Hi fellow builders..passing this along. The Co-mando list serve held an online discussion several years ago on various building techniques with many well known builders. The questions and discussion were all posted and shown at the link below.
I "stumbled" on this again doing a search for a building technique (I actually read the posts as they occurred in "real time" when it was held years ago--it was inspiring).
Here is the link:
http://www.mandozine.com/resources/MBSS/index.php
The builders who participated:
Max McCullough - Moderator
Hans Brentrup - Technical Moderator - Brentrup Mandolins
John Monteleone - Monteleone Instruments
Mike Kemnitzer - Nugget Mandolins
Will Parsons - Parsons Mandolins
Steve Gilchrist - Gilchrist Mandolins
Pete Langdell - Rigel Mandolins
Bruce Weber - Sound to Earth, Ltd.
Phil Davidson - Davidson Instruments
Michael Heiden - Heiden Stringed Instruments
A. Lawrence Smart - Smart Musical Instruments
Charlie Derrington - Gibson Mandolins
Lynn Dudenbostel - Dudenbostel Stringed Instruments
Oliver Apitius - Apitius Instruments
Here are the questions they addressed:
Q1 - Mandolin stain and finish
Q2 - Binding
Q3 - Mandolin design experimentation
Q4 - F-5 Scroll
Q6 - Tricks of the Trade
Q7 - Top and back thicknesses
Q8 - Action too high
Q9 - One piece neck
Q10 - Bolt-on neck
Q11 - Construction techniques
Q12 - Glue preferences
Q13 - Experiments with designs
Q15 - Most difficult part of building an F-style
Q17 - How many mandolins did you make
Q18 - Virzi
Q19 - European top woods
Q20 - Fit and finish by hand
Q21 - Tune the sound box
Q22 - Marketing for beginning luthiers
Q23 - Oval hole mandolins
Q24 - Experiment with bracing patterns
Q25 - "duck" mandolin made by John Duffy
Q26 - Weight factor in building mandolins
Q27 - Getting the results you wanted
Q34 - Tonal/color differences
Hope you enjoy it!!!
Andy
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