Tres/octave mando

[the padma]

Das right dudes

Its a octave mando, or a tres depending on how she gonna B strung up, but we aint there yet.

See, about 5 years or so back Bobalou gifted duh Padma this here billet of Mutant Spruce Lutz that he snafood on his visit to see the Mario DaCosta at Spruce Tone Woods.

Well me was very surprised with Bobs generosity and kindness that me promised to name the instrument after him when me got around to using it.

Now about a month or so ago my very own personal instrument had an amp fall on the body....real bad. So me decided to make me another one. It would be faster than fixin the mangled one.

and so here it is...."the Bobalou"

Mutant Lutz spruce top, cocobolo back with some banding me ran about 15 years ago from padauk, birch, cedar and spruce, balony inlayed ebony fret board, ribs and neck are wishbone construction in cedar, cantilevered fret board, and the trim gonna be padauk and holly. She gonna be around a 22 to 23 in. string length and possibly even an oval sound hole ~ we see when we gets there.




Here is the cedar body on its solara....notice the inside padauk corner block with the white holly strips. The holly strips and part of the padauk will stand proud of the ribs on the outside, that way me don't gotta inlay all that corner banding....sneakie eh!

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.

Gooed on the back..............................


Commin up next is carving the top Lutz top plate....

More pics as it progresses.


blessings
duh Padma

[Grommet]

That looks like it's gonna be sweeeet!

Scott

[the padma]

See next post.

[the padma]

Carved the top and now scraping in the recurve.




Top ready to get the back scorped out. By the way you ever been scorped out before?






then on to using the planes....






Here is the top all carved with the exception of its rosette. Stick around, this gonna a be a real fun carve.






blessings
duh Padma

[the padma]

The plate is mounted on an easel with a spinning head like a lazy susan. This way me can do complicated curved cuts without removing the blade or repositioning it or the work.

Here is the easel With the plate mounted. It looks like a flat top but it is actually 1/2 thick fully carved arch top cuz well the billet Bob gifted me was only 1 1/16 thick. Thinnest archtop me ever worked. The thickness of the plate where me carving the rosette is only 1/8 so me don't got much meat left if me mess up.





In the next four pics the blade does not leave the workpiece as it is cutting the perimeter of one petal while I am spinning the easel head.









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Next comes closing the box...


blessings
duh Padma

[Perry Babasin]

Love that carving! BTW, love your crazy carved shop too...

[the padma]

Thank you Perry, very kind of you to mention it.


Well me back into doing this Bobalou Build


Gooin down duh lid





Banding with holly and padauk.







Padauk and holly head stock plates back and front.




Due to some unforeseen Cosmic B.S., the M.O.P fret board fell off the truck. So me made a padauk board.




Maple inlays



working the neck








Tomorrow I route for the truss rod, install and close up the neck....then the sanding and patching....and on to finishing.


blessings
duh ?adma

[the padma]

Oiled her up let dry, stained the oval carving, gold leafed the flowers.




Let it sit for a few days before varnishing and more drying and then its on to stringing her up.



Well she came out as a 4 course, 5 string 'zookie, or octave mando if you wish....But right now its tuned in 5ths.

Then me carved and gilded the headstock and tail piece ...not much but a bit...gold ain't cheap no more since the dark alliance capitalists have been hording it all.




Popped the maple markers me had at the 5th and 12th and inlayed abalone instead. The maple just couldn't hold its own once the gild was on the carvings. Oiled then polyurethane.

This is not the best pic....but you can see the white holy side purfling runs way up under the cantilevered fret board. Me have been playing with this idea for a while now...still not happy with it yet. Gonna run that line all the way up and under the head stock plate in the next Zookie me get around to building.




And of course dis is the coco back. Me liked working the rose wood.




Well there you go doods....a Bobalouie Zookie, cedar, coco, padauk, black ebony bridge, nut, cover plate and heal. Oh, and a Mutant Spruce Lutz top.




Hope you like it.


The Verdict: Ya, she does what me wanted her to do ~ sorta. Nice clear high double course .012s for lead picken. Good ring & projection off of the coco back. Mids are nice, but gotta loose that bottom .053 for a .04 something. Its a bit too loose for me and the box ain't quite big enough for such an obese string. Me got the sister to this coco back and in the future me gonna build the sister to this Zookie... only it will be a full blown arch top. But you best not be holding your breath.

After carving this Zookie me has been thinking of doing the full carved treatment on something. You know, little gilded flowers around the sound hole, and all around the edge instead of MOP or banding. Ya ...thinking about it. Maybe on another 17" arch top Padma Special.



blessings
duh Padma


PS: This thread has 300 hits, but just 2, thats right, just two posted comments. Wats duh matter, you doodes only understand F5s?
Makes me ask self why me be bothering to go through the trouble of sharing me efforts with yo'all.
Well me throw down one more build thread,see your response and then decide if me gonna stick around dis here forum.

[JEStanek]

Looks pretty cookie-lisciuos, Padma. I would love to hear the sound of it with the high pair. I like the soundhole detail.

