Kit Building

[Gregooch]

How difficult is it (and what basic tools are required) to build a kit mandolin if you have almost zero wood working experience other than hammering a few nails into the wall to hang up family portraits and things like that?

[Bill Snyder]

Depends on which kit you get. The Saga kit is very doable with clamps, sandpaper, glue, dye, varnish (lacquer, shellac, etc.) finish applicator of choice, perhaps scrapers, very small drill bit and drill, screw driver, more clamps ( ). Other tools if you want to do inlay or add a traditional end pin (need a tapered reamer with the correct taper).
Some of the other kits will require more tools and skill.

[pfox14]

Building a mandolin, even from a kit, would not be my first choice of woodworking projects given the fact that you have no experience. Sorry, just sayin.

[Chris Rogers]

And yet it can be done. I play a great sounding mandolin (and recieve compliments on its sound and appearance) that I built as a woodworking novice. Although I had some experience with a nailgun framing my kitchen remodel, it wasn't much of a transferable skill to instrument building. There area lots of resources available, and a supportive community right here. Take your time and enjoy the journey.

[bmac]

This will take you to the site offering probably the best beginners deal, in my opinion

http://www.internationalviolin.com/i...x?ItemCode=MK1

I have built three of these kits and learned a great deal about building and customizing for individual appearance and adjusting for better tone. This kit comes with the comprehensive book on building a mando for the best possible tone.... I would highly recommend this kit as a "first build" and then if you want to pursue the mando further you will have made a good start.

You can also buy this kit without the book for less money but if you are serious you really need it... The instructions which come without the book are useful but rudimentry.

Necessary tools are (if I recall):
coping saw
eight or ten of the 2" plastic C clamps
hide glue or Elmers type white wood glue
sand paper from 50 through 200 grit or 250 (Not the cheapest as it self-destructs)
chisel one fairly shallow arc maybe 1" wide blade
box of 10 single edge razor blades
I also used a small, about 10 inch model makers saw which has a very thin fine toothed blade

there are probably other minor tools but they are suggested in the book... buy only as needed it is really easy to buy too many tools for this mando.

This is actually the Saga kit mentioned in the next post but sold by International Violin.

[Samurai19]

The first instrument I built was a saga a style mandolin, it really wasn't too hard and turned out quite nice. Here's a thread I started about it http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...uild!-(so-far).

[multidon]

In my opinion the easiest mandolin kit for first time builders is the Stew Mac Campfire kit. This kit can be easily finished with commonly available hand tools. It gives you a very nice Army Navy style flat top when finished. of course this is not everyone's cup of tea but it doesn't require many specialized luthier tools like the carved top kits require. But if you are willing to buy a few luthier tools like spool clamps and nut files it is even easier. The complete instructions are available on the Stew Mac Web site so you could check it out and see if you think you are up to it.

[belbein]

Dear Mr. Gooch: Look, you're asking the wrong question. Or maybe I mean you're not thinking about the right answer. The right answer is: "the best I can do as I'm learning." And the right question is: "What's the result I'm looking for?"

Because you're never going to build a Weber, Breedlove, Jacobson, Cohen, even an East Asian Special. Not on your first try, not on your 10th. But if you are just doing the best you can as you're learning, there's no question that it's possible to learn while you're doing it. And you can learn to be a "woodworker" on these kits, as long as you know there are going to be lots of lessons (some people call these "failures") along the way.

I had no boat-building experience when I build my first and second boats. I had no instrument building experience when I built my first and second--and now my third and fourth--instruments. I had woodworking experience, but that only means I had more scars on my hands and more mistakes in my past.

You aren't going to get woodworking experience by not building. I say go for it. Once you've built a Saga or Stew Mac Campfire or whatever, if you get bit by the bug, then you can build another one and do it as perfectly as the kit allows. Then watch out. Lots of tools will be in your future.

