New Model Mandolin: 5

In this episode, I design and make a new jig for routing the neck joint. Then: fit the neck, the fretboard’s supporting wedge, and the fretboard itself. Quite a lot there to take in!

I skim over the fretting process as I’ve demoed this many times before, but if you’re interested in how I fret, have a look at thisvideo- 

Although I fret my short scale bass, the actual process is the same, just the scale is different!

Cheers Gary

Westone Thunder I Bass Restoration

As you’ll know, once in a while, I like to do resto project: just for fun really! I’d been hankering for a Westone bass made in the legendary Matsumoku factory and I finally managed to get my hands on one. So, this series of videos is all about bring a 44 year old bass back to life!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Electric Mandolin Part 1

I’ve just started building a new solid-body electric mandolin, haven't done one for awhile.  I’ll be documenting the process in a series of YouTube videos. Here’s the first episode: hope you find it interesting.

Cheers Gary

Chambered Body E-mando now completed.

I’m glad to say that the latest e-mando has been completed and as I write this, it’s in transit, on a 7500 mile adventure!

Below is the last video in the series and some nice photos!

Making the "Navatone" tailpiece

With the woodwork on my LG50 replica completed, it’s time to do some metalwork! In this latest video, I make the tailpiece: as always things are more involved than you’d first think!

Back together again

There’s been good progress made with the restoration of the Guyatone. Both the neck and fretboard have been reunited with the body and it’s beginning to look like a guitar again. One thing that struck me about doing this kind of work is, that the more time and care you put in to a restoration the less it looks like you’ve done any work!

Archtop #5: Neck Shape

The mandolin’s neck has been shaped and I think we’re now beyond the ugly ducking stage that I mentioned a while back!

Here’s a video showing my approach to the neck shaping process. I must admit, it does take me quite a long time to do and is best described as an iterative process: going back, again and again, continually refining until the desired profile is reached.

Archtop #5; making the neck blank

 I’ve been putting together the neck blank for Archtop #5; here’s the head using the burr walnut veneer that I showed you in the previous video.

And here’s the video showing how I got there. It includes some grain-filling with cyanoacrylate- “and Kids, don’t try this at home!

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!

Archtop #4 Completed

The fourth in my series of Archtop mandolins is now complete and happily residing with its new owner in Scotland. Below are some photos and a video for you. I must say that I am extremely pleased with this instrument!

Just getting on..........

 I’m in the middle of applying the finish to Allan’s e-mando. It’s had a number of thin coats of Tru-oil applied and you can see how the grain is already greatly enhanced. A few more and we’ll be there!

Tip of the week! - I just made up this thingamajig, inspired by a fret-rocker, from scrap acrylic.

When carving a neck (archtop #4 in this case) you need to use a straight edge to ensure that there are no bumps or dips along the neck’s length. No problem on a guitar, but on a mandolin the distance between where the neck starts to curve into the heel and the angle for the head is comparatively short, so 150mm rulers etc don’t work; they’re too long to rest only on the neck, hence the thingamajig. Super handy!

And below is the finished neck- some lovely flamed maple, laminated with black veneer and sapele to complement the body.

So that’s the construction of #4 done- on to the setting-up etc.

As an aside, my favourite tool for shaping necks is a Japanese Shinto rasp and one that I’d unreservedly recommend. I noticed that my one hasn’t been cutting as efficiently lately, losing its sharpness, so I just bought a new one- and there’s quite a difference. 

Shan’t complain as the old one lasted 77 necks! Yep, I record that sort of stuff.

Eliminate Downtime!

You have to have at least two instruments on the go, to eliminate any downtime whilst waiting for glue to dry. Particularly important when, as now I’ve been working on the bindings and purflings on the archtop. Each piece is glued on individually and left, in most cases, overnight to dry, so you need another project to work on.

Around the top I’ve used rope purfling and I’ve made up some bindings with the Macassar ebony (that I’m using elsewhere) and some fine sycamore veneer.

