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Thread: Unluckly #13

  1. #1
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    Sep 2005
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    Alabama
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    I have been working on my #13 mandolin for about a week and it has been one major headache after another. I guess I messed up when I decided to try and build the cheapest mandolin that I could get away with but its probably because it is #13. First thing I did was cut the back out of a piece of 1/8" plywood then noticed that the inside had a nice piece of flamed maple veneer on it but there wasn't enough left to cut another back so I decided to put some quilted maple veneer on the back which was a book matched piece and I didn't close the gap completely and got the seam crooked instead of lined up with the neck which in turn makes the neck look crooked when viewing from the back. I was working on the headstock with an exacto knife and managed to cut a huge chunk off a nicely planned out point which caused me to have to sand it down to a different shape which looks ok but is not what I wanted. Then came the top a book matched pair of flamed Aspen but after carving the top out, the flames wound up as router shavings because the flame didn't go all the way through. Then I was going to put F-holes on this one but I sanded it so thin that I sanded a hole where the oval hole would go, oh well, I will just make it an oval hole so I glued it on and it looked ok but when I was inserting the neck, I forced it and put a 5" crack in the top. So... I pulled the top off and made a one piece top out of Poplar, only then did I realize that my neck angle was a little high, too high for a normal bridge but just right for an awkwardly huge bridge, then I had an Idea that I could make that Resonator Mandolin that I have always wanted to build out of this so I got out that aluminum skillet lid that I had been saving and set it on the top and It added the correct amount of height that I needed but to have the resonator properly centered on the top, threw my fret scale off so now instead of 13-7/8" I need 15-1/2" which means that I have to remove the fretboard and make a new one and that is where I am now. Talk about #13 giving me a hard time but I don't give up that easily I will make this mandolin work if it's the last thing that I do! Despite all this trouble, I like being challenged and having to adapt and overcome the situation and this may turn out to be a great instrument. I'll let you know what happens.
    "If at first you don't succeed, then keep on suckin' till you do succeed."

  2. #2
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    Jul 2005
    Location
    Central Iowa
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    1,878

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    I'd stay out of any Indy 500 cars or top fuel dragsters for a while....



    Ron
    My wife says I don't pay enough attention to what she says....
    (Or something like that...)

  3. #3
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    Apr 2005
    Location
    Raleigh, NC
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    I feel your pain. My first mando family instrument made it all the way to being strung then ended up on the curb. I managed to screw up a couple of "quick stick" strumming dulcimers a few days back and they ended up as firewood (mahogany burns real good, BTW). They had fixable issues, but I have decided to raise the bar. These guys cranking out the stunning mandos with great tone probably weent through this in the early stages also.
    "First you master your instrument, then you master the music, then you forget about all that ... and just play"
    Charlie "Bird" Parker

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