Post a picture of what's on your bench?

[nkforster]

I asked a few makers what was on their bench, this is what came back.

http://www.theluthierblog.com/articl...s-whats-bench/

What's on yours?

_________________
nigel

http://www.theluthierblog.com
http://www.nkforsterguitars.com/book/

[John Kelly]

Just off the bench, and pictured in my back garden outside the workshop. American cherry soundboard, mahogany back, sides and neck. The neck is from a reclaimed Victorian wardrobe which was well over 100 years old! Body shape is my tenor guitar design and tuning is standard octave mandolin with D-Addario strings. Finish in Tru oil, first time I have tried this medium and I like it a lot.

[belbein]

my tenor guitar design

John, that is an absolutely stunning instrument. Did you draw the design yourself or base it on something. The reason I'm asking is that I want an guitar bodied octave mandolin to be my next build, and I'm having a heck of a time finding plans.

[sunburst]

So...
I went right back to the bench and took this shot after walking to the computer and seeing this thread. I put the removed rosette material on the top of the guitar so show what had been done, but otherwise this is the bench exactly as I left it a few minutes ago.
This is a restoration of a Gibson L-75 from the '30s. it was damaged and "repaired" by someone, not a luthier, who stripped it of all finish and color and sprayed it with Deft or some such. I've about finished all the structural repairs and I'm moving on to the cosmetics. I removed the horribly inappropriate rosette that was around the sound hole, and the book matched and glued spruce scrap you see on the bench will be used to replace the missing top material where the rosette was so that I can replicate the original rosette as closely as possible.
Why do I take on projects like this? I ask myself that question pretty often, and I don't have a good answer, other than I'm a sucker for hard-luck cases I guess, and it can be rewarding to see instruments like this returned to a dignified condition.

[Folkmusician.com]

I love images like this. I often wonder if the client realizes that the correct tool for the job is often a chisel and a pocket knife (or maybe a floor jack).

[nkforster]

John, that is an absolutely stunning instrument. Did you draw the design yourself or base it on something. The reason I'm asking is that I want an guitar bodied octave mandolin to be my next build, and I'm having a heck of a time finding plans.

You don't need plans! Take a guitar shape you like, leave the waist where it is but bring the shoulders in to the 16th fret, leaving the bridge in the same place, chop off the first couple of frets at the nut end. You've a 14 fret OM.

Leave everything else (bracing) the same. The same? Unless you're really building lightly braced guitars, yes.

Better still wait for me to bring out my "How to make a cylinder top guitar" book and modify that to a guitar OM.

Nigel
www.nkforsterguitars.com
www.theluthierblog.com

[Ivan Kelsall]

John - When discussing mandolins with a Cafe member a long while back,he said that after playing a mandolin,playing a guitar was like ''trying to play a wardrobe''. That instrument is a stunner !.
From John Hamlett - "...and it can be rewarding to see instruments like this returned to a dignified condition". Well said John.
When i've repaired/refurbished banjos in the (distant) past,i've always thought what the original makers would have thought in seeing their lovely instruments in really bad shape. When putting them right,i always had in mind what they might say if they could see them back to (almost) 'as new'. That's one of the reasons that i keep my own instruments as close to 'as new' as i can,simply out of respect for the work that went into building them & the builders themselves,
Ivan

[John Kelly]

Belbein and Ivan, thanks for kind comments. B, the design is my own and I first drew the body shape for a travel guitar I was building for a fellow who is a total Delta blues fanatic and has even written a book on Mississippi John Hurt. He wanted something he could carry in the cabin of a plane as he travels a lot to the States from Scotland to pursue his music, and he fancied oak as the back and sides and a slotted headstock. Here is a link to the photos I took while building it. As you'll see, it has a K & K triple pick-up installed during the building.

https://plus.google.com/photos/10296...57524654703393

I used this design and the mould I had made to make a couple of tenor guitars and then thought I'd have a go at an octave with a 540mm scale and 15th fret body join.

[J Caldwell]

I'm working on a couple of instruments for next summer's Memphis Guitar Festival. It's a new event and should be a lot of fun. A Gibsonesque 00-NL Euro Spruce/Maple and a 2 point mandolin with 3 points (be kind, this is my initial foray into the mandolin world, I'm a guitar builder just having some fun..............).

[David Houchens]

#4 Possum Head A. This one will have a persimmon finger board.

[sunburst]

#4 Possum Head A. This one will have a persimmon finger board.

That's appropriate, considering how likely it is to find a 'possum up a 'simmon tree.

[David Houchens]

yessir. And a rabbit on the ground.

[Eric Foulke]

Presently my bench is covered with glitter. Trying some new bracing patterns and I want to see what the tea leaves have to say..............

[juneman]

Currently working on guitars JD28 #19 and JD18 #20. Pics after first coats of varnish.

Walter
JUNE mandolins and guitars

[Eric C.]

Not a maker, but this KM950 is on my workbench today.

[tree]

#4 Possum Head A. This one will have a persimmon finger board.

Questions, questions, questions, flooding into the mind of the concerned young person today: (apologies to Frank Zappa)

Are the 2 boards in the 2nd photo persimmon stock?

Is the bound fingerboard dyed?

How does the dye hold up over time (it looks fabulous now)?

What's the binding?

Plus, in just a few weeks it'll be time to shake them 'simmons down . . .

[David Houchens]

Tree, Sorry for the confusion. The black board is ebony and was for contrast only. I haven't tried dying any persimmon yet.
The binding is Ivoroid cellulose.

[juneman]

Hey David, is that back spalted maple. I have got some really cool looking spalted, flamed maple boards that would make some nice one piece backs and sides. I see the dark streaks so i was just wondering what kind of maple it was. I plan on using it on the next batch of mandos, but i have yet to see any body use any.
thanks, WALTER

[sunburst]

I haven't tried dying any persimmon yet.

I suggest blue! (Saves on masking tape)

[oldwave maker]

She's finally decided on a pickguard shape just 48 hrs before delivery of the StefF4! Thanks for the swell back, Spruce!

[David Houchens]

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

[dustyamps]

Restoring an old white Tremolux speaker cabinet. On breaks I'm playing by mandolin though learning an old Irish tune, The Widow Brady.

[juneman]

Thanks David for the link to the other thread. That is the same wood i have. Any thing different when it comes to bending it. I was planning on using on one of my next F5s. The next batch will include my 50th mandolin and I am planning on keeping #50 for myself. Maybe just some honey amber tint and leave it natural looking.
thanks again, walter

[Rob Grant]

One of 'dem bowed mandolins.<G>

A local lady wanted her father's violin reassembled after sitting in a box in pieces for many years. It's just a low cost "student violin," but it has quite a bit of family nostalgia attached to it. An old additional handwritten label inside the violin refers to the instrument being awarded to the lady's father in Finland in 1936.

Please note the container in the background. Although dragged kicking and screaming, I did resort to using only hide glue.<G>

[David Houchens]

Just finished a couple of bridges. My first try with persimmon. The ebony is 16 grams, the persimmon is 12 grams. Both are just rough fit to two mandolins in the works.
I drill, tap and cut the compensation on my milling machine. The uncut ebony one is at the point where it hits the bench and the hand work starts