Archtop #4 begins

Well my friends, it’s time to start work on Archtop #4. But firstly, I sincerely hope that anyone (and their loved ones) who reads this blog is keeping well and safe. With the current Covid-19 situation, and with both Amanda and I having “underlying health conditions”, I’m trying not to consider the possibility of illness and not being able to complete something I start. Strange times indeed!
OK, head in gear………..
For the back and sides, I’m using pommele sapele; it’s a beautiful wood and was lucky enough to get hold of a decent size board; usually you only see it in veneer form.

Not being 100% sure about its bending properties, I wanted to cut the sides from the board and bend them first. If all goes well, then cut the wood for the back plate, if not I’ll use the wood for solid bodies. So here’s a little video to tell the story…..

What I didn’t say in the video was that the board itself is 38mm thick, I like the wood for the back plates to be 17mm thick before carving, so I only had 4mm to allow for the cutting! I must admit that I was chuffed that I achieved that!

When the sapele if freshly cut it is very pinkish; one thing that I’ve learnt, is that sapele loves finish, so just to give you an idea of what it could like, I sprayed some water on it.

The irregular grain pattern of the wood makes joining the two pieces for the back plate a bit tricky. In spite of a super sharp plane, you still get some small tears.

 So, I’ve found that sanding them with this tool that I made up, works incredibly well.

You can see how the dust collects in the tears, when they’ve gone you’re ready to glue.

I recently treated myself to some new light weight sash clamps from Axminster and this was the first outing- really easy to set-up and use.

The neck and tail blocks have been glued in place, to join the two sides together. Although there are lots of clamps, only one is applying pressure to the glue joint, the rest ensure that everything remains aligned accurately.

The neck is being made from some lovely flamed maple and as always, the neck is laminated for extra stability. This one with black veneers and a strip of sapele to visually tie in with the back.

More soon ;)

Making progress

As mentioned in the last post. I’ve been working on the hardware for Dave’s e-mando. The tailpiece is made from some chunky aluminium alloy angle. I like using ali angle, being extruded means that it’s always clean, crisp and dimensionally accurate. 

You couldn’t bend a 5mm flat sheet and get the same quality angle. Not having any metal-working machines means that it’s all done by hand.

So after, cutting, filling, drilling etc. here’s the tailpiece- it’ll need a final clean-up once I’ve had the e-mando playing.

Next is the bridge and this one will be adjustable for height. The base can be fully shaped, but the saddle portion is left rough until the strings are on and it can be shaped to give the correct intonation.

With some strings on the e-mando for its “first fix” I used some off-cuts of steel string to ascertain where the break point has to be in order for the intonation to be correct. 

Positions located, the bridge can be shaped and using my test pick-up, hey presto the e-mando is playing!

Next; take it apart and add Tru-oil!

A Good Day

It’s always good to get feedback from “Nava players” and to see/hear how the instruments are getting on in their new homes. So, we were delighted to get a couple of emails today. One from Paul in Australia about his emando;

 It is a great instrument to play; the action is perfect, it stays in tune better than any mando I have owned and it is really great using the two pick-ups. It feels good, the weight is just right and has a nice balance.

When I get gigging or busking I will send you some pics....but I am a very happy customer!

 And another one from Chris with a link to some great videos of him playing his “Standard Plus” on YouTube.

It’s great to see the mandolin being played as it should be! Check out Chris's YouTube channel for more videos.

Cheers Guys!

Mandolin Update

You can see that polishing has started on Tony’s mandolin and the real beauty of the wood is starting to show.

I mentioned the figured maple bindings in a previous post- here’s the effect that I was hoping for.

E-mando

 In between polishing sessions the e-mando has grown some frets!

I’m often surprised that “special” fretting hammers are sold by luthier suppliers, most of them variations on dead-blow hammers and soft face mallets. Well here is mine and I think that I have virtually fretted every instrument for 30 odd years with it. A quite simple ball-pein with its face carefully polished and the edges rounded so that there are not any burrs or such like that could mark the fret. It works so well!

Anyway thought that I’d design and make the tailpiece for the ball-end strings- again this emphasises that when I say my instruments are handmade, I mean it!