Standard Mandolin XVI: now complete and available

The latest Standard mandolin is now complete and is available. Below are some photos for you. This one is built using the classic tonewood combination of rosewood and spruce and my oh my it does sound good!

 

The current price of my Standard mandolin is £925, which includes a Hiscox case: shipping is extra. If you’re interested in this one, please feel free to contact me via my website.

Mandolin For Sale

 

The latest Standard mandolin is now complete and ready for sale. You can see the full spec on my website and I run through most of the details in the above video. If you’re interested in owning this mandolin, please feel free to contact me. You’ll find my email address on the website.

If you follow the blog, you’ll be aware that I tried a couple of new things on this one: how did they turn out?

Firstly, the tuners. We all know that the Gotoh mini sealed unit tuners are super smooth and function superbly. I guess my concern was that they are a bit heavier than 4-on-a-plate tuners, but playing the mandolin, I don’t think that it makes an appreciable difference. Also, visually a “traditionalist” might not like them, but I think they suit the minimalist look of this mandolin. Would I use them again? A resounding yes!

Secondly the 360 mm scale length. This is only 8mm longer than the traditional 352mm scale so it increases the tension in the strings by 2.3% which, is negligible but, it does seem to give your fingers a bit more room. So again, a resounding yes! To the question would I do it again?

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS MANDOLIN HAS NOW BEEN SOLD

Twin-point available

You may have seen the cocobolo twin-point that I’ve been building recently. I’m just in the middle of French polishing it, and sadly my client has had to cancel the order due to ill-health: Amanda and I send him all our best wishes for the future.

This means that in about 6 to 8 weeks time, I should have a cocobolo twin-point completed and ready for sale. The last time I had one of these available was in 2009! So if you wish to circumnavigate my 10 to 12 month waiting list this could be for you. For more details send me an email (you’ll find the address on my website). I should add that due to the new CITIES regulations this mandolin can only be sold within the EU.

Things are getting busy

The electric mandolin has been sold and is now residing with its new owner, Gordon. The American black walnut mandolin, Standard V, is still available; this will probably be the last “Standard” for a while (until 2014) as I now need to concentrate on an influx of new commissions.

Mandolin For Sale

You can see below, that Nadim’s guitar and John’s mandolin are coming together nicely, the bodies are complete and now await their necks.

 I tend to use very little machinery in my workshop, but I have just recently treated myself to a 12 inch disc sander. Fellow woodworkers will know that planing end-grain can be a real pain and this is where a disc sander comes into its own.

It proved great for squaring up the heel of Nadim’s neck prior to marking out the dovetail.
One of the main reasons for getting the sander was to cope with truing up the “end” of my mandolins before the neck goes on. You can see that you have a combination of the end grain of the neck block, bindings, back and sides and soundboard that all have to be flattened, square and true, without any splitting. The sander does a grand job!

Whilst these two instruments are being constructed, I’ve been working on the design of the next two instruments; a double commission for a matching octave mandolin and tenor mandola; more on them in due course...............

Purfling and Bindings

I’ve just been doing the purfling and bindings (amongst other things) on Sean’s twin-point and “Project X”.

It always seems so barbaric to cut the channels on such a small instrument with a router, but of course it works incredibly well! However, what I have started to do recently is to score a line around the instrument with my purfling cutter before using the router- this dramatically reduces the chances of the soundboard’s end grain ripping.

So here is Sean’s.....looking very pretty, if I say so myself.

And here is Project X

I am thinking of calling this one “The Standard Plus”, O.K not very imaginative, but reflective of what it is- a mandolin with my Standard shape but upgraded tonewoods and more ornate. I love the single box wood line and rosewood bindings, I always used to do my classical guitars like this; it looks very elegant.

As you can see the back and sides are Indian Rosewood. This beautiful wood seems to have fallen out of fashion, which is a great shame as it is one of the best tonewoods around and in general, I would use it as my de-fault tonewood for back and sides. Sonically it produces a well-balanced rich tone, it works (and bends) remarkably well and looks...... well, as I said before elegant!

This is going to be a very nice mandolin and I hope to offer it at around a grand for those who are interested. It should be complete by September 2012.

Project X

 Project X? Not because it’s top secret but because I’m still thinking of a suitable name! I’m adding a new model to my range of mandolins that will sit between my Standard and Twin-point. Essentially, it will be the same shape as the Standard but will have more of the fancy detailing that my twin-point has; this should give me something for everyone!So the first one is under-way. Red spruce soundboard with a rosewood herringbone rosette.

