Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi
I am attempting my first mandolin. Any pearls or advice on building. Are there top thicknesses
that make for a better instrument? What works what doesn't?
Also, I have seen that some glue on the bridge before finishing. That doesn't make sense to me
What do all of you do

Thanks

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Hi Andy,
I am assuming this will be a flat top mandolin since you talk about gluing the bridge...? What type of information are you looking for? Are you following a specific plan?

Since I make both guitars and mandolins I love seeing some more mandolin content on this site, but make sure you check out Mandolin Cafe too, that is where all the top mando builders (and newbies alike) hang out.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

When you mentioned glued mandolin bridges, the first image to pop in to mind was of an Ovation mando.

What style of mandolin are you planning?

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

soak your fingers in hot water over night then dry them in a tumble dryer on high in an effort to shrink them to an effective usable size for French polishing the the scroll work

It is going to be an F style mandolin. Why did you think it would be a flat type with a glued on bridge.
Aren't all bridges glued on.

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

I guess I showed my ignorance about mandolins...I thought the bridges were glued and not just set under the strings

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Arch top mandolins usually have bridges that are held in place by string pressure, the strings are anchored in a tail piece (like most arch top guitars and violin family instruments).

If you want to make an F-style I suggest you buy the book "constructing a blue grass mandolin" http://www.amazon.com/Contructing-Bluegrass-Mandolin-Reference/dp/0634066080by R. Siminoff (recent edition), it is still the best book on the subject as far as I know. The plans in the old edition of the book (which is the one I have) are not very good, the ones in the new one I'm told are much better. I have Don McRostie's F5 plan (from Stewmac) which is also very good, the best drawings out there hower are by Adrian Minarovic, a $50 set of 3 plan available from http://elderly.com/books/cats/614.htm. Mine are in the mail even as I type...

As a start, check out this link to madolin builder Lynn Dudenbostel making a couple of F-5's (one for Chris Thile).
http://www.thefishnet.com/makemandolin/newmake.htm

I usually recommend that people build an A-style mandolin (without the points and scroll) before taking on an F-style. It takes less that half the time to build, but besides the details they are pretty much the same.

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Rian Gitar og Mandolin

Thanks Arnt
Great advice

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

I've built one A-style, and I second the recommendations on the Siminoff book and on going with an A-style for the first. One thing I'll say about Siminoff is that there are a couple of places where he makes what I considered some odd construction choices. Also, the plans in the book weren't terrible accurate (the stated measurements didn't match the drawing). One of the things I found really useful was to draw a contour map over the top-view drawing - that really helped with roughing out the top and back. You also need a dial indicator to make a giant caliper with if you don't already have one...otherwise it's jut impossible to guage the thickness as you carve. A small convex plane is very useful for doing the carving, though there are other ways to go. Carving the plates is a LOT of fun.

Good luck!