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Mandolin Project - In The White
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Author:  rajones19 [ Thu May 17, 2007 6:36 am ]
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A while back I began building a pair of mandolins. The body shape is based on Benedetto's archtop guitar blueprint; my thought was to go through the process on affordable woods, on a smaller scale, before taking the round-bottom plane to a $200 chunk of maple. This was a great idea on one hand - it sure has helped to get familiar with the process. It was a lousy idea on the other hand - mandolins are small, and tolerances are tight. Anyway, last weekend I put a coat of shellac on the neck of the first of the two mandos to protect it, and strung it up in the white. Pics below. The second mando is for a friend, who wanted the peghead to resemble his '49 L5 guitar, which presented something of a challenge. You won't have any trouble recognizing it from the photo. Photo doesn't do any justice at all to the beauty of the pearl, of course.
Author:  Arnt Rian [ Thu May 17, 2007 7:12 am ]
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I want one!

They are beautiful, the detail work on the headstocks looks very clean. Are you keeping them blonde? We need more pictures!

my thought was to go through the process on affordable woods, on a smaller scale, before taking the round-bottom plane to a $200 chunk of maple. This was a great idea on one hand - it sure has helped to get familiar with the process. It was a lousy idea on the other hand - mandolins are small, and tolerances are tight

Very true.
Author:  WaddyThomson [ Thu May 17, 2007 7:18 am ]
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Rick - great work.  Both of those necks and headplates are beautiful. They are going to be knockouts under finish.
Author:  rajones19 [ Thu May 17, 2007 7:21 am ]
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Arnt -

The second one - the commission - will be a fairly dark yellow/amber, to hopefully match his L5 guitar. I'm still on the fence about mine. I've not done a sunburst before, and am really tempted to give that a go. I'm finishing with Target USL. I've got the StewMac guitar finishing book, and have been poring through all the forums reading up about finishing, etc.
Whatever I do, I want it to be something that would look good on the matching guitar, which I'll be starting on when these are completed.
Author:  Wade Sylvester [ Thu May 17, 2007 7:24 am ]
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Nice Job Rick!
Very sweet looking combination.
How does the sound compair to a regular Mandolin?
What is the scale of this one?

Wade
Author:  rajones19 [ Thu May 17, 2007 8:02 am ]
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Wade -

Scale is the 'standard' 13-7/8". Bodies are sized so the neck meets at the 12th fret - I think the reduction from the full-size blueprint was 64%. They are parallel braced, and braces are position according to F5 mandolin blueprints.

It sounds loud to me, and punchy. Lots of ring. I visited a mando player friend last night who owns half a dozen fairly high-end mandolins - three F-styles, an A, and one much like the one I'm building. This one was right in there with them, by both my estimation and his (I trust his opinion more than my own, for a number of obvious reasons). Will be interesting to see how it changes once a few coast of lacquer are on it.

Author:  rajones19 [ Thu May 17, 2007 8:31 am ]
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Thanks, Hesh ...

Ya know, I get out to Ann Arbor fairly regularly to visit a guitarist buddy there. Would be cool to cross paths sometime!
Author:  Wade Sylvester [ Thu May 17, 2007 8:35 am ]
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Nice Rick,

I forgot to ask, what are you using for tuners?
I picked up some Elite mando tuners last time. They are acurate but a little tight to turn.

Wade
Author:  rajones19 [ Thu May 17, 2007 8:42 am ]
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I've got three sets of A-style tuners right now - two Grover sets, and one Schaller set. The one in the pictures has Grovers; the one with the Gibson-style peghead will get the Schallers, which are very slightly different but will solve a minor problem I discovered (make that CREATED) in the construction of the peghead.
Author:  Steve Kinnaird [ Thu May 17, 2007 2:23 pm ]
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"...and tolerances are tight"

Well, you seem quite comfortable working with those tight tolerances! They look great.

Steve
Author:  curtis [ Thu May 17, 2007 6:32 pm ]
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Wow Rick, beautiful, really classy. Your friend is one lucky fella - he must be over the moon to see it taking shape. The Gibson-esque detail is dead cool too.


the speakers on my laptop hardly do them justice, but loved the mp3's recorded with your prototypes. how are they doing - are they holding up?
Author:  Billy T [ Thu May 17, 2007 6:56 pm ]
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Your Archmando is awesome! Great work!
Author:  Matt Gage [ Thu May 17, 2007 10:22 pm ]
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Those are neat! very cool.

Matt
Author:  Dave Rector [ Fri May 18, 2007 12:01 am ]
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Rick, I see more and more cool stuff on this forum everyday. This has to be the coolest so far. Great concept and incredible execution!
Author:  rajones19 [ Fri May 18, 2007 12:44 am ]
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Big thanks to everybody for the kind words, they're much appreciated.

Curtis - The prototype didn't fare so well. I began the prototype with the intent ONLY to carve a top; it just sort of progressed from there, as a means to go through the process once on basically scrap wood. The fatal flaw was I grabbed really soft piece of 1x2 pine for the neckblock inside the body, never intending to actually put a neck on it. Well, in the end I did put a neck on it, and about six months later that neckblock gave up the ghost. Mandolins have a LOT of tension on the neck/neck joint, and the soft pine compressed under the dovetail, and the heel pulled away from the body. It's playable - but it's a major handful.