Feel free to ask me and everyone else here questions as you go. Find Frank Ford's site and read everything there, even things that don't apply to you right now. Read the Stew Mac magazine. And read every single post here. You'll be shocked and thrilled at what you can do with those virgin hands of yours.

PS: One little hint. Don't buy anything you can build. For example, you can build spool clamps--trying and failing and then trying again is what makes you a woodworker. Contact me and I'll let you know how I did it. That saves you money for things you can't build, like nut and bridge files.

[bigskygirl]

The saga kit is a great starting point. I had zero woodworking experience and came away with a nice product. I learned a lot and had fun while doing it. What more could one ask when doing something new?

Just get the saga and start learning, here's my build thread:

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/sh...aga-build-saga

[Rroyd]

I had a high school student who built a IV kit that sounds very good. He did get the Stew-Mac plans showing the graduations and a couple of scrapers, in addition to the tools and materials listed above, and made a graduation caliper out of plywood and a $10 or so dial gauge from Harbor Supply, as described in threads that can be located here. He had made a couple of wooden boxes prior to this project, but that was the extent of his woodworking experience. Go for it!!

[Willie Poole]

I keep reading about these Stew-Mac kits, Does Stew-Mac make and sell a completed mandolin? If they do what name are they sold under?

Willie

[MikeEdgerton]

I keep reading about these Stew-Mac kits, Does Stew-Mac make and sell a completed mandolin? If they do what name are they sold under?

Willie

They sell kits and parts, they don't sell completed mandolins.

Saga on the other hand sells kits but they also sell complete mandolins, Kentucky and Rover are two of them.

[DrewWalden]

I built my International Violin A-kit with the saw from a leatherman multi tool. Cheap clamps from Walmart, tightbond glue, sandpaper, razor blade, and true oil. It turned out pretty good. I also had zero wood working experience.

[j. condino]

There is a local younger fellow who used to come around my shop and hang out, always talking about building an instrument, but he was a little gunshy as he had never built anything. Well....this year he finally got up the nerve, went out and got everything he needed, and with very little direction from me....on his first try he built a fully functional 72" tall 3/4 sized upright bass that is now his main giging instrument.

You'll be fine with a kit mandolin. Post a few photos of your progress for the visual nerds around here and good luck.

j.
www.condino.com

[Charles E.]

This will take you to the site offering probably the best beginners deal, in my opinion

http://www.internationalviolin.com/i...x?ItemCode=MK1


This is actually the Saga kit mentioned in the next post but sold by International Violin.

How did you know what the NEXT post was going to be?

[Rob Grant]

Got any experience with a chainsaw??!!<G>

[Gregooch]

Thanks for all the advice; anyone have any experience with the Kentucky F style mando kit?

[Bill Snyder]

Do you have a link to it?

[MikeEdgerton]

Thanks for all the advice; anyone have any experience with the Kentucky F style mando kit?

I don't know how he's getting away with putting the kentucky name in there, it's not a Kentucky. Those are RAS kits as far as I can see. Here's a thread about the kit. Don't get blinded by the F style I don't think those are solid top instruments. The Saga is solid.

[sebastiaan56]

Having built both A and F style kits I can categorically state that the A was a much better experience. Both sound about the same but the A is much harder to mess up on. Don't underestimate the work in binging an F scroll. Not for the filing hearted.

[carbonpiou]

Very frankly, I do not see too much the interest to build an instrument starting from a kit. Even if the final result is excellent - what is not at all certain -
What will bring itself as favours ?
Financially ? Nothing is certain whole!
Aesthetically? Nothing, absolutely nothing!
Acoustically? You will be tributary of provided materials, of the imposed forms, therefore I do not see the interest at all.

Acoustic quality - and the price! - of a musical instrument the quality from its 75% wood and 25% the good choice of the forms and of volumes.
Especially - and here I insist - truth great pleasure of manufacturing oneself its instrument, it is precisely to have the possibility of searching and of choosing materials, to search and choose innovative forms.
After having manufactured its instrument in this way there, great happiness is to intend it to sound with wonder and to say: yes, I made the good choices !!

