Slim pickins on mando plans

[Brookside]

I've been poking around for various mandolin plans for a few months. I'm looking for plans for any carved-top design. I'd like to gather a variety of every kind available for my own personal library. Ultimately I'm sure I would like to veer off the path and perhaps work into some original ideas. For now I just want to study the broad variety of traditional designs and build the ones which most appeal to me.

I'm looking for A's and F's, f-holes and oval holes, from as many sources as possible. If anyone can help suggest a source for mandolin plans I would greatly appreciate it. It seems they are harder to come by than I would have thought.

I am already aware of those offered by The Guild of American Lutheirs. They offer no A's, only F3 and F5. Siminoff offers F4, F5 and A5. Stew-mac offers F5 and A5.

Help. I'll pay good money for good plans.

[JeffS]

Elderly sells them too. I just ordered some. Search for blueprints. I was looking for flat top but grabbed their A plan too. I noticed an abundance of F's as well at the places you mentioned. I think MIMF.com has some mando plans but it has been a while since I've looked around on that site (too many rules for posting and very hard to navigate in my opinion).

[Magnus Geijer]

There's a dude on eBay selling mando plans in various forms. I know nothing about the quality of them, but he's got a few unusual designs.

[Chris Burt]

Existing plans are good, as far as they go, but they never go far enough, or into areas that interest me. They leave too much to the imagination. So, I'm a strong believer in measuring existing fine instruments and drawing my own plans. If you're going build a fine instrument, you'll need to understand it well enough to draw each part of it. Studying the top, back, and side thicknesses of several good-sounding instruments--their similarities and differences--brings perspective to your own building process. A Hacklinger Thickness Gauge is a wonderful thing.

[Pete Braccio]

Check out http://www.donsplans.com. He's got five different sets of mando plans there. He also has a free set of violin plans there so you can see the quality of the plans before you buy.

Pete

[HoGo]

I posted a link to my own plans in the "post a pic..." section, thread "My first...". Read my comments about the plans carefully. These are simple F style plans you can download. I have also drawn much more detailed Loar plans but they are not available, yet.