Official Luthiers Forum!

I didn't think about how high on the body a sound hole can be. On my arch top, the f holes are completely below the middle bout. And the upper block is quite small, the extension is just up in the air, it isn't supported on the inside.

I started doing the inlay on mine. A weird idea I came up with. It's supposed to be an arch top by G B Guadagnini in about 1780, in response to his sons guitars. Instead of a rosette, since he used cello style f holes, he decided to but a decoration around the edge. Wooden discs sunk into a sea of mastic. I'm going to try to set them in very transparent blue epoxy.

We'll see how that works. This it it so far:

_________________
Why be normal?

a little inlay.

_________________
Mike Collins

Installing a pickup and closing up the box.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Nice, Jay!
What brand pick up is that?
Alan

It's a K&K mandolin pickup. The transducers for this pickup are quite different from the ones for their steel string guitar pickups. Quite a bit bigger surface area and a different shape.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Not actually what's happening IN my shop but rather ON my shop, the outside anyway. I had the Jethro Tull song 'Scraping Away' stuck in my head all day

Interesting, how different is it from the little 3 sensor mini in terms of sound?

I can't count how many K&Ks I've removed over the past 4 years. If this one is better sounding I might reconsider some recommendations to my customers.

I don't know yet. This is the first time for me using their mando pickup. Even when this instrument is up and running, it might not fully answer your question. The instrument I'm building is an octave mandolin with a flat top guitar type body with a fixed bridge. The K&K pickup seems to be intended primarily for carved top regular mandolins and the transducers are supposed to be mounted to the underside of the top just inboard of each f-hole. I talked to a guy at K&K tech support and told him what I'm building. I asked if I should mount the transducers on the bridge plate directly under the saddle like you do with the guitar transducers and he said no. He recommended placing them on the bridge plate as far out to the ends of the bridge wings as the bracing allows.

An interesting difference in installation between the mandolin and guitar pickups is that while they recommend installing the guitar transducers with super glue gel for best performance and maximum output, the mandolin transducers are installed with two layers of very thin double stick tape (provided) and the tape is required for best performance. They say that the tape cuts down on noise caused by things like brushing against the top. To make the installation more permanent, you have the option of adding a drop of super glue onto the tape, but the tape is still required.

As an aside, I asked about using their ukulele pickup mounting it under the saddle like the guitar pickup, but he said the frequency response would be wrong for a mandolin.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Interesting. They told me they placed them there because that's as far as you can reach through the f-holes, and to put a transducer between each pair like the guitars...which I did and it was fine.

The big hangup I have always had with the mini is mainly the sound but moreso the fact that it's a permanent install with the superglued transducers. I like the idea of the tape WAY more than superglue. Thanks for sharing about that.

I tend to prefer Schatten all round, they use stick tape too...

Yea, I think they designed the mando pickups with installation through f-holes of a closed box as a priority.

I found your photo of the mandolin you built with the pickup installed in the open box. http://luthiersforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10101&t=51926&hilit=mandolin

I'm guessing that you positioned the transducers right below the bridge. If you thought it sounded fine, then I'm thinking it should work fine on mine too.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Hmm...that twigs a memory. I think I placed them a little ahead of directly beneath but I do not recall for sure. So glad I take shop notes. Cough cough...

inlays again!
Mc

_________________
Mike Collins

Finishing the finishing...

Hey billm, that's looking like a great pair.
I'm guessing Bubinga and Sapelle with EIR bindings?
Looks like the side purfling mitres turned out well.

_________________
The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Lately I've been side tracked rebuilding a picket fence and making an "arch" for my eldest son's wedding. The arch comes apart in 4 pieces for easy transport. The people in the first picture are my daughter and her boyfriend who posed to provide a "scale" for the nine ft tall arch. My son didn't specify the height he wanted so I erred on the larger end of things.
The finishing was done using the small pancake compressor in the second picture and a HF jamb gun. I have a larger spray gun but the jamb gun was at hand. The compressor kept up with the spray gun - it never ran out of air.

That's the nicest Stargate I've ever seen, Clay!

Thank you! I appreciate it. Yes, that's exactly it, bubinga, sapele, and EIR bindings.
This is #6 & 7 for me, happy how they are coming along. Not perfect, but less imperfect than prior ones.

Bill

Hi Don,
Not being familiar with stargate, I had to look it up. The arch was used as a back drop and something to hang flowers on at the wedding. He mentioned a "secondary" use as a prop in a L.A.R.P. he (and his now - wife) created. You have me wondering if the wedding was the "secondary" use. ( )

https://www.dreamlarp.com/

Ha!

No room for a bandsaw anymore- but there are some tools small and useful enough one should never get rid of.
This classic Craftsman Jigsaw is one of those.

_________________
You just pick up a chord, go twang, and you're got music. -Sid Vicious

Hey Colin, just sayin hello…and sharing a few pics from my tiny shop…if I can remember how to do that…
Well it seems I have some learning to do before I can post pics…perhaps someone can point me in the right direction…
I’m not building a guitar quite yet but building the needed alignment tools and such…

_________________
Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

Just finished #84, a Sitka/double side (Mahogany outer IRW inner) size 2. Little guy. Sounds good to my moderately impaired hearing

IMG_5829 by Terence Kennedy, on Flickr

I have been messing around with different wood combinations for double sides. Bird's Eye Maple outer/IRW inner has been a big hit. I like the Mahogany/IRW too but not totally convinced it is all that much better than straight Mahogany for both. Onward and upward eh?

_________________
It's not what you don't know that hurts you, it's what you do know that's wrong.

That's a beauty. How did you stain the bird's eye maple? That color looks great.

_________________
Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter