My first two mandolins

[Karl Hoyt]

Greetings: I'm a long time builder of all kinds of stringed instruments. A couple friends challenged me to build them an F5 style mandolin. I told them:"I've never built a mandolin" and they said, 'you'll figure it out"

I mostly did.... despite having built lots of acoustic instruments and teaching guitar building to high school kids, I found them to be challenging...and fun!

The blonde one was made with curly maple I got from my favorite sawmill in Northern Vermont, with Adirondack red spruce top from old standard wood. The brown burst is old standard wood with Englemann top. Like every rookie mando builder, I had the siminoff book, watched YouTube videos, and a friend gave me some plans from 1972 or so that were drawn from a loar and had graduations that I found the most helpful.

The things that impressed me the most about the mandolin community is how helpful and open with information that people are. I reached out to a couple well known builders, who were very helpful with information, and this forum has been wonderful. I appreciate those experienced and gifted builders on this forum who were so generous and patient with my probably stupid questions.

I'm pretty pleased with the tone and playability of these two. Binding the scroll was (as if I'm telling you all something new) was a pain, but I think I've refined my methods so that the next one will be better... But I'm hooked... can't wait for the humidity to lift so I can get going on the next one(s)

[Paul Busman]

You figured it out alright. Nice work!

[Denny Gies]

Very nice, Karl. You should be proud.

[Karl Hoyt]

Thank you for the comments I was fishing for :-). I'm not at all happy with the binding around the scroll. I thought I was pretty good at binding but all that hand fitting and the tight quarter for scraping was a challenge.... probably for most new builders. Can't wait to build another one!

I had a panic attack as I left the post office.... The blonde mandolin is headed to Kentucky, the heart of Bluegrass country. My friend will be passing this Yankee Mando around to all his bluegrass buddies! I guess if they are somewhat pleased with how it plays and sounds, I'm sort of on the right path.:-)

Kfh

[billhay4]

Nice work, Karl, but next time do a sound clip first so we can hear them.
:-)
Bill

[MontanaMatt]

The three piece back is striking. I had not seen that on a mando yet. Thanks for sharing

[Karl Hoyt]

Nice work, Karl, but next time do a sound clip first so we can hear them.
:-)
Bill

Haha,Bill.....you do not want a sound clip from me....I'm a bass player and guitarist...mostly bass.....I think I know three chords on the mando. I do have a friend who is a virtuoso: Traditional Greek, Jazz improv, and folk/Bluegrass... we could not coordinate our schedules.... but will the next time I have one done....

[colorado_al]

An interesting choice with the 3 piece back on the blonde one. I like the look of it. Interested to hear it.
Great job on your first 2 mandolins!

[MikeEdgerton]

The three piece back is striking. I had not seen that on a mando yet. Thanks for sharing

Gibson built some with three piece backs in the teens or twenties.

Some past threads on the subject:

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...ree-piece-back

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...ree-piece-back

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...7-3-piece-back

And a three-piece top thread:

https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/s...ntage-Gibson-A

[Skip Kelley]

Nice work, Karl! I wish my first mandolins were that nice!

[Karl Hoyt]

Nice work, Karl, but next time do a sound clip first so we can hear them.
:-)
Bill

Haha,Bill.....you do not want a sound clip from me....I'm a bass player and guitarist...mostly bass.....I think I know three chords on the mando. I do have a friend who is a virtuoso: Traditional Greek, Jazz improv, and folk/Bluegrass... we could not coordinate our schedules.... but will the next time I have one done....

[Karl Hoyt]

I had that Maple up in in my shed....had totally forgotten I had it. It wasn't wide enough for a 2 piece back,and it was my first couple instruments, it could have easily ended in the wood stove, so,I figured "what the heck?" Thanks, folks

Kfh

[colorado_al]

I had that Maple up in in my shed....had totally forgotten I had it. It wasn't wide enough for a 2 piece back,and it was my first couple instruments, it could have easily ended in the wood stove, so,I figured "what the heck?" Thanks, folks

Kfh

I like how it mirrors the 3 piece maple neck.

[MikeEdgerton]

I had that Maple up in in my shed....had totally forgotten I had it. It wasn't wide enough for a 2 piece back,and it was my first couple instruments, it could have easily ended in the wood stove, so,I figured "what the heck?" Thanks, folks

Kfh

Sounds reasonable, that's probably why the other folks did it too. No sense wasting wood like that. Nice job.

[buckhorn]

ran across some wonderful tiger strip maple at Home Depot a few years ago and couldn't pass up.. but it was only 4 (3 3/4) inches wide.. pieces were 8ft long and had to have all four of them.. anyways, I made two mandos for my sons out of the stuff and still three full boards left.. the sounds of the two were top notch.. you could tell they were 3pc but the grain pattern matched so well that I didn't try to hide it.. don't discount using 3pc or 4pc or even more for your backs.. Gibson did..