My first F4

[Graham McDonald]

A couple of pics on the first F style mando that I have built. Englemann spruce and birds eye maple.

cheers

graham

[Graham McDonald]

The back of the F4

[grandmainger]

Fantastic wood there on the back! Nice work.
What are those 2 black dots on the back near the top?

[Graham McDonald]

They are the two bolts that hold the neck on. The neck is built like a strat neck, with two t-nuts in under the fingerboard, and two washers inset into the neck block that they bear on. Not exactly traditional, but I like to be able to set the bridge height and adjust the neck angle to suit
cheers

graham

[Ken]

Very nice, nice color, great looking back wood. What kind of bracing did you use for the top and how's the sound?

Ken

[Graham McDonald]

X braced in a fairly standard way, and using a Red Henry style maple bridge with an ebony cap. Sound is bright and loud

cheers
graham

[Bill Snyder]

Did you design the neck attachment yourself or did you use an available plan?

[Graham McDonald]

I mainly build Irish bouzoukis and have been using this kind of neck attachment for a while on them using a hollow neck block. There isn't enough room in a mando for a hollow block so I didn't try to hide the bolt heads (which are allen key head machine bolts), just inset them into the back

cheers

graham

[Bob DeVellis]

Bolt-on necks may not be traditional for mandolin, but they do go back a long time. In the 1800s, they weren't unusual on guitars. Howe-Orme guitars, for example, were built with a detachable and fully adjustable neck. They've been described by some pretty knowledgable people as among the best sounding guitars ever built and California luthier Rick Turner has used a similar design, inspired by the Howe-Orme, on new instruments with great success. And action can be adjusted independent of bridge height which is a great advantage on a fixed-birdge instrument like a guitar.

[danb]

Nice work Graham, do I see a little Monteleone inspiration in the scroll/peghead? Welcome to the cafe

[Graham McDonald]

Hello Dan

Just a little bit of Monteleone in the scroll! They are fun to carve, and the head inspired by a photo on a Dan Tyminski CD cover. It was made for friend who plays in our local mandolin orchestra and I have just started another with f holes for another member using the same wood

BTW, how do you get a website link in the sig file?

cheers

graham

[danb]

it looks like this (board HTML coding syntax)

[GD Armstrong]

Lovely work Graham! Did you do this after the GAL convention?
GD

[Graham McDonald]

It has been a year long project with other stuff inbetween as I worked out my way to do it (I'm no good at copying!). Carving that birds-eye was not fun, but rather educational. I do enjoy carving those scrolls, though. The f-hole one I'm working on is making me think about other variables. So many instruments to build and so much still to learn.

That is what is so much fun about it

graham

[amowry]

For those who don't know, Graham recently wrote a book on building Irish bouzoukis. I haven't gotten my hands on it yet, but it's gotten very good reviews.

[Graham McDonald]

Hello Andrew,

The only review I have seen was a brief (if positive) comment in a MIMF discussion a couple of months ago. I would love to know of any others

graham

[amowry]

Actually, that's the one I was thinking of. Maybe I'll write one here when I get a copy!

[wtaylor]

For those who don't know, Graham recently wrote a book on building Irish bouzoukis

I just bought it, it is beautiful, well-written, gorgeous instruments. Will need to sit on the coffee table for a while as I've just started a mando, but my next project is brewing already ...