View Full Version : A Lyon and Healy inspired 2 pointer
Graham McDonald
Jun-25-2005, 12:29am
A new L&H insprired 2 point mando, Sitka spruce and Tasmanian blackwood
Graham McDonald
Jun-25-2005, 12:30am
and the back
Steve Davis
Jun-25-2005, 6:12am
Beautiful! Nice work. I love the shape and the wood.
Very nice! Is it similar to a Gibson style A in sound?
Ken
Ken Sager
Jun-25-2005, 8:36am
That's lovely! Is it a shorter classical scale, or the full 13-7/8? The wide fingerboard makes it look shorter. Anyway, it's beautiful. Nice work.
jmkatcher
Jun-25-2005, 10:19am
I like the way the top is contoured above the soundhole to (I think) elevate the fretboard.
Graham McDonald
Jun-25-2005, 4:58pm
Thank you for your kind comments. It is a 13 7/8 scale with a 1 3/16 nut (30mm as I think of it these days) so a fairly standard neck with a compound radiused fingerboard The neck bolts on with the fingerboard extension over the body stiffened by two carbonfiber rods. The sound is quite 'A like' and certainly different to the F model and the larger soundhole is doing something interesting as well. I will have to sit it down next to one of Peter Coombe's mandos for a listening comparison. Here is a pic of this amazing flicker in the grain of the back
Chris Baird
Jun-25-2005, 5:08pm
Very elegant. Fine job.
GD Armstrong
Jun-25-2005, 9:30pm
Lovely work as always Graham!
Is that one of your molded & carved tops or a straight carved top?
Are you going to bring it to Healdsberg?
GD
Graham McDonald
Jun-26-2005, 12:20am
Chris, There is a delightful assymetrical elegance about the L&H body. Though I was rather in awe of the birdseye A model picsyou posted the other week
This is one of the two mandos (and a couple of zouks) that I am bringing over for Healdsberg. GD, I will get this one in the mail to you towards the end of July.
cheers
Mike Crocker
Jun-26-2005, 7:12am
Trade you even for an old Harmony Sovereign? Seriously.
Peace, Mooh.
Graham McDonald
Jun-26-2005, 4:36pm
Oooh, a Harmony Soveriegn. The first guitar I ever owned was one of them, but I didn't like it much then. Now an old 12 fret 00.......
cheers
Mike Crocker
Jun-27-2005, 8:21am
LOL! (My Sovereign is one of those nasty ply top ones. I got it from a pawn shop near an army base. I think there's some history in it. I use it lap style.)
That is one stunning mandolin. Looks like you've advanced an already very good design. Not being an F sort of guy, I always look for a good folk/classical hybrid sound. You wouldn't be coming to the Canadian Guitar Festival would you?
Peace, Mooh.
Graham McDonald
Jun-27-2005, 4:26pm
Hi Mooh
It was a good try http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif
Don't think I can get to the Canadian Guitar Festival, just Healdsberg this year. I have just been given a t-shirt from the first CGF, as there is a Canadian in town who lives just up the road from it and knows thew guy who runs it.
cheers
I think that asymmetric L & H style is my favorite of all mandolins. #And, while I find the carving above the soundhole visually very appealing (adds depth, or something), you rarely see such carving on the top of ANYthing. #So, it makes me wonder if #that "ridge" you carved doesn't act as sort of a built-in brace, stiffening the top some. #I know this is not the main part of the vibrating top, and the effect is probably minimal. #It's sort of a theoretical question.
Also, Graham, would you elaborate on how the larger soundhole affects the sound? #I've always wondered about this...how does one figure the ideal size (if there is one) of a sound hole, anyway? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/rock.gif
Graham McDonald
Jun-27-2005, 10:34pm
It will certainly add some stiffness around the soundhole, which is probably a good thing, but at the expense of reducing the vibrating area. Not so much a problem with an oval hole, but it will have some effect on an f-hole instrument by shortening the useful area of soundboard. I am making an f-hole version at the moment, so a comparison will be interesting.
I found a website somewhere wich gave the relative areas of standard Gibson size oval and f-holes. The oval holes have a much smaller area which will lower the main air resonance of the soundbox, which changes the relationship between the air resonance and the top resonances. I figured making the oval hole a little bigger would bring the air and main top resonances a bit closer together, which in the guitar world is seen as fairly important. I have not heard of anyone doing any experimental work on oval mandolin soundholes, but someone may well have. Dave Cohen is much more capable of explaining the physics of this than I am and may have some ideas on optimal soundhole size. Dave, where are you Dave, help!