View Full Version : Slotted mandola fingerboards
testore
Jul-06-2006, 3:12pm
Anyone making slotted mandola boards at larger than "standard" scales? I want to build a 16" or 16.25" scale.Any ideas??
Rick Turner
Jul-06-2006, 3:30pm
Check with Randy Allen in Grass Valley or you could probably get one from Luthiers' Mercantile.
First Quality in Louisville has always made mine, in the 16" for the mandola
Ron C
Dale Ludewig
Jul-06-2006, 4:40pm
Randy Allen has made mine. They're real nice. Radiused to what I wanted. Slots stopped where I wanted. Prices were reasonable, but he usually wants a minimum order of 3. You might be able to convince to do a one off, but it would probably add some $. Understandably.
sunburst
Jul-06-2006, 5:19pm
Steve Smith will slot any scale length you want at Cumberland Acoustic.
Bill Snyder
Jul-06-2006, 6:06pm
How many of you farm out your slotting and how many slot your own boards (mandolin, mandola, ban@o, etc..)?
M. Montgomery
Jul-06-2006, 6:39pm
I used the 26.188" guitar template from LMII to slot a 16.47" mandola fingerboard.
Dave Cohen
Jul-06-2006, 10:31pm
You can buy a 17" scale f'board from LMII if you want a 17" scale mandola, and you can cut the same f'baord off at the 1st fret location for a 16" scale. That one is only slightly longer than the original Gibson scale length of 15.75". A bit less spendy than Randy's or Steve's f'boards.
I once did a conversion of a hollow body electric guitar to a 19-tone guitar for a guy working on his Ph.D. in music. It had the 19th fret at the octave, i.e., where the 12th fret would normally be. For that, I did the calculations in Excel based on one over the 19th root of two (instead of the usual one over the 12th root of two), then sent the Excel file to Randy Allen. He did a nice job on that one, for about $130 at the time.
testore
Jul-07-2006, 10:52am
Thanks guys, I knew I'd have a few options.
Gary
sunburst
Jul-07-2006, 11:11am
How many of you farm out your slotting and how many slot your own boards (mandolin, mandola, ban@o, etc..)?
I slot my own mandolin and banjo fingerboards, and farm out everything else.
I might slot my own guitar boards eventually, if I ever need enough of the same scale length to be worth the effort of making the jig.