 So, during the many hours of “in between time” I’ve had the opportunity to make good progress on the e-mando. The pearl logo inlay and head overlay had been made and glued to the neck blank, the head cut-out and tuner holes drilled. 

Also, the body has been contoured and had a jolly good sanding and is looking quite lovely!

Getting a head

As mentioned in the last video, the head shape had to be cut-out and tuner holes drilled. Here is the result.

 

One of the trickiest operations is carving my vee shaped volute, done mainly with a chisel. 

The head now is really finished, nothing left to do, I’ve even filled the grain of the ebony! A practical reason- I do this nowadays before drilling the tuner holes, that way you don’t have try to clean the grain filling medium out of the holes!

Beginning of the end

For various reasons that I shan’t bore you with, progress in the ‘shop has been a bit slow recently. However, I’m finally managing to crack-on with the finish on the archtop. This one is being French polished and you can see how the finish really pops the grain.

For me, French polishing is a slow process so it’s going to be a good few weeks before archtop #3 is complete and ready for sale.

Archtop progress

I’ve been having a bit of difficulty taking some good photos lately; don’t know why but I can’t seem to do the wood justice. So just to keep up-to-date, here's the best I can do. The completed rim-

I’ve made up the neck blank and you can see that I’ve used Brazilian rosewood for the head overlay. The inlay is from black pearl; I like its subtlety; in some lights, it disappears into the wood! The neck itself is maple with a rosewood core, you can see that I’ve started to carve the volute.

I cut up a billet to use for the fretboard and was really surprised by the bright rose-pink colours (is that why, along with its sweet, sickly smell, someone named it “rosewood”?). 

Quite a spectacular pieces of wood, although the colours will tone down over time, I’ll have to decide whether it’s a step too far!

Commissioning an instrument

Over the past years the vast majority of the instruments that I have built have been commissioned by individual clients. Throughout the course of each build, it has been a real pleasure to get to know so many kindred spirits (many of whom end up being firm friends), hear their thoughts, listen to their feedback and grow from that.
However, I’ve decided that for the foreseeable future I’m going to limit my commissions to one or two per year. The experience of building the last two archtops has told me one thing; I want to build more of them! And I like the idea of building them speculatively; I can tweak the design, try different tonewoods, change the specification etc. without the creative restraints that a commission may impose. That way its design and my making can continue to evolve.
Also, I have a list of instruments, in my head, that I wish/need to build and I ask myself, “If not now, when?”
So, check this blog from time to time, you'll see what's on the bench and also my website’s FOR SALE page, as there may well be some interesting instruments available. And of course still feel free to contact me with your commission ideas; you never know I might be tempted!
Cheers Gary

It will plane!

I used the restored Stanley #101 plane for the first time in anger yesterday and it performed so,so well. Here I’m planning the part of the walnut archtop’s fretboard extension/support. I’m doing a video of the whole neck to body process, so watch this space.

Holes...........

I’ve been slowly making progress with the next archtop mandolin. One thing that helps enormously to get the top plate to its correct thickness, is drawing a grid on the wood and then accurately mapping out the dimensions. You can then see exactly where you want to remove more material; I did this 3 or 4 times until I was 100% happy with it.

With the top plate at its correct thickness, the sound holes can be cut-out (I can’t really call them f holes, can I?). I spent a long time, on the last archtop, working out how to set-up a Dremel to cut the holes; that time invested paid off as it took a fraction of the time to produce these ones. Although you could cut them with a fret saw, I need their surfaces to be perfect in order to be able to neatly bind them.

I feel quite strongly that the holes should be bound; it protects the softwood edges from accidental damage, strengthens and helps to lessen any risk of cracking at the holes, stops moisture escaping via the end grain and looks jolly nice too!

The black veneer had to be bent using a soldering iron as a small improvised bending iron.