Jamie

[Rvl]

Very nice , I like the details ,has a very Euro vibe , try a .048
I have a Yairi 4 string and have a .048 , but with a small box I always wish that it had a little more bass
I was thinking of trying a .05 something
I have 2 archtops now that i am working on , one is strung up with a .070 (CGDA) and the other will be .054 (GDAE)
If you decide to sell , I am interested in 4 and 5 strings

[otterly2k]

Thanks, Padma, for posting such great photodocumentation. I appreciate your creative and unconventional approaches to design and building. I'd love to know how it sounds, if you have the capability to post an audio or audio/video clip. In particular, I'm wondering about how the elongated shape affects tone, in comparison to the more typical rounder bodied instruments. I play octave mando myself, and have sampled many. Of the instruments I've played, only the octophone was similar in shape, but it was also very lightly built and strung, so it didn't have much power.

I'm wondering about your thoughts on this. For me, this sort of comparison is not intended in a competitive way, but more in a let's try to characterize and understand the diversity that's out there kind of way.
KE

[the padma]

Yo Karen,

Yay Karen,

them words you spreadin out are indicative of comparative analaysis....nothin wrong with that except me has taken a non comparative, backwards approach to building and looering around. See me no musician, just an old wood butcher who took it in him head to build some things with strings. Ya I read this that and the other on building boxes with strings, and simply just started stringing up broken hockey sticks with a tin can and a string. It all grew form there. Since me not a picker,me don't gotts no preconceived notions of what suppose to sound good. Me has learned how to shift the tone this way or that a way a tad in a build while talking with the wood and letting her know what we need her to be doing. Built me a Jazz Guitar for a curendero using that approach for a 40-50s jazz sound...well wouldn't you know it, the curendero described it as

the sound is perfect like a soft velvet in my mind, and in my mouth taste like delicious chocolate and deep old red Carmener - Couve wine whit a kind of nostalgic parfum a the night of the fool moon in my old window...wen in my past I have dream about Play this guitar.

Regarding these instruments....Ya we is fast approaching giving some thought to the voiceing. Just jointed the tops and backs, know the UKE picker real good and the mandolininst, heard him once...and ya me can tweak it for him personality. Still humminnn about the guitarist, specially when me told him me gonna voice it for open tuning in C# minor with A down at 432hz. So we see...

HOw do you compare " power to lightly strung ?"... are we talking volume as in amplitude? Me aim for light as possible for what I call a clear voice.

SOmetimes me instal tone generator plates ( Virzi Plate) although the plates been around some 2-3000 years before the brothers pulled patten.

This is a video of some older dulcimers and is about 9 years old...but the sound, it is indicative of this style of wishbone construction.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeYSSD0H6O4[/video]







blessings
duh Padma

[otterly2k]

[QUOTE=the padma;1051626]
Yay Karen,

them words you spreadin out are indicative of comparative analaysis....nothin wrong with that except me has taken a non comparative, backwards approach to building and looering around. See me no musician, just an old wood butcher who took it in him head to build some things with strings.

HOw do you compare " power to lightly strung ?"... are we talking volume as in amplitude? Me aim for light as possible for what I call a clear voice."


Padma-
I'm kind of the opposite... I've been a player since childhood... guitar and later mandolin and most recently octave mandolin. I know when I have an instrument in my hands that can respond to what I need as a player. My interest in building and repair work comes from those experiences. First, learning to adjust and maintain my own instruments, and then learning more about how to tweak things to make them work better... and then ultimately learning more about variations in design and building elements and seeking to understand how they might affect things like dynamic range, intonation, ergonomics, tone, etc. I don't think there's always a clear causality. It seems to me that luthiery is a kind of alchemy where one can control many aspects, but the whole is greater than the sum of the parts --and all of that interacts with the player's hands, skills and preferences.

thanks for the link... I can't watch/listen at the moment, but will do later when I'm at home.

Re: your question about "power"... it's not just volume to me, but range. My preference is for instruments that produce a clear and pleasant tone when played very softly, medium, or when driven hard for volume. Some instruments only sound good in the middle of that spectrum... a soft touch doesn't bring out good tone, and a heavy hand overdrives the top... it's like when you press on a car accelerator and there's no "pick up". So- that's more what I meant. I found the octofone (the one I played, at least) just didn't have much range.

KE

[Jim Garber]

Re: your question about "power"... it's not just volume to me, but range. My preference is for instruments that produce a clear and pleasant tone when played very softly, medium, or when driven hard for volume. Some instruments only sound good in the middle of that spectrum... a soft touch doesn't bring out good tone, and a heavy hand overdrives the top... it's like when you press on a car accelerator and there's no "pick up". So- that's more what I meant. I found the octofone (the one I played, at least) just didn't have much range.

Karen: I think the term you are looking for is projection. I have an old Embergher bowlback that is built super-light but its responsiveness to the player's touch is phenomenal. I have yet to find that in any carved top instrument tho the ones that do appeal to me approach that sort of responsiveness.

[Matt the Mead Maker]

Absolutely stellar!