Happiness is………

Had a great day! John and his wife (a delightful couple) came over to pick up his new Nava mandolin.

So, for me, happiness is seeing the delight that a client has with their new mandolin and also, hearing it played properly!

And for John, well he is clearly very happy with his new mandolin. I’ve never bothered with customer endorsements but have a read of his wonderful comment on the last YouTube video.

Thank you John!

New Model Mandolin: 8

 My "New Model" mandolin (as I'm currently calling it) has now been completed. I'm incredibly happy with the final outcome and looking forward to building the next one! Here is the last video in the series and below that a whole batch of photos for you.

Cheers Gary

New Model Mandolin: 7

Well, this is another long video but so, so much to get through!

The bridge is made and I have brief chat about its design, the strings go on and I show you how I set-up my mandolins. And finally……..the New Model Mandolin gets to sing its first notes!

So, cuppa at the ready and off we go.

Cheers Gary

New Model Mandolin: 6

Time now to shape the neck!

Also, I have a brief chat about the tools needed for this process. After running through the shaping process, I start the clean-up in preparation for setting-up the mandolin, “in the white.”

Cheers Gary

Twin-Point's Tailpiece

The tailpiece for the twin point has now been made.

One thing that I like about making these is, that I can change the shape to pick-up on other elements in the mandolin’s design. You can see how the tailpiece carries on the pointy theme!

In case you’ve not see it, a while back I made video about making my tailpieces.

Twin-Point Head shape (new!)

I’ve always been a bit bemused by the design of most heads, be they guitar or mandolin. In my opinion, you want the strings to leave the nut and run, more or less, straight to the tuners. Also, you don’t want the tuners, nearest the nut, to interfere with the path of any of the other strings. So, from a purely functional point of view, it makes sense to have the tuners arranged in an isosceles trapezoid shape, so that as you get further from the nut, the tuners converge. Funny thing, I found this old worksheet that I produced for an electric guitar making course that I ran, back in the day!

The twin point mandolin has had a few head designs. The first ones were a bit Gibson A shape-ish, which I then narrowed at the top so the strings had a straighter path to the tuners. I then offered a “F” style head which a number of clients opted for, but I’ve always struggled with the aesthetics of this design.

When I designed my Standard mandolin, I used my “arrowhead” shape which I had used, on and off, for many years. The beauty of this design, is that you get the straight string path, its straight edges complement the plates of the tuners and it’s comparatively easy to make. A real application of “form follows function.”

I must admit that I like designs that are functional and are not dictated solely by appearance. This of course, is completely at odds with the twin-point mandolin as, the points are purely decorative (as in other designs such as the scroll on a “F” shape mandolin etc.). But equally, in this digital age, it’s nice to make an instrument that has the appearance of something from a by-gone era.

So, I’ve been trying to balance my need for the practical with old school aesthetics. And this is the new design: evolving from my “arrowhead” design and picking up the curves of the body’s points.

Making the twin-point's rim.

I’ve just completed the rim for the twin-point mandolin and below is the video of how I did it, as well as a few photos of the finished part. Making a video of the process, brought home to me, how much work is actually involved in its construction! As there are a lot of glue joints, all of which are left 24 hours before moving on to the next stage, the rim is assembled over a period of time, and as you work on it in short sessions, the total time spent isn’t really appreciated.

Andrew’s Twin Point Update

Here’s a bit of an update on Andrew’s twin-point mandolin. One of the most time consuming elements of my twin-point builds is the binding and purfling. There are 21 separate pieces to be glued into place which includes 8 pieces of ebony all of which have to be bent on the hot iron to shape.

Firstly the rebate is cut….

Then purfling glued on….

Ebony bent to fit…..

Glued on…..

 One the trickiest stages is mitring the purfling at the tip of the points. It takes me around 30 minutes to carefully cut one mitre- shaving slivers away with a scalpel until a perfect fit is obtained.

I love the way that the bindings and purflings help to define the shape.

Safe in Ireland

Patrick’s twin-point has now been completed and is happily residing in Ireland. Here are some photos for you. 

Don't you just love cocobolo!

Patrick's Twin Point

Here’s an update on what has been happening with Patrick’s twin-point. The body is now together and I’ve just completed the purflings and bindings. As you can see, I use tape to hold the purflings in place whilst the glue sets.

 I like to use ebony bindings on my twin-points; not only does it look good, the ebony makes for a very robust "point". It never ceases to amaze me, how readily ebony will bend and here good old cloth tape is used to hold the bindings in place whilst gluing.

 Once all of the piece have been glued on (in this case 20 separate pieces) it’s a big clean-up. The bindings are always proud of the surface and have to be taken down flush with the body. For ebony it’s best to use a cabinet scrapper- if you sand, you run the risk of grinding ebony dust into the other surfaces. A dust mask is always a wise precaution with cocobolo.

 

And after a good half a day’s work…….

At the same time I’ve been making the tailpiece.

On this one I’ve used ebony and cocobolo and you can see how it complements the body.

 Next stage, fit the neck.