Mando… la & cello

Like many luthiers, I cut my fret slots using a special type of mitre box with various scale length templates.  

Here's my modified StewMac jig.

The fret slot templates are commercially available and are machined extremely accurately out of stainless steel, to ensure that the instrument is in tune with itself.  The trouble with this kind of jig is that you can be limited to your choice of scale length by the templates that are available.

For Peter’s mandola, I wanted to use a 410mm scale length which needless say isn’t available “over the counter.” So I was very pleased when I came across Carlos at  GW inPortugal who makes templates to fit the StewMac jig and was willing to custom make one for me at, I might add,  a reasonable price!

And here’s the mandocello; it’s just been set-up and I’m now working on some pin-point capos….more on those later!