E mando- putting it together: 2

The next step is to assemble the various components that have wires attached! If you’re making an electric instrument, like a Strat, with all the components attached to a pick guard then things are fairly straight forward. However, if you want to run the wires through the body, things get a bit fiddly! First, I wiggle some green garden wire through all of the holes- this wire has just the right rigidity to allow you to push it, yet it bends around hidden corners. 

Once the garden wire is through, the electrical wires can be taped to it and pulled through the various channels inside the e-mando.

And with all the components fixed down, the soldering can begin. Again, this is fiddly because you have to solder so close to or even inside, the freshly finished instrument. So, you need to protect it- you often find, with multi-core solder, the hot molten flux inside it, will spit and trust me, you don’t want any burn marks!

With all of the electrics in place, the nut gets fitted. This is just a tight-fit, I don’t like gluing nuts in place, for fear of the potential damage in removing them.

And then we’re ready for the strings and for the mandolins first test. But before that! Everything that can be scratched by the sharp end of a string is protected with low-tac masking tape.