F model mandolin plans/specs

[Willie Poole]

I`m kind of curious as to what specs some of you builders used for your first F model mandolin builds...I hope some of you will share this info...

Willie

[Jim Hilburn]

Siminoff book for me because in 1978 I had no connections to anything else.

[Oliver A.]

Way back when the glaciers were receding, I used the plans that came with the first version of Siminoff's "How to Build a Bluegrass Mandolin". I soon realized that those plans were not a very accurate representation of a Loar signed F-5. ('not sure about the current version) I subsequently bought both the StewMac (MacRostie) and the G.A.L. (Davis) plans and could see that the StewMac plans were superior when it came to body and headstock shape. I was still never quite satisfied with any of these so in 2015, I created my own plans using Adobe Illustrator. To get the body and headstock shapes correct, I found as many straight on photo shots of old F-5s and imported them into AI. There, I resized them to known measurements and then traced over them creating a vector based drawing. Some averaging out of photos and minor tweaking got me to drawings that are remarkably close to the original Loar signed mandolins. A recent encounter with a 1924 F-5 where we made a plaster cast confirms it. http://www.apitiusmandolins.com/Oliv...og%20Page.html

I have my created blueprints available for sale although they are not exact representations of Loar era mandolins. I do a few things differently, most notably my graduations and tone bars.

From all the various available blueprints that I have seen, the ones drawn by Adrian Minarovic (HoGo) are, in my opinion, by far the most accurate representation of an actual Loar era F-5.

[Spruce]

Siminoff book for me because in 1978 I had no connections to anything else.

+1, plus the Morgan stuff...

[amowry]

I was still never quite satisfied with any of these so in 2015, I created my own plans using Adobe Illustrator. To get the body and headstock shapes correct, I found as many straight on photo shots of old F-5s and imported them into AI. There, I resized them to known measurements and then traced over them creating a vector based drawing.

That's exactly what I did after I realized Siminoff's original drawings weren't great (the newer ones are much better)--I overlaid all the plans I could find and a few Loar photos in Illustrator and picked the parts from each that I liked best.

[William Smith]

I've got a few of Adrian's HOGO's plans-real nice, Now if I had the talent to build instead of modify!

[barry k]

I measured and traced from a real Loar..then because I was in the aircraft maintenance business I took the mandolin and had it xrayed from all angles....that's what I use

[Steevarino]

+1 on Adrian's plans. I had my set laminated. I made a set of mahogany frames for them and mounted them to the wall in my shop. I use them for reference on a very regular basis. I also have both versions of Roger's book, and they are now pretty well-worn too. I've got Don M's plans too, come to think of it.

My advice would be to get your hands on as many reputable sets of plans as possible, and choose your own path, maybe using these plans as guideposts as you make your own journey.

[j. condino]

+1 HoGo