Chambered Body Update

I’ve just finished work on the purflings and bindings for the new chambered body electric mandolin and I must say, I’m pleased with the outcome on a couple of levels….

It was quite time-consuming process, as practically all of the 16 pieces had to be glued on individually.

Now the bindings are on, you wouldn’t know how difficult it was to achieve- the maple (for the bindings) was 2.5mm thick and had to be bent to some pretty extreme curves and also the points had to be mitred cleanly. The white maple is very unforgiving as any gaps in the joints can’t be filled as you can do with ebony or rosewood.

The body is now really complete; one of the aims of this project was to see if I could actually create this shape by bending wood and to get a good idea of the geometry of the top. So, me thinks, an acoustic mandolin built to this shape would be possible!