Monday, December 18, 2017

Archtop Part IV video

Here’s the latest instalment; the neck being joined to the body, fretboard extension etc. Hope you find it of interest, cheers Gary.

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Sunday, December 17, 2017

Happy Christmas 2017

As another busy year draws to its conclusion, Amanda and I would just like to thank all our friends and clients- past, present, future and all those who take the time to follow the blog, YouTube subscribers and everyone else a very Happy Christmas and a healthy and prosperous 2018. We thank you one and all.
The Christmas scene was the view from the workshop window, last Sunday!

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Fitting Carl’s Pick-Up

I’m fitting a Headway transducer into Carl’s mandola and much of the process is pretty much the same as I did on Brendan’s mandolin a few months ago. However, as this transducer is active, it requires a battery. I normally discourage having a battery (using, if possible, phantom power or a passive pick-up) inside a mandolin as the space is too tight; however on the mandola the soundhole is a tad larger and the body deeper. The battery with a Headway transducer is normally held inside a bag which, in turn, is attached to the instrument with a sticky Velcro pad. However, after a trial it became very clear that only a person with the manual dexterity of Houdini would ever be able to change the battery!
Therefore I reverted to my preferred method of using one of these clips…………..
 
And ditched the bag.
 
-Normally I make the tailpiece towards the end of the build but as I need it sooner rather than later, I’ve made–up the base plate. 
Having this component ready, allows the jack-socket hole to be drilled and the back of that hole (where the drill breaks through) can be supported.
 Satisfied that the transducer fits etc. the box is closed-up!

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Tuesday, December 05, 2017

What’s been happening?

I haven’t posted properly for a couple of weeks, so here’s a bit of an update of what’s going on in the 'shop. As you can see the archtop mandolin has had the neck fixed/glued on and more about that in the next video.
But for now it’s on the back burner whilst I’m French polishing Brendan’s mandolin. The Macassar ebony is looking so pretty!
 And whilst I make a start on Carl’s English walnut mandola.
 Also I thought that I might make a “True channel” style binding router jig. You can see that I’ve bought myself a Katsu laminate trimmer- these seem to be faithful copies of the Makita machine at a fraction of the price. I’ve mounted the router on what I’m calling its carriage. Some high quality ball-bearing drawer runners are used to allow the router to rise and fall. ………………….
 
Just figuring out the next step!

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