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Hi all, I'm a "new chum" here. I did post about a year ago about elec.double basses and have lurked whenever I wanted specific information. Mostly I make elec. double basses. In the last two years I've built a double bass, an archtop guitar, a viola and now two mandolins. I'm quite happy in the carved top/ moveable bridge family.

Two bluegrass mandolins, carved tops and backs. This won't be a build thread just a series of progress shots.

The mando with strings is about 2 weeks old. It has a top made from old Oregon fascia( d. fir), very tough and brittle after years in the weather, it gave me a bit of trouble doing the purfling. I was too close to the edge and it crumbled on the end grain and chipped in other places. I repaired what I could and made it into an "artifacto" and learned my lesson. The back and sides are PNG rosewood, the neck and bridge are maple, f.b. is rosewood with ebony/qld. walnut veneers.

The unfinished one is w. r. cedar top, blackwood b/s, Qld.walnut neck, solomon blackwood f.b., bridge and veneers. I'm planning an oval sound hole one as well but will first complete an archtop guitar that has been gathering dust.

These instruments are based on the drawings for the Gibson F5 and A models. I've added an upper bout not standard to Gibsons but used before by others. The upper bout gives some of the visuals of an F5 without all the work. The only bling on these will be the purfling and a violin overhang top and bottom.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

Sweet. I love the ancient look of the brown mando, and I love your f-hole design on the unfinished one, too.
Patrick

Welcome back and beautifull work my friend keep it up and dont be a stranger we need all the posters we can here !! look forward to seeing more of your excellent work !

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Thanks fellas, I hope the new ffs arn't to big. The ffs on the artifacto still arn't finished. Sound hole size is something I'm still trying to get a handle on.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

I love that body shape. You do beautiful work.

Bill,
Great rustic look. To think of sitting back pickin' it in the big comfy chair next to a fire just feels good (it's cold up here).

On the unfinished mando, did you inlay the perf or is that perf and spruce attached like a binding? In the photo, it appears as though the spruce is mitered at the point. Optical illusion?

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
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Thanks Ian and Chris

You have a pretty good eye for detail Chris. The purf. is inlaid and the wrc is repaired from the purf mitre back into the cut away about 3-4 mm.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

The brown mando has a truss rod, these necks will have cf extending into the head stock. The fb has some relief ( minimal), but next time I'll relieve the neck then fit the fb. Not sure if dressing the frets will be a worry. As you could imagine I've done a bit of mando research in the last couple months. Graham McDonald and Peter Coombe are the only ones I've found (there may be others) using only cf and no truss rod. I'm following their lead on this and it's partially an educated guess. Ten years ago I built an A style mandolin ( my first go at luthiery, I don't really count it ) with a Canadian Maple neck, no truss rod or cf. It's had a very low action from day one and is still fine today. The neck is slightly thicker, enough so that people comment on it when they play it. I also like the idea of reducing the weight and also strengthening the weakest part of the neck, instead of further weakening it.

I cut the button off the back, it now has a new one. The inside is ready for graduation. This is the hardest blackwood I've been up against. It works well enough, it's
just very hard ! I was just as surprised when I came upon a very soft piece of blackwood.

_________________
Regards from RangeView, Bill

The box has been closed and the neck is well advanced. I've used tightbond everywhere except on the back and fb. The top was regraduated before the back went on. I made a th. allowance for the wrc but it seemed too th. after I cut the ff.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

Bill,
I love the rustic look of the finished one and will agree with everyone that you have a great eye for detail and form. Do you plan on finishing the second one rustic? If so I would love to see how you achieve the look. Truly I stunning!

Thanks for taking the time to post!!!

Best,
_Mike

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_Mike Tracz
MCT Guitars
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Too thin... should be a screamer. It will be interesting to hear how the wrc reacts to the thinness.

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

Cheers fellas

Mike, I was just trying to get out of the poo. It's been a surprisingly popular finish. I plan on revisiting that mando once the new one has strings. To get it as you see it, it's had a very washy alochol based walnut stain with a 1/4 in brush load of black applied to the top only. The remaining stain was added to a small amount of FP to make "dirty shellac". I polished the entire mando with this mix in three sessions. You can see the colour change best on the maple. I'll do a new thread when I revisit the first one.

Chris I should have spelled thick, it's now just slightly thicker than Simnoff graduations for spruce. I had a moment there, "too thin! aagh! how does he know?".

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

LOL... my Hacklinger gauge spans the www!

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Chris Oliver
Infinity Luthiers
...in the shop.

live every minute...

I love the overhanging binding. Looks great.

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Nice work Bill. Question about the ribs/sides. Did you cut the whole sides and end blocks from one large piece of wood or did you laminate multiple boards then cut the piece out? Mike

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Thanks fellas

Mike I can see how it looks that way in the pics but the sides are bent.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill

It does. But the closer I look I can see the lining. though there are a few guys out there that have built with solid sides. I believe Rigel mandolins builds that way....Mike

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Another day, another dollar.

Almost ready now. This mando (wrc) has been fitted up once, and I was surprised how much it sounds like the oregon one. It's getting an oil finish and with this weather I'm waiting 48hrs instead of 24.

The new bench is a bonus. It's Euro Beech that I've had for about 5 yrs. The old bench was made 30 yrs ago as a temp. solution. I only thought Australia was going to be a working holiday. We didn't get back to the states for 10 yrs. It looks like we're going to stay, so the time must be right.

I'm three days into this and should have the top working smoothly by the end of today.

_________________
Regards from RangeView, Bill

6 days and it's completed. I haven't worked this well in a while, hijacked my own thread. It couldn't be helped. I was possessed, and with all the wet weather the polishing was going very slowly.

This bench is carving height for me, 925mm, now I can just bend at the waist. It will hold my top and back carving trays. The old bench is 885mm and I'll keep it for hand planeing because I can get my upper body weight over the work.













Rails will be a dry fit with a coach screw.




The tail vise has been perfected by generations of cabinet-makers and joiners.
It's supported five ways; it tracks three ways and has three clamping possibilities.

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Regards from RangeView, Bill