My first true classical

**labraid** · May-16-2008, 9:25pm

Hello all,
Maybe some of you remember my first failed efforts at this some two years ago. Well, months of lost income, sleepless nights, and burning passions have culminated in something real. I'm real proud to unveil...

this thingy

**surfandstrum** · May-16-2008, 9:28pm

That's beautiful...Will you be posting some sound clips? Are you happy with it enough to put them into production?

**Bill Snyder** · May-16-2008, 9:29pm

Come on Brian, you are still logged in, where are the rest of the photos? #

**Jason Nagati** · May-16-2008, 10:25pm

Bill is right, Brian. Don't tease us.

**Hans** · May-17-2008, 8:27am

Now THAT is VERY fine Brian! That's no thingy. That is a very well thought out Classic, beautifully done. Stunning!

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 8:40am

Thanks! I was a bit buggered out last night. Still taking pictures too, as you can see unrolling here.

I did take some time to play her.. I wish I could describe the sound. Very light and airy, clear and crisp, with a very good bass range compliment. Hopefully I'll have some sound clips today before long.

I don't have much of the standard "classical" pieces in tab. I'll do the renaissance glissando-melody thing, but if anyone has a simple-to-learn piece (bourrée?) they could forward the tab on, I'd love to record something in that vein.

**mandolooter** · May-17-2008, 9:01am

3 wow's and a hand clap!

**Jim Garber** · May-17-2008, 9:09am

Looks pretty, Brian. When can I play it? I know you will be at the Montreal guitar show. Are you planning on attending CMSA which will also be in Montreal in October. They usually have a good handful of luthiers there. I may even try to make it.

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 9:24am

I have to find out some infos on the CMSA. Any idea the cost to show? I would like it, I'm happy with the tone, the construction, etc. Even the narrow nut isn't all that bad. It's something I'd like to show and collect comments on..

Here's the peghead. This was my first, while Jamie's was really my second and more refined. This one is ok, but the geometry hadn't been nailed yet for the true construction of the volute. It looks good, but there's something about a design which has true and precise geometry, that speaks to the soul...

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 9:26am

closeup. There are ebony reinforcements strips behind this delicate guy.
The top is finished with a single wash coat of shellac, polished with alcohol and fine pumice.

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 9:34am

a one-off tailpiece, cast just a few days ago. No visible screws anywhere in this one. The strings lie in channels inset in the ebony. I'll snap a shot of the backer next...

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 9:56am

a pointy version of the scrolled peghead. Pointy mandolin, no pointy peghead. Teardrop mandolin, pointy peghead.

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 10:02am

And the last one I can think of, the claro bowl of 28 staves.

re: the tailpiece. Much like a guitar, whose string attachment point does not readily interchange, this tailpiece has pins which enter the wood itself, through the rim, into the tailblock. No screws, and no way to break a tailpiece as the pins themselves are readily interchangeable. Each pin was hammered into a "cut nail" shape, and the square shank pounded into a round hole, notch on the lower face to catch the strings.

**Jim Garber** · May-17-2008, 10:09am

Originally Posted by (labraid @ May 17 2008, 10:56)

a pointy version of the scrolled peghead. Pointy mandolin, no pointy peghead. Teardrop mandolin, pointy peghead.

Brian:
I like the tailpiece and noticed that you did go for the traditional Embergher-influenced zero fret. Is the fretboard radiused?

**labraid** · May-17-2008, 10:17am

Yes, I did my standard radius job: 9.5" at the nut, going to flat across the top of the strings, with appropriate action underneath, at the bridge. The treble side of the fretboard is where I took off most of the material for the radius.

**brunello97** · May-17-2008, 11:48am

Beautiful work, Brian! I really enjoy the way the fretboard extension intersects with the rosette. The ebony braces below really feel like part of the overall composition, a very graceful resolution. I'm really intrigued by this layered design in some of the Calace, Christofaro, and some Puglisi designs. Yours is really fantastic.

Mick

**MLT** · May-17-2008, 12:22pm

Brian~

Wow! That is beautiful. Can't wait to hear the sound clips.

**Alex Timmerman** · May-17-2008, 4:10pm

Congratulations Brian!

I browsed your website and saw your other instruments notiching also that this new instrument really fits in as your bowl back mandolin model.

It looks very nice!

Best and success,

Alex

**Graham McDonald** · May-17-2008, 5:12pm

Nicely done. Good to see all that time working out bowlback construction has had a result

cheers

graham

**devilstone_the_bard** · May-17-2008, 9:21pm

That is OUTSTANDING.

**Got8Strings** · May-17-2008, 9:36pm

It is gorgeous.

I have to say though, in that first picture it looks like you built it with a kickstand.

**labraid** · May-18-2008, 2:09pm

The strangest phenomenon.. I hold the instrument away from me as far as I can, and play to myself, soundhole facing me, as best I can at that distance.. And it sounds as one would expect a classical to sound... Which makes me more than happy. Why I was doing this strange contortion, was because I was completely perplexed for an entire day, that when I play the instrument close to me as one usually does, it sounds nothing like this!

No recording yet. Still discovering things about this mandolin... Like how to pick, where, and that kind of thing.. Did I mention I'm not much of a player?

And where are the rural Ontarian classical mandolin virtuoso farmers when you need them most anyway...

Thank you all for the positive comments.

**Jim Garber** · May-18-2008, 4:21pm

Ah, that is a good sign -- of what I am not sure. Better violins behave in that manner. Most players of any worth take another player with them to try out instruments and check out the sound under the player's ear and from the audience's ear. It is often a big difference.

Many of the best bowlbacks, Emberghers included, have that effect as well. Sometimes it seems like a bowlback is quite quiet to the player and yet it carries quite nicely out to the audience.it is a myth, BTW that bowlbacks are quieter than Loar=style mandolins. They are just acoustically different. Witness the mandolinist playing a bowlbacks accompanied by a grand piano. There is usually no problem being heard.