The back and sides will be Indian rosewood and you can see below, that the rim is complete.

The neck......

.....I’m using wenge on this one. It’s quite an interesting wood to work, not for the faint-hearted- very sharp, low angle planes are required.

This mandolin will have all the nice touches, such as an inlaid head and handmade tailpiece.

So I’ve been thinking about the name, model 3? Model A? I even thought of calling it the Italian for pear- pera but that looks like a typo! Something for me to ponder!

This mandolin doesn’t have a home yet so if you’re interested, email me via my website.

Happy New Year to you all!

First thing’s first- Happy New Year to you all! I’m back in the workshop and firing on all cylinders- let’s get some instruments built!

Brendan’s Mandolin Part IX

Brendan’s mandolin has gone through the set-up process, prior to being French polished. You can see the tailpiece that I’ve made for it below. I’m really pleased with this design for my tailpieces- I feel that it’s the last piece in the jigsaw as far as my twin-points go.

The under-saddle transducer has just been fitted. There’s always a nerve wracking moment with each instrument and for this one, it was drilling the hole through the soundboard- making sure that I’m in the middle of the reinforcement patch and missing the cross-bracing.

The pick-up is a passive Headway unit, which works really well; you need an external preamp, but that’s much more preferable to having a 9V battery inside the mandolin. The wire is routed through the bridge, so the only outward sign of a pick-up is the jack socket.

Standard mandolin III

Standard mandolin III is almost complete and ready to be set-up “in the white”. Hopefully it should be up for sale in about 3 weeks.

Next batch!

And in between all of this I’m preparing the tonewood for the next batch of instruments- John’s koa steel string, Alan’s cocobolo twin-point and a maple baritone uke! That should keep me out of trouble for a while!

So What's On The Bench?

Thought that I’d give you a brief run down of what’s happening in the workshop.

First, we have Alan’s rosewood and cedar Model 1 steel-string- it’s now fully bound and purfled (is that a word?) The neck went on yesterday and I’ve just glued the carbon-fibre reinforcement rods in place. You can see that I take the carbon-fibre right through the dovetail and into the end block- can’t help thinking that this must make the neck joint incredibly rigid, which enhances sustain and volume as energy isn’t being absorbed by the neck joint.

The carbon fibre is glued in with epoxy and on top of the CF, I glue a strip of hardwood for the fingerboard to be glued to. The strips of hardwood stop a little bit short of the end of the carbon fibre. The idea is to allow somewhere for excess epoxy to ooze out.

As you probably know, you can’t compress a liquid (basic hydraulics) and the danger is that you clamp the CF in place and if the epoxy can’t go anywhere, the pressure builds up and you can split the neck! And you don’t want to that!

Secondly, we have Chris’s “Hare Signature”- Chris ordered a guitar from me awhile ago, but having seen the Hare video he has now chosen to go for one of these. I’ve been slowly putting together a “kit” of parts whilst constructing Alan’s. So once I start polishing Alan’s, Chris’s should go together quite quickly.

Cocobolo

I’ve just got in some truly wonderful cocobolo for Brendan’s twin-pointer.......more to follow.

And in case you’ve not seen it, here is the video of the “Standard” mandolin which at the time of writing is still for sale.

Mandolin for sale.

Well here it is! The Nava “Standard” Mandolin is now complete and on sale. As I said at the outset, my aim was to build an instrument that was more affordable to those musicians without deep pockets and not to compromise the quality of my work. By stripping back any unnecessary adornments, I feel that I’ve managed to build a beautifully sounding, playable hand made mandolin that can be sold at a very reasonable cost to the player

This mandolin has a western red cedar soundboard, maple back and sides and a mahogany and maple neck. I’ve also used cocobolo for the fingerboard, bridge, bindings and other detail; this beautiful, exotic wood really makes the instrument look special.

I’m very pleased with the outcome- this is the first time that I’ve used a cedar top on a mandolin and I’m extremely pleased with the sound of it, its has great sustain and volume and good tonal separation. Someone somewhere is going to be very happy with this mandolin!

Anyway, it’s up for sale on my website for 750 GBP including a Hiscox case. Shipping within the UK mainland is an additional 25 GBP.

So what’s next on the mandolin front? Well once this one has sold, I’ll start building Standard No. 2 and there’s also this matter of the e-mando!