Mando builder-info, daily stuff, accomplishments

[Darryl Wolfe]

I thought I would start this thread as a place to post simple accomplishments, observations and opinions by the builder community. #

This is where you would post anything that qualifies as simple news, opinion or information as to what you are working on or have seen in the last week or so.

Examples: # "Look what I did this week-end", "look at this instrument that walked into my shop, ..I was just thinking..."

There are no rules here other than to capture numerous threads into one.

[Darryl Wolfe]

I'll start off.

This is a new style pickguard that I just started building. These are from the mid teens and back.

With the solid plastic mounting bracket, there is no adjustment when fitting it up to the mandolin.

I will theorize that the cut-out in the guard by the fingerboard is where they made their adjustment and fit-up. This could explain why they vary so much in that area.

[Hans]

Darryl, I'll take a dozen of those clamps! #

[Darryl Wolfe]

Me too!!! #That is a customer provided commodity. #What's left of his pickguard is in the background. #The bracket disintegrated and the guard is in two pieces along that glue line

[Hans]

Seriously, good idea for a topic Darryl! Much better'n "Post a picture of your fake bell shaped truss rod cover."

[mandolooter]

Hans...that was hilarious!

[Hans]

Well, OK, I'll have a go at it. I was thinking of the times that I used to buy ebony peghead veneers and cut each individually. Then when I started buying ebony planks, I used to resaw 1/8" slices and cut each to the template. Then I bought a 1" diameter robosander and made a 1/4" plex template and double stuck the veneer on and sanded the veneer to the template...a big revelation. But THEN...the dawning. I made a 1" thick block of ebony sanded to the template. Now when I want to make a neck, I just slice a 1/8" piece of the shaped block and mandola (!)...an already shaped peghead veneer ready to bind. Now I have all these shaped blocks for each type of peghead, and an added plus is they don't warp or cup. #

[David Newton]

I did my first slot-head.

[Stephanie Reiser]

Here is one that you professionals will chuckle at......
I learned the hard way to have the tuners in stock BEFORE finishing the headstock thickness to dimension and applying the finish, buffing out, and then acquiring the tuners later. Which is what I did on a guitar I just finished. I made the headstock to thickness of the plans that I used as reference, but the tuners were difficult to screw that top collet in, and the G-string tuner was down-right a pain in the butt. I didnt even have a wrench the proper size. These are Gotoh tuners and apparently the collets take a metric size. If I had planned ahead, I could have arranged to find the right wrench.
From now on: Have the tuners beforehand and make sure they fit while shaping the neck wood. It all turned out well, but made for a much longer session at the bench than I should have had.

[rmoss]

I kinda enjoy dabbling with cnc stuff and thought I would try something I havn't seen done. I noticed collings was cutting the binding for the headstock with their equipment and got me thinkin.......could it be done for the wholebody?? (f-style) It can. It took a while to figure out but I did manage to cut out one single piece with the right curvatures around the scroll and all. I used some scrap wood and tested it on a mandolin I had in the making and it fit perfect. But to be perfectly honest doing it the old fashion way is the only way I will ever do it and can be done just as fast. So the whole experiment was kinda pointless. If I ever did a mando with wood bindings I might think about trying it again with nicer wood. The kicker is your rim assembly has to be dead on for it to work and I think I got lucky with my try at it. It sure makes for clean looking binding though!!

[amowry]

Hans, great idea. Do you do that for F5s as well? Now if you can bind that 1" thick block and THEN slice it into bound overlays, I'll be really impressed.

[Darryl Wolfe]

This is the part of making pickguards that I really hate. The little pieces. They take more time that the plate itself. The only way to recover is to make them in bulk

[Larry Simonson]

I'm in the process of building #1 from scratch and am learning a bunch of stuff. I was so inexperienced with plastic or bone for the point tips that I opted to stick with wood. I've had a couple of pieces of dogwood in my firewood pile for several years and decided to make these tips out of dogwood. I glued the first one on tonight. I have not seen any references to using dogwood for anything on a mandolin but for little parts it seems to be pretty hard and strong. If Anyone knows that my choice is a big mistake, let me know before I do the final trimming. Thanks

[Hans]

Andrew, I do it on F5's, 4's, everything. You do have to be careful when sawing off a slice...hang on to the block. I'll be happy to send you the blocks to bind and I'd be really impressed! Will I see you at Wintergrass?
Larry. I used to use some ebony for tortoise bound instruments and I don't see any problem with dogwood as long as it's dry.
Darryl, those little mounting blocks are tedious!

