Jeff, I finished an IV kit about 2 years ago. I’ve been really happy with it. It’s gotten a lot of really positive comments at jams for its tone despite my hamfisted playing.
I bought the...
Type: Posts; User: Chinn
Jeff, I finished an IV kit about 2 years ago. I’ve been really happy with it. It’s gotten a lot of really positive comments at jams for its tone despite my hamfisted playing.
I bought the...
Get the kit from International Violin. Its a good kit. Will definitely take some re-work to make it a great instrument, but what you get is definitely capable of being made into a great instrument. I...
IMO, I'd go with a 5 string mandolin (not octave).
As for woods, have him build it out of what you'd have an electric guitar built of. Ash body, maple neck. Cap it with some gorgeous maple and do...
I'm a long time lurker, not a regular poster. I think I'm pretty typical of a lot of people right now though. Wife and I are both working from home for the forseeable future. Thankfully both jobs are...
Kevin nailed it. My grandmother always would say "A watched pot never boils.."
I built a kit this past summer. My saddle failed 2 days after first string up.
I replaced it with a Cumberland Acoustic.
Thanks for that Mike. Interesting counterintuitive result!
I've only built my first mandolin, however the bass and treble bars are carved differently as I remember. IE, converting a right hand mandolin just with the nut and bridge will not sound right.
...
Thanks much all! I'm really enjoying playing it.
About a year ago, I spent time in Nashville test driving a large number of instruments in the higher dollar range (your price range for reference). As always, they had a wide variety of tones and...
Impressive build!
Finished my first mandolin build a little less than a week ago. Have been playing my fingers off since.
This started as an IV A-style kit. I ended up re-working almost every aspect of the kit. I...
One word.... Bends
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I've built some Cigar box instruments, but not a CG Mandolin.
Some things that I've found make a much better instrument are to source the largest volume box possible as mentioned above, and then...
I enjoy making tools and jigs in my shop for my processes and this project was no exception.
The thickness gauge was made of heavy 3/4 multi ply hardwood ply. I used a digital gauge from Harbor...
Finally, this brings me to where I am now.
I currently have 10 coats of Mohawk Nitrocellulose on the instrument. I'm pretty happy with where the finish is going. I do wish I had grain filled...
After several days of playing the instrument in the white, the factory provided bridge broke. I've read of a few that did that, so it did not surprise me. I took this as an opportunity to order a...
The back caused me a lot of questions at first. I was going from the Siminoff book and graduations. My back was significantly thinner than suggested by his graduations. I talked to people on this...
With these tasks completed, I was ready to glue the neck into the rim/top. I did this as you might expect with many clamps.
One significant deviation however was that the originally provided...
Next up, I wanted to complete some work on the neck.
I started by removing the white binding on the neck and re-doing the job with the torteloid binding that I finished the instrument in. That...
I was not originally going to document this, but decided to put up some photos and describe a bit of what I've done to build my kit.
Just a little detail on the front - I'm a fairly experienced...
I graduated my top pretty closely to the Siminoff plans. I found the book pretty useful.
Dan, did your kit come with instructions? If not, or if they're lost, reach out to International Violin and get a set. Admittedly, the instructions are pretty minimal, but they will answer a lot of...
I'm in the finishing stages of a kit from IV's latest batch. Per Mike's comment, they won't match exactly.
The top I found was near dead on in the center (no room to remove any more) and toward...
Thanks again for the feedback everyone. I ended up using a combination of techniques to get the job done.
I started off using scrapers to remove the majority of the finish. This worked in most...