finishing coffee and preparing for some morning chores now).

[Dave Cohen]

Here's the photo of the 2nd CF shell. You can see that there is a CF stiffener in the center of the neck shaft, and that some excess was cut off both ends of the other one.

[Steve Sorensen]

First clear coat with pinstriping . . .



Steve

[Dave Cohen]

An update. The mandolin with the CF neck is now strung up "in the white", or should I say, "in the black, white, and reddish brown"?

For finishing, I'm thinking I'll start by spraying a clear coat on everything. Then I'll mask the binding and shoot lacquer with some transtint dye to get the maple back and sides fairly close in color to the redwood top, after which I will use different tinted lacquers to shade the body in a typical burst pattern from the redwood color to red to black. Finally, the shading will be followed by clear coats.

Then there's the problem of what to name this thing. I Call the original with all the screws holding the body together "Fronkenshteen". But this one doesn't have that look at all. So should I call it "Son of Fronkenshteen"? ....Or maybe "Daughter of Fronkenshteen"? ....Or maybe "Frau Bluecher"? ....Or???

[Paul Statman]

That's beautiful, Dave. Too good-looking to be a 'Frau Bluecher', and too symmetrical for 'Eyegor'...

[mandrian]

An update. The mandolin with the CF neck is now strung up "in the white", or should I say, "in the black, white, and reddish brown"?

For finishing, I'm thinking I'll start by spraying a clear coat on everything. Then I'll mask the binding and shoot lacquer with some transtint dye to get the maple back and sides fairly close in color to the redwood top, after which I will use different tinted lacquers to shade the body in a typical burst pattern from the redwood color to red to black. Finally, the shading will be followed by clear coats.

Then there's the problem of what to name this thing. I Call the original with all the screws holding the body together "Fronkenshteen". But this one doesn't have that look at all. So should I call it "Son of Fronkenshteen"? ....Or maybe "Daughter of Fronkenshteen"? ....Or maybe "Frau Bluecher"? ....Or???

What about calling it the Black Swan? Swans are known for their beautiful necks and this one’s black and beautiful. They do exist in the wild, Australia I think. It’s certainly no ugly duckling.

Regards,

[Philippe Bony]

I like "Frau Bluecher" a lot, but "Fronkenshteen Junior" could be more appropriate. Glad to see Mel Brooks isn't forgotten!

[Tavy]

Looking forward to getting this baby-monster strung up in the white: