Campfire Kit Questions

[Jim Baker]

I received a Stewmac campfire mandolin kit as a gift. I'm now looking at what I can do to improve it before I begin to build. Here are a couple questions I am beginning to ask.

1) The neck is bolt on. Should I glue it?

2) The neck angle is around 2° as near as I can tell. The neck block is flat on top. Should I modify the neck block so that the top has a 2° angle to match the neck angle?

3) The top measures around .125" thick: Should I graduate the thickness toward the outside as is done with a carved top?

Any comments welcome.

Many Thanks

[Andy Miller]

I've built three of those kits and got a lot of mileage out of playing a couple of them up until I got myself a Collings A style!

I don't think it would improve much to glue the neck on - with the endgrain of the neck butting up to the body sides, it's not that great a glue joint anyway. The ones I built have never shown any signs of the unglued neck joint wanting to separate.

If I remember correctly, the process of sanding in the kerfed linings prior to top/back attachment ends up cutting into the neck block a bit, at least enough to keep a glue joint all around the perimeter of the top. I guess if you want the whole neck block to be attached to the top, you'd have to make it taller and then shape it to match the inside of the top. It stands to reason that having the neck block fully in contact with the top in there would provide better support for the fingerboard. Might be a subtle improvement to the design, but it's easy to understand why Stewmac left that out of a beginner's kit.

I've heard of graduating flattops as you mention doing - I wonder how much graduation you can expect to do in a piece of wood under 1/8" thick, and if it's enough to make any difference? Try it, let us know, have fun!

[Bob Aliano]

You might try tap-tuning the top by planing or sanding rather than just imitating some other gradiation. I'm not sure how you set the correct boundary and bridge loading conditions before tapping, both should affect the top resonance frequency and mode shapes.

[toddjoles]

I built one a few years back. While the bolt on joint was not a problem, I loosened the strings and tightened the bolt at 3 and 6 months. In regards to cutting a dovetail there is not any extra meat in this neck to do so.

In regards to the neck angle, mine also appeared to be 2 degrees until it was brought up to tension. I ended up with a very low bridge and a very high action. If I was to build another I would fashion a radius drum the same radius as the existing neck and take off a sixteenth from the bottom of the heel to increase the angle. That would also require a shim to be added between the F.B. And the top.


Mine was quite loud and had much better tone than I expected so I guess I wouldn't mess with the top at all.

Good luck on the mods!

[robertniles]

I'm also building the Campfire. I'm just going to bolt it on. I don't think it needs to be glued.

I do have a question though:

It comes with a rosewood fretboard - should I finish this (was thinking of tru-oil) or should I leave the fretboard alone?

[toddjoles]

Robert, fretboards are not normally finished. Here are the steps I took to finish my neck.

Final shaping of neck, plane F.B. to fit, fret, glue in place, fine tune edges with a file and sand paper. Next final sand complete neck, tape off the top of the finger board and frets, fill pores, seal and topcoat the neck and F.B. edge, polish out, remove tape and scrape F.B. with razor blade to clean up. Level and polish frets and F.B. with micro mesh.

Good Luck!

[Steevarino]

I'm not sure what kind of bridge the good folks at StewMac are including with this kit, but I thougth I might offer a potential upgrade, should any of you flat kit builders be interested.

Since I have started making my own version of a flat mandolin, I decided to fit them with an adjustable ebony bridge. These bridges are identical to the Cumberland Acoustic Reproduction Loar Era bridges that we have been selling for years, except that the bottom is flat, not radiused for an arch top instrument. I have made them with flat or radiused saddles, and nickel or gold thumbwheels, so there should be something there for everyone! And, at only $30 each, they are quite a deal, when compared to my regular (ten year old) price of $50 for my other archtop mandolin bridges.

My Red Line Travelers actually have a bit of an arch to the top, so I do final fit them to the top of the mandolin, using a similar routine as used on carved-top instruments. You would probably want to do the same, in order to get the optimum amount of sound transfer.

BTW, these bridges aren't listed on a website or price list. I just thought I would offer them up here, and see what happens.

Steve Smith
www.CumberlandAcoustic.com
www.RedLineReso.com

[robertniles]

That is what I was thinking - quite helpful, thanks!

[QUOTE=toddjoles;615954]
Final shaping of neck, plane F.B. to fit, fret, glue in place, fine tune edges with a file and sand paper. Next final sand complete neck, tape off the top of the finger board and frets, fill pores, seal and topcoat the neck and F.B. edge, polish out, remove tape and scrape F.B. with razor blade to clean up. Level and polish frets and F.B. with micro mesh.
QUOTE]