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After WAY too much time in the shop, my mandolins are finally complete. Photos of the one I'm keeping are below. The twin to this one was a commission, and was delivered to its new home in Northern Michigan last weekend.

The body shape is taken from the Bob Benedetto blueprint; the cutaway was redrawn to be a little less deep. Scale length is 13-7/8. They're 'tone bar' braced like an F5. The body size was reduced so the distance between the neck joint and the bridge is 6-15/16", and the neck joins at the 12th fret. If my memory is correct, the reduction was around 64%. F-hole design was adapted from a picture of a guitar built by the late John Zeidler. Peghead shape was 'borrowed' from a mid-30's Epiphone Broadway.

The top is Englemann Spruce, maple everywhere else, with lightly-figured ebony on both sides of the peghead, the finger rest, and the armrest (which was removed for the photos). There is a McIntyre Acoustic Feather under the bridge; the bridge itself is from Cumberland Acoustics. Finish is Target's Oxford Ultima USL. I sealed with two coats of shellac, followed by a couple coats of USL containing TransTint dyes, followed by clear coats.

The 'concept' for this project came about when I chickened out on a bigger project. I'm a guitar player mostly, and have built a few guitars. It's been a life-long dream to build an archtop guitar. Then I found out how much a good set of guitar-sized curly maple backs/sides cost, and decided to build something smaller (i.e. CHEAPER) as a first carving project. These mandolins were built almost entirely using the methods in Benedetto's archtop guitar book. Before cutting into the good woods, I built a prototype out of Home Depot woods - cedar siding for the top, poplar back, maple sides and neck, hobby shop walnut for headstock veneer. Stupid thing came out sounding pretty good for a quick, down and dirty project. There are pictures and clips from that on the site listed in my sig.

What I discovered on this project is that if you don't work on something for 4-1/2 years or so, it takes a LONG time to get it done! I told my friend who bought the other mandolin "When I've got a 9-year wait list, you can say you only waited 5 years for yours!"

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Rick Jones
Rochester Hills, MI
http://home.comcast.net/~rajones19

Very cool Rick. Brian told be about those, and I hope to see the one you kept one of these days. He said you were heading up north with the commissioned one on the weekend we had the Michigan Guild of Luthiers meeting, but I hope you can make it out to another (whenever that may be).

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Rick,
Absolutely stunning, in both design and craftsmanship.
Way to go!

Tom

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http://www.moriciguitar.com

Thanks for the kind words!

David - I'll no doubt be over in A2 sometime in the next few weeks to see Brian; I'll get in touch beforehand, see if you'll be around. I was sorry to miss the get-together, and definitely want to make it to the next one.

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Rick Jones
Rochester Hills, MI
http://home.comcast.net/~rajones19

I *REALLY* like this one!

Well done Rick!

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Reguards,

Ken H

Wow Rick, I like it and it looks gorgeous. Now I have another project to add to the list of things to do.

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Rich S

"The inconvenience of poor quality will linger long after the thrill of a bargain has been forgotten"

Rick this is a stunning instrument and I love it!!!

I am sorry that you had to miss the A2 gathering but when you are planning on being in town please let me know too so we can get together. I think that David could probably stand me being around again too but just be careful if you do any recording at his shop - he has an annoying habit of pounding on the bridge of a guitar while the artist is laying down a track..........

A series of power outages spaced exactly the amount of time needed to reboot, load Firefox and type 85% of a message continue to thwart this post.

Here's the short version.

Wow! That's awesome. Now I've got to rush through a few more guitars so I can try that too.

Miek

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Mike Lindstrom

Absolutely STUNNING!!!! One of the best mandolins I have ever seen. Fantastic detail!!!!
I am attempting my first mandolin now and I am appreciating how difficult they are. MUCH harder than a guitar.

Beautiful!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!

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

Awesome ... I love Benedetto's designs, though I may be slightly biased since they're the only "big" name manufacturer in my area. Well done, sir.

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"All women are crazy. The trick is finding one with a particular brand of crazy that you can tolerate on a daily basis."
-Sherman

Andy - Wow, you said it. As I said in my post, I started this project because I didn't want to chance screwing up $300 worth of guitar woods. Last spring I had occasion to spend a few hours with Mike Kemnitzer, builder of world-renowned Nugget mandolins, and I told him that story. He laughed and said "And, are you sorry now?". Boy, he said it. I had no idea how exacting, how fussy they are. Details that would be invisible on a guitar appear HUGE on a mandolin. They can be rather addicting for the same reason. You get absolutely lost in the most minute little tasks; agonizing becomes something of an art form.

Thanks to everybody for the kind words. Hesh, next time I'm over that way, I'll give a shout. I'd really like to make it to one of the lunches or whatever - I'd like to meet everybody. Lance and I corresponded years ago; he stumbled across my web site when he was building his first guitar. Would be nice to actually shake hands with all you folks!

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Rick Jones
Rochester Hills, MI
http://home.comcast.net/~rajones19

Rick, that is just way cool! Great job!

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Waddy

Photobucket Build Album Library

Sound Clips of most of my guitars

Rick,

a delight to behold!

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now known around here as Pat Foster
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http://www.patfosterguitars.com

I really thought that "rhythm track" was my only good contribution to the recordings of the day.

That 00 just makes for a great kickboard tone. (we need an emoticon for the little "pa-dum pum, tsshhh" drum fill)

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Eschew obfuscation, espouse elucidation.

Beautiful! Almost makes me want to build a mandolin Like I need MORE projects...

You are definitely ready to build that guitar.

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Expectation is the source of all misery; comparison the thief of joy.
http://redrivercanoe.ca/

Sweet!

Looks great Rick! I Second Davids comments, I sure hope you can bring one to a MGL meet one day!

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Lance@LuthiersForum.com

wow, that really is a beauty - and i thought the prototype was nice! (has that fully imploded yet by the way Rick?)

I've been talking about your work with a few friends, i think they'll be dumbstruck like me when they see 'em!

very well done, thats really impressive...wow
steve

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www.theguitarrepairworkshop.com

Very nice!

How does the tone differ from a more ordinary F-5 mandolin, or does it.

John

Real Nice!!!!

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Billy Dean Thomas
Covina, CA

"Multi famam, conscientiam, pauci verentur."
(Many fear their reputation, few their conscience)

My work(s) exactly.

Is there a reason mando fretboards sit so high off the body?

break angle at the bridge I guess......


Rick, that mando is STUNNING,

I LOVE it,

Beautiful work, well done!!!!!

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My soundclick xx luthier blog xx luthier soundclick

Now that's a mandolin I would love to try, it looks amazing! Well worth the wait I'd say.

Colin

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I don't believe in anything, I simply make use of a set of reasonable working hypotheses.

Wow! That is a beautiful instrument, looks absolutely flawless.