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Absolutely! I put the other C string on yesterday, and it's a noticeably louder and fuller sound! Really really happy with it!

I've got a buddy at work who won Winfield many years ago, and I plan...

Folks, I'm pretty excited.

Over the last decade or so I've built about a half dozen instruments. But all electric guitars and basses and whatnot. They were really cool, and fun projects, but the...

Dug my 'guitar bodied' mandola project out of storage over the holidays and finally got back to work on it. Got the box closed yesterday.

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Husk is a great restaurant for southern food in downtown Nashville.

My wife loves Amazing Grace, it's a song she's sung to our daughters when putting them to bed ever since the first was born. So, I thought she'd really enjoy hearing our girls singing it for her. The...

Understand that mistakes are an inevitability. The art of luthiery is learning how to deal with those mistakes. Take your time and enjoy the learning process.

Using chisels and a hammer to thickness wood is an enormous waste of time. Five bucks worth of tools at harbor freight would save you hours of time and loads of frustration. Honestly, you should know...

Here's the 'gitdola' that I'm working on. The scale is 17", body depth is 1.75". Curious to see how it sounds once it's all said and done. I'm actually a little further along than this picture, in...

Making good progress on my guitar bodied mandola...

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The two of them playing Cattle in the Cane together, double mandolins, is one of my favorite concert moments ever.

Nearly everyone has to compromise due to finances to one degree or another. Most of us don't own a Gilchrist or a Monteleone, or a <Insert expensive mandolin that you lust after here>. It is what it...

Yeah... I think I'll just keep hand rubbing my finishes. :))

I built this 17" scale electric guitar for my girls to mess around on. They've also got a few cheapo on instruments, ukulele, drums, etc. But so far this is their only custom build. :)

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Yeah, it wasn't so much an issue of not knowing how it's normally done. In an academic sense I know that pins are used. But I've never actually done it. This is a new type of instrument build for me,...

Ivan, that looks like a good solution.

There's no question this way will be more permanent, and I think if I was building for someone else I wouldn't consider it, but this is for me.

Here it is...

Another one of Mike Black's recently completed octave mandolins, #42:

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It's not always a featured part of their music, but I think Andrew Marlin of Mandolin Orange has a very smooth and melodic style.

I did something similar. Filled tea bags with baking soda and stuck them through the F holes and hung them inside the mandolin. It worked pretty well. Took some time, but most definitely helped quite...

A video from church yesterday of my wife on vocals, me on mandolin, and our neighbor on guitar and backup vocals:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ok8Vu0UwqOM

I saw them a few months ago when they were down south. Really good show. It inspired me to take Matt's fiddle tune harmony class.

They're playing in NYC with Alex Hargreaves (Sarah Jarosz, The...

I'm guessing that Louise is referring to how she plays the main lick in House of Mercy, or similar, on the octave. Which I think is quite intentional, she must be going for that specific sound, as...

I've been following Josh (on facebook and youtube) for a number of years now. He's been posting youtube videos since he was in high school. He's now out of college and working as a professional...

I'm having one built right now, #42. I've posted some in process pictures in the social group.

Here are a couple of threads that have sound clips in them:

Black #6

Black #3

Mike also has...

You don't need to use any sort of special industry proprietary paper towel to buff. I've used standard blue shop towels on several instruments I've made, to great effect. And from what I know their...

She still has it, and she had it with her on her most recent tour. Justin Moses played the Weber when he and Sierra did mandolin duets.