Chambered Body, Electric Mandolin 2

The new emando has just gained some beautiful Koa sides. 

I’ve had this Koa in stock for donkey’s years and wanted to use it on something special. The sides have been laminated to the central core using epoxy resin, when you look at the core there is an awful lot of end grain to stick the sides to, so epoxy is clearly the best adhesive to use. And here's the video-

You’ll see in the video that when I glued the Koa on, those Kreg clamps that I mentioned in the previous post, got some use- not in a way that envisaged, but I’ve often found that once you’ve got a new piece of equipment, you end up using it in many ways that you hadn’t even thought of.

Archtop mando update

I’ve just complete the back plate for my archtop mandolin project. If you follow the blog, you’d have seen the project bubble to the surface on occasions. Don’t worry it’s not a commission- there’s not some poor client somewhere waiting years and years for his instrument!

However, I have been thinking about the design for literally years, and now that  I’ve covered all the elements in my head and on paper, it’s high time to make some real progress.

Here are a few photos of the back plate carved, scraped and sanded and the rim. 

You’ll notice that I’m using mahogany for the back and sides, this wood is being re-used; it was originally a desk top. It’s extremely good quality wood and would be criminal not to give it a new life.

Here’s a little video that Amanda and I put together for your entertainment!

Neck Carving.........and more

I've just completed the “woodwork” on David’s Standard mandolin and I thought that I’d show you a few photos of the neck carving process. For me, carving the neck is the last big job, up until now, the neck has been left square; this makes gluing the fretboard on and the whole fretting process much easier.

Step 1 take off  the waste wood- down to the fretboard's edge.

Step 2 take the neck to near its final depth.

Step 3 carve the profile

 And after much carving, scraping, sanding and checking; the final neck!

And here's a couple of photos for the family album...............

10 String Mandocello

Jonathan’s 10 string mandocello has now been completed and he came up at the weekend to collect it. After the mandocello’s long gestation period and the to-ing and fro-ing of so many emails, it was good to meet Jonathan in person again (I built him a guitar 5 years ago). As I’ve said before, it’s always a great compliment to be commissioned for a second instrument.

Anyway, below are a number of photos of the completed instrument. I’ve include a photo of the ‘cello with me, just to get an idea of scale! And before you ask where the video is, I felt that I was unable to do the ‘cello justice, but Jonathan has promised one, once he has got to grips with it; as you’ll see, it’s a magnificent beast!

What a luthier does all day

You may have seen the TV series, “What Do Artists Do All Day.” Well, I thought that you might like to see what a luthier does all day!

The first task of the day is to continue with the French polishing of Phil’s twin point. Yesterday, the whole instrument was cut-back with 1000 grade wet or dry paper.  Then the soundboard, one of the sides and the head were polished. So today, the back, the other side and the neck get polished. 

I’ll only spend 10 to 15 minutes on it at a time. At this stage, I’m trying ensure that the finish is flat and shiny and I want to avoid over-working the surface and it becoming sticky.

Next, I’m fitting the soundboard of Ewart’s Standard Plus to the rim. I cut small housing joints in the linings for the end of each brace; a total of 9 joints.

This is quite a time consuming job as you also have to ensure the perfect alignment of the soundboard in relationship to the rim.

Every 30 to 45 minutes I go back and do some more polishing on Phil’s…………

 With all the housing joints cut and the soundboard fitting, I make two fine cuts at the end of the mandolin. 

Later on, the wood between these two cuts will be chiselled out and this is where the end graft will go and eventually join up with the purflings and bindings.

 With everything done on the soundboard, back and rim, the back can be glued on (soundboard tomorrow). 

Most of components of Ewart’s mandolin have now been made, so on to something else to make full use of my time.

That something else is the neck for Mark’s Standard Plus. The head was spliced on yesterday, so today I glued the wings on. The wings make the head wider to accommodate the tuners.

Next, I’m preparing the head splice for Paul’s e-mando. My aim over the next couple of days is to get these two necks up to the same stage, so that I can route the carbon-fibre slots on both.

Remember whilst this is going on, I’m still polishing Phil’s!

 Then I selected the Adirondack spruce soundboard for Mark’s; the edges are trued up, with a plane on a shooting board.

Phil’s gets the last polish of the day (making 8 times today)......

......the e-mando’s head is glued up......

......and then the soundboard!

 The day doesn’t end here; we’re now on the computer, sending emails to various clients. I always send copious amounts of photographs, so that, in this case, Phil, Ewart, Mark and Paul can see how their instruments are progressing.

Last but not least a new blog post! That was my day!