Last year I did some backstage work at The Metropolitain Museum of Art; incredible place and really nice people to work with. While there, I was able to blueprint the D'Aquisto mandolin in their collection.
The following day, I was at John Monteleone's place getting in a few laughs, playing a few tunes, and getting an earful while picking his brain about the restoration of that mandolin. He showed me an interesting tool that had quite a lineage: Originally acquired by D'Angelico, passed down to D'Aquisto, and then to Monteleone. It was based upon a mechanical double cut way that produces an ellipse and is often attributed to Archimedes. I wrote an article on it for American Lutherie magazine last year. I have never seen a commercial unit like this available for sale, and if or when one comes up for sale, I'd guess that I just did a number on increasing the selling price, and John is holding on to his. I keep trying to convince him it is time to pass it on to some younger fellow with the right last name to keep the story going; something like John to James to John to James sounds about right!
I have only had to make a couple of oval rosettes for restoration work; for those I made a series of inside and outside templates and then just cut everything by hand. I've also first cut the soundhole and then used a grammil to scribe the perimeters for the rosette referenced off the soundhole. I have a student who is building a Selmer style guitar with the small "scream" type rosette. Is there any mechanical system available that Selmer style builders use with a router / laminate trimmer / dremel attached? A similar setup would work for old oval hole Gibsons, Martins, et cetera. A search didn't find any.
Thanks for the help.
j.
www.condino.com
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