It still sounds good, and I wouldn't mind resurrecting it, if only for the exercise in disassembly. Just hard to justify spending the time on it. It doesn't seem to be getting any worse, so I considered making a really low one-piece bridge for it. I'd lose a tone of volume and tone, but at least it would be playable.
Author:  charliewood [ Fri May 18, 2007 2:42 am ]
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rajones19 those are fantastic - Ive been seeing a few achtop/mando-brids lately and they look fab!
The L5 touch is fantasticly suited to this project and ultra cool to boot -
I see no reason that these wouldnt stand up to other high end mandos... as Im sure the archtop elements make for alot of punch and projection,
while the mando bracing would contribute the necessary tone and characteristic sound.
There is an added dimension with these instruments in the originality of them, that would make them truly desirable to mando players as well.
I agree with Arnt - I want one!
Cheers
Charliewood
Author:  charliewood [ Fri May 18, 2007 2:50 am ]
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I forgot to mention that...
once a little while ago
I was selling my (custom shop aged} butterscotch-burst 58'RI LP
and I posted a pic here in case anyone was interested in buying... It was commented by Don Williams I believe at the time that, "that finish would look great either on an acoustic or mando"... or something like that.
I throw that suggestion out there, because oh boy wouldnt these look great in a butterscotch or an iced tea - especially if aging were possible - could you imagine? Vintage cool!
Cheers
Charliewood
Author:  rajones19 [ Fri May 18, 2007 4:16 am ]
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Charlie -

Thanks for the kind words. I, too, believe there would be a market for these, if only because they're relatively unique. There are others building the same type of mandolin, but not many - and they are mostly under the radar.

If you've still got photos of that butterscotch burst, I'd sure love to see it. Will have to Google it, see what comes up.
Author:  curtis [ Sat May 19, 2007 7:23 pm ]
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Rick, i hope you do find the time to dismantle and repair the prototype, its too good to not do! maybe one of those jobs to get onto when you've got an hour or so and its not worth starting anything new that day? i guess with the strings loose it'll last for ever.


i've recently been attacking my poor old squire strat (i learnt a lot from messing with that old thing - and kind of ruined it in the process!) by stripping the neck, refretting again and getting together my ideas for assymetrical super comfy ergonomic guitar necks. as wrecked as it looks, i'd hate to see it in the bin - the hours i spent learning hendrix and cream tunes on that thing!


mandolins in the style of old Gibson's guitars etc is a really great idea, I'm sure there would be a great market for that. I would love to see them, as i'm sure would everyone else - great fun. old jazz boxes etc as mando's, love it. the relic'ing would be cool too - i know a lot of people dislike the relic philosophy, but the best strat i ever played was a relic - and i cant help but get excited at the fender stealth esquire a friend has bought recently (even tho its a let down plugged in)


its all good :)


take it easy


 
Author:  martinedwards [ Sat May 19, 2007 7:52 pm ]
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beautiful work Rick, great to seemore instruments to show that there's more to Lutherie than 6 string acoustics!!

ESPECIA0LLY beautifl mandos like these!!!

Beautiful
Author:  rajones19 [ Sun May 20, 2007 2:57 am ]
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Curtis -

You're right about the disassembly/repair of the prototype. It would be one heckuva learning experience. It would involve removing fingerboard, fingerboard extension, the neck, and would probably have to remove both the top and back from the rim in order to replace the faulty block - in other words, 100% total disassembly. I suppose the worst that happens is something would break, and it wouldn't be worth fixing. Worst that happens is I still have an unplayable mandolin made of $30 of woods!

The real beauty of the prototype was finding out that cedar siding that cost $8 at Home Depot can be jointed and carved and sound pretty darned nice. The prototype was an eye-opener on many fronts; If I'd had any idea it would actually sound decent, I would have planned better in the first place, and used something besides 1x2 pine for the neckblock!

What Curtis is referring to is a prototype mandolin I made from about $30 of Home Depot woods as a sort of training project before beginning on the really nice woods. There's a page about it on my website.

Thanks to everybody for the encouraging words!
Author:  John How [ Sun May 20, 2007 4:28 am ]
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Hi Rick, I can't comment on your sealer question but that sure is a nice looking Mando. I've been wanting to do a similar project but I will build it as a very small 12 string guitar and the nut will be where the 5th fret is so I can keep it sounding mandoish. One of these days I'll get started on it.
Post more picks when your finished please.
Author:  Andy Zimmerman [ Sun May 20, 2007 3:06 pm ]
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Absolutely gorgeous mandolins.
Very well done. One day I will attempt one
Author:  curtis [ Mon May 21, 2007 7:06 am ]
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i would also love to attempt one of those mandolins in the future.


you might get orders for plans one day, which maybe will make it more of a priority to dismantle


cant wait to see the finished products, keep the pics coming,


take care
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