Hybrid mandolin complete

As you can see from the photos above, Robin’s mandolin has now been completed and he came over last week to collect it. After months of emails, we always enjoying meeting a client in person and seeing their reaction to their new instrument.

I was very pleased with mandolin, as its design (which can best be described as hybrid- flat-top and arched back) isn’t one that I would have naturally thought of!

We say “flat-top” but it isn’t really flat. The thin (3mm) soundboard is forced into a gentle dome shape by the internal braces, but it just looks flat in comparison to the arched back which gets its shape by being carved from a much thicker (20mm) piece of wood.

Standard Plus Completed

Mike’s Standard Plus mandolin has now been completed and was shipped out to him earlier in the week. The Indian Rosewood and Redwood combination produced a truly wonderful tone! Below are some photos for you.

I’m now thinking of finally building myself (and the rest of the Nava family) a mandolin using a Redwood soundboard from the same board as this one! Watch this space……..

Mike’s in the white

You can see that Mike’s mandolin has been set-up; the action and intonation is now what I consider to be the optimum for one of my mandolins. It’s a long iterative process to get everything spot on. The strings are brought up to tension and the instrument rests, measurements made and then adjustments- maybe one slot in the nut is cut a bit deeper or the whole saddle is lowered. With the action correct, next on to the intonation and we keep adjusting and re-tuning. This process takes me about a week as I like to allow the mandolin to settle after any major adjustments.

Next week the French polishing starts!

Brendan's Rim

I’ve just completed the rim for Brendan’s new mandolin. As you’ll see from the photos, the sides (and the back) are made from Macassar ebony; I’ve had this beautiful wood in stock for many years and I’ve no doubt it will make a stunning instrument.

It’s always a relief when the sides are bent, particularly on a type of wood that you’ve not bent before and are a bit unsure of how it will behave.

The plywood tail block and mahogany neck block are shaped to fit and glued in place. 

Then comes the linings- there are a number of styles- solid, kerf, reverse kerf and tentallones; the general function of all of them is to increase the gluing surface area between the sides and top or back. I’ve used all of them and these days I’m committed to double thickness solid ones as they make the rim far more rigid than any of the other types. I say committed- a good word to use, as 8 separate pieces of maple (my preference) have to be prepared, bent and glued in place.

And after a bit of committment.....................

The crowning glory is the end graft- a hint of what’s to come!

David’s Standard mandolin

David’s Standard mandolin has now been completed and was shipped out to him earlier this week. I think we were both delighted with it!

Mandolins progressing.........

In the last post, you saw the tailpiece that I had just completed for Andrew’s twin-point. This week I’ve set the mandolin up, prior to its finishing; one of the things that I love about making instruments with floating bridges is that, you can get it set-up and playing perfectly before finishing.

I spend long time setting-up my mandolins, adjusting the action and intonation to what I consider to be the optimum for it.

Also, this week has seen the neck fitted to David’s Standard mandolin. I use a type of open mortice and tenon joint on my mandolins. I decided to use this type of joint long ago rather than the dovetail that I use on guitars; the reason being I was concerned that narrow part of its tail would be quite thin on comparatively narrow neck of a mandolin. You can see from the photos below my joint is really chunky, so masses of strength and surface area for the adhesive.

These days I use epoxy for my neck joints- the joints are so snug and accurate that I don’t need clamps. I find that if you use Titebond on such a close fit, the moisture in it makes the wood swell and the joint locks up before the neck is in its correct place!

Week 3!

Firstly, here’s another great video from Chris……..

This week’s work? Well, I’m still working on the finish on these two mandolins.

 

Whilst waiting for the mandolins to dry, I’ve also been working on the rosette for the next twin-pointer for Andrew. Here’s a sequence of photos that will give you an idea of the work involved.

 Ta Dah!

Don’t you just love mandolins!

Here’s brilliant new video of “Mr Charlie Pig” playing “Tripping up the Stairs” on his Nava Standard Plus mandolin. Great playing! Enjoy!

And in case you’re wondering. All the constructional work on Patrick’s twin point is now complete; it’s been set-up and is now being polished. Here are a couple of photos of it, in the white, before it was disassembled.

The demise of the cocktail stick

When you glue the fretboard on to any instrument, the alignment has got to be spot on, as any error is magnified along the length of the instrument. I’ve always used some kind of pin that goes into both the neck and fretboard as a method of ensuring that fretboard doesn’t move around whilst being glued.

For many years, cocktail sticks were my favourite choice of pin; they used to be a consistent diameter and made from beech- ideal! However, these days they are of a much poorer quality, inconsistent size and made from bamboo which tends to split. OK I guess for cheese and pineapple chunks but not for precision work!

So now, I make up pins from silver steel rod, which I must say is far superior!

Here’s Patrick's fretboard waiting to be glued on.

A simple plywood caul spreads the pressure.

And here we have the fretboard in perfect alignment!