Hilburn #53

[Jim Hilburn]

Here's the latest. Red spruce and maple. One thing I did differently was the 20 fret neck. Gives a little more picking room.
This is a really strong mandolin in my opinion. And it's only had strings on it for about 2 hours.

[Rick Albertson]

Spectacular, Jim!

Rick

[Andy Miller]

Oh. My.

[amowry]

Looks beautiful, Jim! I love the color.

[Mike Black]

Looks beautiful, Jim! I love the color.

I'd second that! :grin:

[MandoNicity]

Nice!


JR

[grassrootphilosopher]

I allways like to look at your mandolins. I also like to look at pics from the Rockies.

[Skip Kelley]

Jim, That is nice! It doesn't get any better than that!!

[Chuck Naill]

Beautiful neck, Jim. Thank you for posting those photos. Given the curl, why did you decide to use a three piece neck?

chuck

[Dick Hutchings]

Nice inlay work Jim.:) I've got something to shoot for. Maybe by #53.

[Jim Hilburn]

Thanks everyone.
That was a 5/4 board I used for the neck so if I had made it a 1-piece the fingerboard would have been 3/4" wide all the way up. Makes some of the chords hard to hit.
I do what I call a "bookmatched" neck. On a flatsawn board I draw a line right at the apex of the tree rings and that line becomes the fingerboard surface and the neck profile is drawn like a mirror image on either side. When you cut them out and fold them together you get a quartersawn neck from the same part of the board.

[Steve Sorensen]

Sure had been exciting to watch you max out the beauty of that great flame. Wow! ! !
Steve

[Pete Counter]

I agree, I love seeing post titled Hilburn #xxx I just wish I could play one!

[Mark Franzke]

That's a really pretty neck, Jim! Nice work, and thanks for the inspiration!

[Eric Hanson]

Beyond beautiful! The beauty of the flame on the neck is amazing.
Is there something specific you have done to bring out the flame so nicely?

[John Soper]

One sweet looking A model, wonderful shoulders, and a gorgeous neck!

[Jim Hilburn]

Hi, Eric.
I pre-stained all the maple with a weak brown solution and then sand it back. It gets into the open end grain of the curl but sands away on the other parts. It's a pretty standard grain enhancement technique but very effective on that strong curl.