The mandolin you see here was built during December of 2002 and January of 2003. This is a prototype, built of woods purchased at the local Home Depot store. I had purchased sufficient woods for two mandolins from The Wood Well in Port Townsend, Washington. I took one look at the exquisite figure in the curly maple backs, and knew I didn't want to dig into that as my FIRST effort at carving.
Off to Home Depot I went, and first bought a 8-foot chunk of cedar siding to use as a top. My intent here was not to build a playable instrument; only to carve a top. Before I'd even taken a plane to the cedar, I realized I might be wise to also carve something a little harder, so bought a useable piece of "poplar" and joined it for a back. Also bought some garden variety maple for sides.
I adapted my Charles Fox side bending machine to handle smaller forms, and made bending forms the size I'd need for these guitar-shaped mandolins. I resawed and thinned the maple and tested the bending machine, and wound up with two perfect sides, including the cutaway, which was a subject of some concern. I assembled the sides to neck and tail blocks, and glued up the lining I'd purchased from Stewart-MacDonald.
Over the Christmas holiday I carved and braced the top, carved the back, and assembled them to the sides. Nearly a week was spent producing two full-sized dovetail fixtures, one to route the body mortise, and one to route the neck tenon. I figured the only reall way to test the fixtures, of course, was to build a neck. After that, it seemed silly to not sacrifice a fingerboard to the neck, and fretwire. I purchased a set of the cheapest A-style tuners offered, and approximately six weeks after the project began, I had a complete mandolin. For the good mandolins, I had purchased three gold-plated Monteleone tailpieces from Randy Allen at Allen Guitars. On a temporary basis, for the sake of accurate tonal assessment, I put one of the Monteleone tailpieces on the prototype. During the SuperBowl, I strung it up "in the white." The little thing is amazing to me, given it's dark beginnings. It has a loud, sweet tone, and is very enjoyable to play.
Two months have now passed, and I'm still playing this prototype in its unfinished, bare wood form. It continues to be a joy. In addition two the two mandolins originally planned, I ordered woods for a third from Bruce Harvie at Orcas Island Tonewoods, and construction of the three 'good' mandolins is in progress.
When the prototype was first complete, I recorded two rather rough tunes to MP3 as samples, and they are linked below:
Thanks for looking and listening, and please feel free to comment at rajones19@comcast.net
Thank you!
Get back to the original "Typo's Workbench"