[mercenarymandolinist]

I guess this is a good place to ask a question.
I am planning to re-top an F5 style mandolin. I've got a nice piece of spruce that's been on the shelf for at least ten years. The grain spacing is fairly wide compared to what most builders use today, but it's similar to what I've seen on early Gibsons. I used a piece from the same stock several years ago on a prototype and it sounded fine, although I had to graduate it on the robust side because it had a fair amount of flex. I'm looking for that tubby round voice found in the F4 type mandolin.
So my question is-What bracing technique would be best for an oval hole top? I've seen X bracing, longitudinal (?) tonebars, and I think Gibson used a transverse brace. This won't be an exact replica of an F4, so I'm not worried about authenticity as much as getting that F4 tone- hopefully with a little more volume.
I've built several F5 clones, but I can't seem to find much info on building an oval hole mandolin.
Any advice or links to info would be much appreciated.
I took the back off this particular mandolin about a year ago to regraduate the top and it came out really well. I'd rather sell it like it is to finance a scratch build, but haven't found a buyer. Itried to sell it before I took it apart, but the local expert said "Too heavy". Then I regraduated it and was told "Top might sink" I've played it for a year and it hasn't moved.
If you guys know anybody looking for a blacktop F5 with a piezo pickup in the W. MA area let me know. I won't ship it, but would drive an hour to meet someone.I'm asking $500. If not, the top comes off!

[amowry]

Hans, unfortunately I won't be at Wintergrass this year, but I think Austin Clark and I will be sharing a booth in '09, so hopefully I'll see you then if you'll be there.

[Hans]

That's too bad Andrew, was looking forward to finally meeting you. Maybe next year if I can afford it.
Kurt, I've always used transverse just because Gibson did, but I've heard that X and even tone bar work. You will have a change in tone from the F4 mostly from the bridge being placed further forward, but will still have that big bottom end. It will have a stronger sound. Watch the thickness around the soundhole. I usually keep it at around 7mm take it down to around 5-1/2 to 6mm from the inside after the rosette is in.

[mercenarymandolinist]

Much thanks, Hans. Your work is inspirational and your advice is appreciated. Friday night I split the billet and bookmatched it. Here's where I made my first mistake. I should have dressed down the glued-up edges more. The wood had oxidized over the years, and a dark line is visible on the seam. Can it be bleached somehow? I am shooting for a vintage red sunburst that can be seen on many F4s. Maybe the stain will mask the dark line. The top is roughed out and ready for final graduation. The part that may be tricky will be removing the old top. The builders used what smells like cyanoacrylate cement to secure the top. I'll probably have to do a lot of sanding with a coarse sanding block to get everything clean and level.
I think I'll go with tonebars and add a delicate transverse brace behind the soundhole. I'll tuck the ends under the tonebars and reinforce the soundhole with some glue impregnated fabric. Perhaps a guinea pig headstock inlay would be appropriate.
Wish me luck.

[ksdaddy]

Here's my first mandolin (work in progress):

My homemade mandolin

[Bill Snyder]

Scott that is neat. I take it you have built an instrument or two before. You are right in your descritpion that it is braced like a tank. With those large tail and neck blocks I would think it is a heavy mandolin.

[ksdaddy]

It weighs 1 lb 4 oz as is, no hardware. I weighed the borrowed Kentucky KM100 and I think it was 1 lb 3 oz complete, an old $7.00 Kingston weighed about 1 lb 8 oz, and the 40s Kay that is an unclaimed repair for the past year is about 2 lbs 1 oz.

It may be grossly overbuilt, I should know in a few days... but it's a learning curve. The next one may be better.

[Gail Hester]

This was a good idea for a thread so I'm bringing it back to the front page.

Here are a couple new Red Spruce Virzis. One is being retrofit into an old Gibson oval and the other is going into a new F5.

[Darryl Wolfe]

I think we have been here 100 times, but here goes again. #Are there any plus or minuses for using hide glue over Titebond with respect to joining plate halves. #The virtues of hide glue elsewhere have been discussed thoroughly. #My point is, I have never used hide glue before and am about to join about 20 sets of tops and backs. #Is this the time to change, or is it possible that Titebond may actually be better in this application

[David Newton]

So it's ok to talk about religion here?

[Gail Hester]

"or is it possible that Titebond may actually be better in this application"

Not if you ever want to re-do it correctly...