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After thinking about for a while, I decided the mandolin quartet should have sunburst finishes, rather than just clear lacquer.

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The quartet has been strung up and making some very pleasant musical sounds.

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What is the joint? Lap joint? Butt joint? Other?
What are the conditions? Hot? Cold? Wet and rainy? Indoors/outdoors?
How was the joint prepared? Well fit glue surfaces or some gaps?
How long will...

FWIW, I sand the wood thoroughly, but only to 220 grit. I rub dyes directly on the wood with no sealer until after the staining. I use dyes dissolved in alcohol.
Parts of the wood where the grain is...

My octave mandolins are 300mm wide and 390mm long in the body. Body depth is 65mm internal. A style shape. Scale length is 21 inches, nut width 34mm. There are no standard sizes for octave...

Epoxy might creep more than hide glue, probably not as much as Titebond. It doesn't adhere (to wood) as well as either, but it coheres better. In other words, a dried thick layer of epoxy is stronger...

The Association of String Instrument Artisans 2019 Symposium at East Stroudsburg State University (in East Stroudsburg, Pa.) is coming up the third week of this month. In addition to hundreds of...

The joints you can see in the Collings video are esentially the same as the "Siminoff" V joint without the dowels. I don't know if they use bolt as well or just glue it.

The definition of dovetail...

If a mandolin neck turns out to be very stable, stiff wood (we can't always tell when building) and stays straight and never needs a truss rod adjustment, I guess it turned out that the truss rod was...

1. Do not build an F5 for a first mandolin.
2. Copy a good functional design for a first build.
3. Do not re-invent the wheel. Any innovation you can think of has been tried already. Stick with...

If the picture shows what I think it shows... I've seen some really bad wood choices in necks, but never worse than this one.
Considering the value of the instrument, I would not consider this one...

There is a lot of educated guessing and trial and error involved in music instrument building. Some people call the educated guessing intuition. It is empirical in that you don't need to understand...

I understand Ivans view. Here in our country (and perhaps majority of EU) the warranty applies by law to the product, not to the owner. Here the warranty by law is 2 years minimal (for most common...

SInce the top is sinking on the bass side only I guess the tonebar on that side is loose. The F-9 I restored had poorly glued tonebars, they had pinholes in the ends of tonebars that looked like they...

I most often use carbon fiber for mandolin necks, but when requested, I make all of my adjustable truss rods out of titanium. It is a bit more difficult to work with, but the weight difference is...

Yup, as others have said-- that is a bad break. Sorry to see that -- I know what if feels like I had the exact same thing happen to me. I can still see that neck breaking in slow motion -- it...

I'm far enough along finishing my mandolin to give an opinion of this product I got from LMI. I wanted a non laquer finish I could french polish, but would also be durable. This seemed to fit the...

...."I promise you D'Angelico's original had to be better than this"....

Well....I've had the original in my hands and don't agree with this.

I too have owned both of the LMI planes and found...

It might make things easier to just go ahead and remove the back completely. Cleaning the glue would be easier and thus probably more thorough, and it will have to be realigned to be re-glued anyway....

I really don't know, but it was at a big box store with all the Rustolium products.White or black. I remember I was in a bind for time and didn't want to wait for what I'd been using. I have not had...

I had that issue once and put a coat of shellac on it to seal it before going with lacquer. I ended up stripping it, as I didn't like how the color came out, and ended up using reranch product as...

It used to be that when the word “lacquer” was mentioned, you could assume it was nitrocellulose we were all discussing. Not anymore. The term “lacquer” is almost as meaningless these days as the...

Leave those cracks and call it "distressed". People go to great lengths and expense to make it look like someone has actually played the instrument.;)

After reading OP I would say the first coats were not cured enough for the top coat or you applied too heavy topcoat at once. If you are using the same lacquer you risk less as it willl be...

I just looked up the Rustoleum in the link the OP gave. It is an acrylic based lacquer. The Stew-mac lacquer has a nitrocellulose base. Apparently, these two products do not mix.

Your best bet...