Most Complete Mandolin You Ever Abandonded

[JonZ]

I am curious as to whether builders ever get a mandolin to the point where it can be played and decide it just doesn't sound good enough to carry their name.

What is the most most complete mandolin you have trashed?

[Jim Rowland]

I have run several through the bandsaw, saving only the bridges,fingerboards and hardware,except one where I managed to carefully remove the ebony headstock face with a particularly successful pearl inlay and the back because I really liked the color and finish. It's hanging on the shop wall. I wasn't worried about protecting my reputation,because I never had nor seriously attempted to create one.
I just didn't like them and couldn't improve them.
Jim

[Marty Jacobson]

Hah! This is a great and embarrassing topic.

For me, that would be this one:


I finished my first mandolin in 2002, then proceeded to go crazy. This is #2. 400 hours over about 10 weeks. My grades took a beating that semester.
Curly redwood from Bruce Harvey, X-bracing, which I had never tried before, insane amounts of inlay including copper inlay on the headstock, quilted maple, etc.
The main problem was that I didn't tweak one parameter at a time and see the effect. I tweaked ALL of them. 10 degree neck angle, why not! Light honeycombed-out bracing, heck yeah! 9-piece maple and cocobolo neck.... And so on.

And the result was an instrument which catastrophically self-destructed. And aesthetically, it's not even that cool. It's just gaudy and obnoxious.

I still keep it as a wall hanger and record of foolishness, but it's no longer a mandolin, really.


Oh, then there's my #6, on which I laser-cut through the X-bracing on the top. After finishing it, Collings-style. Durrr.

[belbein]

I would never argue with a man's artistic sensibility ... but I think that mandolin LOOKS really cool. I'd like to see more pictures. Particularly the "copper inlay." That sounds really interesting.

[j. condino]

My avatar says it all....

j.
www.condino.com

[Charles E.]

I was waiting for that James.

[Marty Jacobson]

Yeah, so what's the story with that, James? My guess is that you made a "burner" mandolin to carry to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and burnt it at the bottom so you wouldn't have to carry it back up.
Or here's another guess: that mandolin spontaneously combusted due to celluloid binding. And because of that, now we all have to pay a $27.50 hazardous material handling charge to get binding shipped. At least now we know who to blame. ;-)

[sunburst]

I have one, strung up, playable, in a case stashed away. The neck (and sides and back) are outrageously curly bigleaf maple, and the wood was just not strong, stiff and stable enough to be a mandolin neck. It was OK for a few years, then the truss rod would no longer control the forward bow of the neck, and the peghead bent forward until it looked almost like a Fender guitar. I took the strings off and after a couple of years the neck straightened enough to set up with light strings, but I never get it out or let anyone see it. I might make another neck for it some day, but it doesn't sound very good compared to what I'm building now, so it's not really worth it, probably can't re-graduate it because it's probably already too thin. The worst part of the situation is the 40-lines-per-inch piece of red spruce I used for the top. It was a gift from Ted Davis, and I thought I was a good enough mandolin builder to use it at the time (about 1989) and now I wish I had saved it. I still have one more top from the same piece of wood and I may feel like a good enough mandolin builder to use it someday, or it may end up in the wood sale when I go to the great dust bin in the sky and some kid might use it in his/her first instrument.
So anyway, the most complete mandolin I've abandoned was several years old.

[belbein]

I may feel like a good enough mandolin builder to use it someday, or it may end up in the wood sale when I go to the great dust bin in the sky and some kid might use it in his/her first instrument.

That, my friend, is about the saddest thing I've heard in a while. Is that "kid" going to be a better mandolin builder than you are? You should use it BEFORE you go to the great dust bin in the sky. Maybe your very next mandolin. Life is uncertain; you can't count on tomorrow. Why wait?

[j. condino]

About one out of every fifty instruments just seem to put up a fight beyond reason; six times now pretty consistent within that order. I do everything that worked great on the last 49, use the same batch of material, yet somehow nothing seems to go right; they take on the embodiment of something troubling me or a neurotic customer I you should never have accepted a build for or 41 straight days of rain in Portland. They always teach me a lesson; gotta' be able to laugh at yourself, but nothing comes without a price.

Every time I've burned up an instrument, it was a fantastic release of tension; 30 seconds later I can't believe I didn't do that 200 hours ago. I wrote a nice article about burning mandolins, but so far it has been a bit too "hot" for anyone to pick it up commercially. Usually within the next instrument or two, there is a corresponding leap of good mojo that comes out of the shop and an instrument goes from rough timber to finished and strung up within a couple of weeks and everything goes flawless on the first try.

Whenever I take an instrument someplace like down the Grand Canyon for 25 days on the river, up some moutaineering route, or out in the desert canyon country, I never bring a "beater". Those places are majical; I almost always bring the best instruments that own and treat it like it may be my last day and I'm going to make it a good one. My soon to be released new website has a nice photo gallery on "field testing" that you'll either love or be horrified by.

j.
www.condino.com

[pelone]

My first attempt at a Jazz Mando used less than great wood, redwood top, plain maple back and sides with maple neck. It sounded not good due to an aborted concept for the bracing and lack of tone. It now hangs in my back yard from a maple tree and is a nice bird house. I was going to burn it in the fire-pit but I enjoy looking at it as a reminder to strive a bit more and slow down the building process.

[Eddie Blevins]

I've really enjoy reading everyones stories on this thread. I'm working on my second build and these really help to put it all in perspective. Thanks, guys.

[Doug Edwards]

adaptation of a needle point in our kitchen. Even my failures are playable.

[Max Girouard]

I had an H5 mandola copy I made that I just was not happy with. So after fussing with it for several weeks I decided to toss it into the wood stove. That 2 1/2 minutes of heat it generated for my house was hardly worth the effort, but forced me to move on and figure out how to improve on the next one. I did take the hardware and strings off of course!

[thistle3585]

I injured myself pretty bad while working on a batch from a single stash of wood. It was an uphill battle to get through six bodies and I finally said screw it and burned the whole lot, bodies and raw wood.

[Marty Jacobson]

... I finally said screw it and burned the whole lot, bodies and raw wood.

Sounds like it was a pain in the swamp ash?

[Dobe]

[QUOTE=ArtDecoMandos;1074991].....10 degree neck angle, why not! .....

That is a pretty tall bridge aint it !

.....insane amounts of inlay ......

Pics please !