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The finished peghead for a Lyon and Healy mandolin.

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A mandolin just off the form. This one's being built for Chris Acquavella.

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Haha, "face"!

Beautiful inlay, Jim. That's all handcut and assembled! Which is saying something in this day and age. Precision workmanship.

Jake, the form you see is indeed a new instrument. It...

Thanks Bill! Got the papers to prove it. :)

Here's another that's just gotten underway.. They start out rough....

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Mandolin in Progress:

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Bud the Spud, from the Bright Red Mud:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAotMU8BmZI

:cool:

Awesome work, Andrew.

Thanks much, Mick.

Elegant twists there, Steve. Ah, and some ebonized curly maple I see there too, nice.

Eileen's classical German mandolin. Ready to clean up the outside of the bowl now...

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I don't think you need to worry about brace height, the top doesn't do a great deal of supporting the bridge by itself, and so those would be most likely fine no matter the top thickness. Your main...

Thanks Karen,

It's been a while now that I'm chalk-fitting and attaching permanently the armrests (with glue only, to answer your question). I don't remember now the last one which had the wedge...

The modern German bowlback most certainly has a soft, gentle tone, much akin to the classical guitar -- they go superbly well together in fact. It excels as a solo instrument precisely because it...

Ah, I have a new mandolino build I have not yet strung up, perhaps in the next few weeks I could post that.

The crease, or cant, is for the purposes of structural triangulation -- a nice feature...

I think the number of ribs is more for that precision look, an Audi/Porsche sort of thing.. And it commands a bit more respect, as well as a higher price, partly because of the work involved. Each...

The goal of the system in classical mandolin is to create a highly reactive top, richened by a light, airy bowl, which should in fact resonate and "flow" with the strings' energy. In heavier bowls,...

The term "reinforce" is so loose.. As is stuffing lots of cloth inside something.

I wonder why more repair folk don't do the spruce shaving as opposed to the cleat. Any idea Tavy?

uhhhhhh.... :disbelief:

wow.

Been a while, the shop has been in much transformation over the last year.. Here's the new workbench, with chisels never far away. This is iteration 2.3. I'm looking forward to 3.0.
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Looks like compensation to me. Anyone's guess why the instrument is that out of tune up and down the neck with regular frets to need this. And if you bend the strings, guess how that note is going to...

Dunno, Bill, I just counted 6! :)

That's pretty damn funny, Ed.

Ha, organs.. Good observation!

Yes, practical is the word. It's a dizzying adaptation to family life. I used to put things down and know where they were. Those days are long gone!! And that's just...

Yep, size contributes a lot to the overtones, ie richness, but it really is the top that determines an instrument's loudness. It has to be the right stiffness in relation to the size of the body, or...

Thanks so much, folks!

Tavy, I'll be getting a little more productive this year as our home repairs have wound down significantly. We had a new arrival this past October, and the preparations...

Howdy, Wyatt, here's the original photo. I was a mega space-junkie when I was a kid. Couldn't get enough of the stuff. Turns out, we're all made of it. Stardust, you and I.

Aim high, buddy.
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Hello folks,

This is my latest build, no. 77 for Tapas of Mumbai, India. Tapas is a composer and instrumentalist in the film industry in India, aka Bollywood. He plays the rebab and his wife is a...