Which satisfaction you will have after having stuck your kit in the way indicated, with the provided adhesive, etc… ? If your mandoline makes a good sound, you will not be able to even say that this is thanks to you. The share of YOUR work in the final result will be only aesthetic. Indeed: all the significant components and crucial determining the quality of the sound result are not your fact. A musical instrument also must and especially to be beautiful to hear.

[Bill Snyder]

carbonpiou, have you ever built from a kit or handled a kit? If what you say is true everyone's finished kit would be of the same quality and they would all be stunning or they would all look terrible or they would all be somewhere in between and this is not so.
Most of the kits talked about still need the final graduating done, necks shaped to owner's likes, and finishing (this is HUGE in determining how it looks). Tone bars have to be shaped and glued in. Binding routed (at least on some of the kits) and installed and much more work.
I have designed and built my own instruments. I have also built one kit. The design of the kit was set and the kit was faster and there were a lot of critical steps done or partially done but whether it turned out as a poor instrument, a fair instrument, or a really good instrument still laid entirely with me.
carbonpiou, as far as designing what you want if you build from scratch that is true but if you take a look around the Mandolin Cafe you will notice that 2 particular designs dominate what is discussed on the forums. There are slight variations amongst the builders of these 2 designs but they mostly stay close enough that everyone recognizes them as being heavily inspired by Gibson's f-style and a-style mandolins.
I think your cf bowlback mandolin is quite stunning and your use of a seldom used modern material is to be lauded but this is not the road for everyone that desires to have a hand in the production of their instrument.

[bmac]

Most people start with a three wheeler, graduate, to two wheeler with training wheels, rudementry two wheeler, a five speed, and perhaps the next level (whatever that is).

Very few of us started with a multispeed racing bike as our first bike.

The International Violin kit (AKA Saga kit) is the three wheeler of mandolin building but it is a fine begining builder learning experience.

[bigskygirl]

Thanks for all the advice; anyone have any experience with the Kentucky F style mando kit?

Your first post indicates you have no tools and no experience.......I say again, get the saga and start learning, it can be done with a bag of clothes pins and some masking tape.

[multidon]

There have certainly been threads on this same topic brfore. I remember participating in one. I offered up some possible motivations for building from a kit and some took me to task for presuming too much. But at the risk of the same thing happening let me opine please. If your motivation for building a kit is to save money that is unlikely to happen. By the time you buy materials and tools you could have used the same money tk buy a factory made one. So forget saving money. If your motivation is that at the end you will have a finely crafted instrument equal to a Gibson Master Model or Dudenbostel forget that too. The only way to get as good as those guys is to spend a lifetime at it. No one is that good at their first try. No one. If you are very careful and work slowly and have the aptitude you may end up with something decent. And you will have the tools you need for the second build so it should be less expensive. The only motivation for building a kit instrument that makes any sense to me is as a learning experience. You rally do learn how things work and learning the construction techniques for yourself makes it much easier to talk with a luthier about set ups repairs or custom build because you have a common vocabulary and experience.

I would again recommend a flat top kit to start. They are a much easier build. Others will say "but thats not what I really want. Why shouldnt I build sn F style since thats what I want?" Well its much harder. You have to walk before you can run. And your flat top will be useful even after moving on. Camp mandolin beach mandolin beater mandolin loaner mandolin or whatever. The Stew Mac Campfire is excellent for beginners. Another that gets good reviews here is Don Kalawek's flat top kit. It has the added advantage of help from Don through the entire process. Every April he leads a mandolin msking camp in Appomatox Virginia that is very popular. You produce an instrument in the white by the end of the werk with direct instructions from Don himsrlf. Talk about a learning experience! I would love to do that myself sometime. After successfully building a flat top you may then havs the skills to try an A or F style. Good luck!