So where are we up to?

This week saw Jeff and his wife, Marlene, come all the way from Wales to collect Jeff’s new twin-point mandolin. It was a real pleasure to meet them both and we greatly enjoyed hearing Jeff play the mandolin. There is a link on my side bar to Jeff's website where you can hear some of his music; a very talented guy!

I’ve set-up David’s Standard Plus, “in the white” and have now striped it back down to start French polishing; so not too long left for David to wait! I love seeing the first few coats of polish going on; visually, the whole instrument comes alive.

In between waiting for grain filler and polish to dry, I’ve start preparing the wood for the next three instruments. As they all will have Indian rosewood backs and sides, it makes sense to thickness all of the wood at the same time and get one of the messiest stages out of the way! Shooting board and sash clamps -still my favoured method of joining tops and backs.

More details to come............

Ian’s Model 2 guitar completed

In the last post, you saw how the bridge was glued to Ian’s guitar. Well, I’m pleased to report that the guitar is now completed and has safely arrived with its new owner in Scotland.

“Unique” is a word that is often bandied about, but I think it’s fair to say that this is a truly unique guitar!

Below are some of my favourite photos of it.

Fitting Ian's bridge

Apologies to regular readers; I haven’t posted for a while, but things have been very busy lately.

The bridge has now been fitted to Ian’s guitar. In my opinion, this is one of the most fraught times in the construction of a guitar. Firstly, you’re working on a freshly finished instrument and secondly, the placement of bridge has to be spot on.

Here’s a brief description of the process.

The underside of the bridge blank has to be shaped to match the curve of the soundboard.

Then I make the bridge itself, here it is ready to be positioned.

Some very careful marking out is done. Tip of the day- fold back one corner of the masking tape, makes it much easier to remove.

The bridge position is marked out with a scalpel- just enough pressure to cut through the tape and score the finish.

Then the finish (whatever is used) has to be scraped off so that there is bare wood for the glue to adhere to.

Then we have a dry run………….

And then with glue.

A 24 hours later, we’re ready for the setting-up process.

And here we have the next two mandolins "in the white", both English walnut.

David’s Standard Plus

Jeff’s Twin-Point