10 years ago, my mentor, Randy Torno, my hard-working wife, and I decided it would be a fine idea to turn the garage into a full-time mandolin and guitar shop.
Of course, it started with good insulation and drywalling before the woodchips could really fly!
My son is now 21, and engineering Senior at CalPoly Pomona (and the brains behind all the 3D printing projects we have tried in the past few years).
Steve
I have no pictures, but I've re-fretted four instruments in the last month: 2 mandolins, a modern Martin guitar, and an older Martin tenor guitar.
Next week I have to pull a severely over-set neck from a gut string Martin that's had too many less than ideal previous repairs. I don't know what I'm going to run in to, but I'm going to hope it wasn't glued with epoxy. We'll see . . .
Sneak preview of a new Condino Brazilian rosewood & red spruce mandolin w/ tuning machines by Nicolo Alessi:
Love the natural look of the Brazillian! Like natural untreated Cherry, it looks its best with natural age, but I'm probably the odd guy out on this thought process.
My avatar is of my OldWave Oval A
Creativity is just doing something wierd and finding out others like it.
Just finished a shellback skiff...
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
Love it! I also am enjoying the scenery behind it. I really enjoy sailing small boats like this one, more so even than larger boats. Sailing dinghies have an immediacy about them that make them so much fun. Plus, you can explore small coves and creeks larger boats have to pass by. You, or some lucky person you built it for, will have a lot of fun with this boat, I am sure! If not, just send it to me. I'll know how to enjoy it!
Purr more, hiss less. Barn Cat Mandolins Photo Album
Thanks Bob. After 30 years as a professional luthier, my wife and I retired to St Augustine where I volunteer at the Heritage Boatworks at the St. Augustine Lighthouse.
This boat will be raffled off in December as a fund raiser for the lighthouse.
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
Beautiful Boat. I'm sure the pictures don't begin to do it justice.
Adam
That is amazing, Charley. I guess there are similarities between instrument building and boat making. Neither should let water inside.
Jim
My Stream on Soundcloud
19th Century Tunes
Playing lately:
1924 Gibson A4 - 2018 Campanella A-5 - 2007 Brentrup A4C - 1915 Frank Merwin Ashley violin - Huss & Dalton DS - 1923 Gibson A2 black snakehead - '83 Flatiron A5-2 - 1939 Gibson L-00 - 1936 Epiphone Deluxe - 1928 Gibson L-5 - ca. 1890s Fairbanks Senator Banjo - ca. 1923 Vega Style M tenor banjo - ca. 1920 Weymann Style 25 Mandolin-Banjo - National RM-1
Thanks Jim, I will admit that I like working with hot hide glue a whole lot more than working with epoxy! But that's how it goes. We have a good crew working on various boats at one time. I will be starting a strip built canoe using white cedar, mahogany and ash in a week or two. For those who might be curious, it will be a "Wee Lassie" canoe designed by Feather canoes.....
https://www.feathercanoes.com/
I will post the finished product in a few months.
I love this thread and love seeing all the cool instruments everyone is building!
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
Boats, particularly wooden boats, have beautiful natural lines. The lines form almost automatically when wood is bent into position, the water line dictates a natural curve to the sides so even a simple utility boat has good lines. Add in the treatment of the transom (I believe it's called) and the bench (or whatever it's called) in front of it on this boat, along with all the other attention to detail and it is a thing of deceptively simple looking beauty! The more I look at it the more details I pick up.
Bravo!
John Hamlett
www.hamlettinstruments.com
I'm going with em6000 even though I had problems the last time I used it. I'm somewhat determined to make it work.
Richard Hutchings
The next two mandolins, or at least a mandolin and a mandola, on the bench. The mandolin is the second of the D'Aquisto inspired art-deco madels, this one made from Sitka and Blackheart sassafras. No back binding as yet and the neck has yet to be carved.
The mandola is the next mandolin quartet prototype and is an interpretation of a Lyon & Healy Style A two-point from the 19-teens also with a Sitka soundboard. The body is made from a pale, almost mottled Victorian blackwood with a Queensland maple neck and a Solomons Islands ebony fretboard. The head design is after the L&H Style C. 16.5"/42cm scale.
http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com
The Mandolin Project on building mandolins
The Mandolin-a history
The Ukulele on building ukuleles
Inspiring work, Graham. Beautiful figuring in the timbers too.
I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order. - Eric Morecambe
http://www.youtube.com/user/TheOldBores
looks good Skip, is that two point Claro Walnut?
Charley
A bunch of stuff with four strings
kterry
Bookmarks