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My mandolin is tuned close to a "B" by accident. I tried tuning the tone bars with an electronic tuner, aiming for a D note, but when all glued up, the air chamber wound up at "B", so tuning the tone...

Playing wear looks good on an instrument. Wear caused by carelessness (dropping it out of the case, spilling beer in the f-holes, sitting too close to the fire, spearing the top with a violin bow,...

Great reading.
Couple of comments. The quality of imports has risen over the years, so there are a lot of good looking and relatively cheap instruments out there. They used to sound cheap and tinny,...

It took me about 6 months working on-off, with a few late nighters to finish an F5. Now, with better tools (nice bandsaw, drill press, and well tuned hand planes), it has taken me about a month's...

Here's an idea: Without an example of the K-4 Mandocello "in the flesh", I took a slide photo of a head-on portrait of the K-4 (there is one in Gruhn and Carter's Acoustic Guitars and Other Fretted...

My mando has an easern sugar maple back and red maple sides. This was mostly the result of what lay around my workshop, but the red maple was easier to bend than the sugar. I like the sound. Looks...

I found the dowel joint easiest for a first mandolin. I play it at every gig and it has held up well. BUT, on my current projects I am using the dovetail for two reasons:
1) I want the practice and...

Check out Fine Woodworking, #110. Jon Arno has a good article on American sycamore,
Platanus occidentalis. Quartersawn sycamore looks like lacewood; slabsawn is
not very exciting. For furniture and...

I have used red maple; mostly because I found a large board with excellent figure,
plus curly red maple is common at my local hardwood supply. I think it bends
more easily than the sugar maple I...

Finger planes and small spokeshaves are useful for carving the plates,
especially if you roughed out the shape with a router. I find they
are much easier to control than gouges (although those are...

I have a very nice 1983 Taggart A5 with a one piece back. I bought it
over a two piece back because it looked really nice (lots of figure).
It sounds great and no signs of cracking or wear after 20...

I agree that Bob Benedetto's book has some better general information than Siminoff's.
For example, Siminoff's mold pattern with the turnbuckle fixture is difficult to machine well enough to be...

I agree that Bob Benedetto's book has some better general information than Siminoff's.
For example, Siminoff's mold pattern with the turnbuckle fixture is difficult to machine well enough to be...