New e-mando design ideas

 Due to all the various commissions that I’ve been fortunate to have had, this is the first instrument that I’ve built on spec for about four years. “Experimental” is too strong a word, but there were a few things that I wanted to try out.

Firstly, a shorter fretboard (not scale length); so this e mando has 19 frets instead of 22. Why? This means that the neck pick-up can go about an inch further north which gives a mellower tone and in turn, creates room for a second humbucker at the bridge. Hence increased tonal variation.

And secondly, materials- some background- I had an enquiry back in January from a chap in Californian who wanted a cocobolo octave mandolin; at that stage the new CITES regulations had just come in and as I have no paperwork for my current stock of wood I had to decline. It did make me however, do some research into shipping to the USA. I found the fish and wildlife dept extremely helpful; it seems that there are issues with pearl too- the need for import permits and the instrument has to enter the USA via the appropriate port which can deal with such things.
So, in a bid to construct an instrument that could be shipped trouble free, world-wide I've tried a few alternative materials. This electric mandolin has metal (aluminium in this case) inlays, a rocklite ebano fretboard (man-made ebony substitute) and a Graphtec tusq nut and saddle. The body and neck are ash and maple which being temperate hardwoods should pose no problem, as far as I can tell, in shipping anywhere worldwide. Maybe this would be the sensible approach for an acoustic instrument too, using say maple or walnut for the back and sides (they both make great sounding instruments) and maple for the neck.

The e mando is currently being finished in Tru-Oil and should be for sale on my website early summer 2017.

New e-mando tailpiece

I wanted to make an aluminium tailpiece for the e-mando that I’m currently working on. Sheet aluminium seemed a bit too soft for the design that I normally make, so I designed a new model which utilises some much better quality ali alloy angle section.

 After much sawing, filing and drilling……

PS CNC free zone;-)

Safe in Ireland

Patrick’s twin-point has now been completed and is happily residing in Ireland. Here are some photos for you. 

Don't you just love cocobolo!

Fan Frets?

I first came across a fan fretted guitar a number of  years back when Amanda and I visited the wonderful Jeff Traugott in his Santa Cruz workshop. Until recently I’ve not been too bothered by the concept, however I’ve been thinking about 5 string e-mando with a low C and trying to decide upon a suitable scale. It seems to me that for this application fan frets might be a good way to go.

There’s a fair bit information on t’interweb, but to gain a real understanding, I like work things through from first principle for myself.

So questions; do the frets really fan i.e. if you project a line along each fret will they converge at one point and does it matter which fret is perpendicular to the centreline?

Thinking about geometry; similar triangles etc. the answers should be yes and no.

So after a bit of drawing and testing I’m satisfied with my initial premise.

I shall now mull for a few months!

PS CAD free zone :-)