Your First Build

[sunburst]

...I had never accomplished much with my life at that time...

Yeah, I'm still there...
I sure do like building these things, but frankly, there are only a few of us who really make any money at it.

[HoGo]

Jim, that mandolin sure look better to me than some recent output of makers who build 50+ instruments.
I noticed the shift in quality of first builds, too. I was starting in kind of transient era - I still remember discovering mandolincafe around '97? surfing with Lynx (web browser for unix) in text mode on terminal...(the internet era came quite a bit later to our part of world) All I had when I decided to build was coulpe of downloaded pics. I traced scrolls from Bill Monroe CD covers and even Sam Bush's Hoss from TV screen! (don't laugh) I spent more than three years refining my drawings (in the first versions even overlall size was wrong) before I built my first in 2001. The archings and grads were quite wrong as well as placement of tonebars. Later in the computer era the drawings evolved into the Loar drawings when I got to see all the other drawings and books.
Now it's so much easier, you buy set of plans, turn on PC and start asking established makers here so you don't make any stupid mistakes that many did in their first builds. Beginners with some woodworking skills showed some stunning instruments here on the cafe. It would be cool to see them lined up by year they were made.

[Tavy]

Here's my #1 and one and only so far (though I just started putting a finish on #2). Built purely for my own personal pleasure and getting played really heavily right now:

[Dick Hutchings]

Here's my first. I think I made it around 2000. It needs a new top now and I miss playing it. It sounded great to me and I'll get around to fixing it but I don't imagine it will ever sound the same.

[Bill Halsey]

When I started this mandolin, there were 2 8x11 sheets of paper (the Morgan "plans") on how to build an F5, and that was it...

Hey, Bruce -- wasn't one of those sheets legal-size? Anyhow, that's all I had to go by, as well.

Aside from the "kits" of rejected factory parts that showed up on my doorstep in the '70s, my first real scratch-build can be seen in the F-5L promo photo with the Gibson logo pasted over my name, just below Roger's portrait in his piece on the F-5L. As explained in my sidebar, Gibson wanted a back-up photo in case the project was late. Mercifully, we were on time and they didn't have to use it.

[Spruce]

Hey, Bruce -- wasn't one of those sheets legal-size?

Ahhh, yes...
Lots of memories from that particular period have gone by the wayside... ;-)
Too many nights at Winterland....