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Someday, I hope to encounter an ‘indecent’ mandolin, but so far none of them has whispered anything salacious at all.
Yes, to all replies above: plus the unpopularity of the shape for bluegrass. The...

There are rules, it seems, but maybe room for experiment. For example, setting up my banjolin to mandolin tuning with mandolin strings, resulted in, to my ears, both a nasty, weak sound and the...

Good designers sometimes get forced into bad product: that famous Chevy Monza/Nova was supposed to take the rather compact Wankel rotary when there was a brief automotive love affair going on. ...

Mentioned non-slip knots because the loop can be any size, so there would be no crowding at the peg. The knot part can be any distance away, even topside. Just don’t ask me about knitting.

Second the treadmill resource. Probably the most expensive thrown away item around here. Even the belt length is about right for in-out-feed if you have the shop space. Woodshop equipment even...

With a syn core, no twisting method should work, but any non- slip knot, like a bowline, should do the job. Of course, that’s for the pegs you have; same thing on a conventional hook would just tear.

I don’t have one, but just looked over the construction online. Looks ok, but built to price and very flimsy for a cantilever type. No clamps on the leadscrew, so it probably can creep. Arm...

A source of thick, extremely well-seasoned mahogany that builders might not know about is sand-casting patterns. When the foundry that cast our products was closing (as nearly all of them did), they...

Ok guys, I was thinking violin when I assumed position was important. In a violin, the bass bar has to be about where it is usually found, under the bass foot of the bridge, and is angled slightly...

So the OP missed that suggestion, no big deal. As an ex-Fellow at what was the National Bureau of Standards, I often think the cultural inability of Americans to either understand measurement or...

Bernie, tone bars are beams. They span a space and support pressure from one direction (top pushing down). So, if you want, or there was some acoustical reason other than stiffness, you can make...

Never have even held a F-x one, let alone a great one, and also don’t build instruments, and yes, my occupation was doing physics, but have a small collection of things with 8 metal strings. The...

Good reference, Mike.
Also, something that finish carpenters might not have, but is useful, is a dial or digital 6” caliper. Here in my exile from the shop, I’m reminded daily about calipers but...

Small pieces are often easier to deal with if they’re still attached to a larger piece, since they can be difficult to hold otherwise. With something like a bridge, where you may want an accurate...

Density is a factor, but stiffness, elastic modulus and damping are also involved. That is, you can have a very light material that’s strong enough, but also damps vibration, etc. The two jobs of...

Gotta be careful about ‘lost energy’. Just because some element is oscillating doesn’t mean it’s absorbing energy. It can be altering the sound spectrum or volume just by changing the dynamics...

Nice job, Spencer. For those who are of the standing, strap-using crowd, what about going fore and aft from the two strap attachment points, if there’s a second one on the neck heel, instead, and...

I’m guessing that you are in luck - that the previous owner didn’t know about the original spacing and just put on the wrong (later) on; a mistake that could have been decades ago.
So, to measure...

And, the 12th fret divides the distance from the zero fret to the leading edge of the bridge, not from the nut. On some instruments the two aren’t terribly close together.
And... unless you are ...

As above, lower equals more buzz if it’s a matter of buzz at the frets, but looking at the photo, the top of that bridge looks very suspiciously flat. If the strings don’t fairly sharply contact...

Just guessing here, but shellac isn’t water or alcohol resistant, and possibly gunstocks should be.
About FP - yes, it can get kind of neurotic after a few dozen coats, each one looking a little...

Adrian, yes, hardware is sometimes engineered, but not this stuff, at least not in relation to an application like this, so by using a soft, or thin nut you’re essentially doing adequate engineering....

@John, I’m sure your comment is a sneer, but Bondo and similar polyesters make a very good wood repair material; low shrinkage, high strength, good adhesion, takes finish. I’m looking at a theremin...

Handsome instrument! Interesting bridge which looks like it allows the bone piece to not have slots for location. Except for the width, this thing could have been bowed, and maybe sound good, but...

On the second question; one rail or two, if the function is keeping the neck from bending up, not sideways, two pieces is just as good as one.