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Keep the present mando as-is and buy another with binding. Good excuse to get another. LOL

In any case, if the current mando is a really good one and you get deep into the music, it'll wind up...

I saw a big bandsaw like that running once, and I was impressed with how slowly the wheel was turning. You don't need many rpms to move a lot of linear feet of blade when the wheels are that large.

I don't see why it needs to be any more complicated than the setup James Condino describes. Simple is elegant.

Back in the day when I was building I used a No. 3 tapered pin reamer with spiral flutes. Seemed to work just fine for "standard" bridge pins.

The tuners with the knurled knobs are known a "Keith tuners" or "D tuners" and they are normally placed on the 2nd and 3rd strings of a 5 string banjo. They are used to quickly change the tuning of a...

I'm not entirely sure what the purpose of this machine actually is in a practical sense, but it's amazing to watch it at work. Good music too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plByNDFwlOk

I snagged this photo somewhere to post here because I had a feeling someone might appreciate it. The wooden pants are funny, but the wood in the fence is killer. The photo was taken in Eureka, CA...

Since no one has mentioned it yet, maybe blasting it to remove the chrome and then having it powder coated would be nice.

No one mentioned it, but US Postal Service money orders are safe as far as I can tell, and you can either cash them at the post office or deposit them directly at your bank. Maybe someone else has,...

If you have an F-5 plan you like, just redraw it without the points and scroll. I did that and it worked fine. That's for an A-5 of course.

Jacob-

One thing I forgot to mention is that lacquer is sensitive to humidity and you shouldn't spray during times of high humidity. Then I noticed that you are Taos and realized that humidity...

Right- the sanding sealer goes down over the stain. Several coats and then sand it smooth with 220 or 320 non-loading sandpaper. Ten minutes or so between coats, about 3 coats max, and then sand...

Now- with all of this having been said, the disclaimer:

30 years ago, roughly, I wanted to have a go at being a guitar maker. So I set up shop in a humid old basement, and taught myself to do it....

All of the commercially built instruments you have ever owned were probably built at around 40% humidity, and the reason that they can survive being used in high humidity environments (think about a...

An interesting thing happened to me once- I was building a guitar in my "humidity-uncontrolled" basement, and had just glued the transverse braces onto a mahogany back. These are the braces that pull...

Since my attempt to discuss philosophy earlier in this thread fell completely flat, I decided to post a photo of these Marples chisels that I've owned almost forever- I bought them new maybe 35 years...

"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" is a book I remember as being hard to read, and I don't think I took anything away from it except one very important idea that will be with me until the...

If you want to see something that will really expand your mind, go to a Sally Beauty supply and check out the flexible fingernail files that come in every grit you can think of, and are cheap.

Depending on the situation, a sharp single edge razor blade used as a scraper can be of help.

Most people are pretty reluctant to question the validity of their dearly held assumptions, or guiding fictions (as Albert Adler would have called it). In fact I don't think it ever occurs to people...

Human nature is so very interesting. What fascinates me about this discussion is the unfounded assumption we almost automatically make that a large pick guard (or "finger rest") just has to have a...

The tailpiece conjecture is a textbook example of "confirmation bias" at work. A friend of mine who was in the music store biz for a long time referred to it as "eyewash".

No, no! Everyone has it wrong. It's mojo sauce. I mean obviously, people.

:disbelief:

Everyone so far has spoken of cosmetic values, but another practical point is that highly figured wood can be very difficult to carve and bend. Something to think about for a first, or maybe even...

I'm going to recommend something I did with pretty good success. My first mando was like yours; I intuited that the back was too heavy, and I didn't like the sound. So, with not much to lose, I went...