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Looks like I bungled the attachments on the first post, and posted the mandolin in the third post twice. Here are the (correct) photos of the mandolin described in the first post,...

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Here is a mandocello in Engelmann spruce and curly maple. Curly maple and bocote binding, w/ curly maple outermost. Trim is W/African ebony. Finish is NC lacquer, w. a...

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Here is another one similar to the first one above, except for a standard (i.e., post-through) headstock. This one has an Engelmann spruce top, curly maple back/sides/neck,...

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This mandolin was built on spec, a by-product of last year's GAL convention. I went to dinner w/ Guitar luthier Steve Kinnaird, his wife, and his shop co-worker. I snatched up...

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Some recently completed instruments. This mandolin has a western red cedar top, claro walnut back/sides/neck, ebony trim. Binding is curly maple and bocote. 13.88" scale...

Hay's links to references are not based on my posts. The most pertinent references for your purposes follow:

(1) N.H. Fletcher & T.D. Rossing, "The Physics of Musical Instruments", 2nd ed.,...

My degrees are in physical chemistry, and some of the work was theoretical chemistry. As such, much of my course work overlapped w/ that of physicists, including most of the math courses and some of...

Tuners are two sets of Rubners, cannibalized to make five-on-a-side. See photos in post #11, above.

And another. This one is a "classical A" with a 13.09" scale length, Engelmann spruce top, and black limba back/sides/neck. Binding is bocote outermost, and trim woods are W. African ebony. The...

Rather than start another thread, I'll just piggyback on the thread I already started. The following photos are of a mandolin I shipped last Monday (2/27/17). In my rush to get it shipped to its'...

Attached are some photos of a dark burst C# mandolin, now with its' owner. Photos are of the front, back, a closeup of the scroll side and the body binding, and a closeup of the back plate. Top...

The binding on the interior of the hoodledink is a straight piece extending to the top point of the headstock with a bend to about 3/32" radius at the hoodledink end. That is the part that I don't...

I don't know if these are Ducatis. In fact, I don't know what a Ducati is. Some kind of two-wheel vehicle?? If so, maybe these are steps up from a tricycle - maybe a bicycle, or maybe a moped? ...

I think I need to set the record straight here before this thread dies. I have no intention of "roasting" Roger siminoff. I have no quarrel with any of his lutherie innovations and services. To...

I don't approach building mandolin family instruments "as a science project". I do, however, approach the description of mandolin and guitar motions as science. If Siminoff's mandolins are...

Roger Simiinoff certainly deserves some credit. His two editions on building a bluegrass mandolin were the first, and for a long time, the only references on building arch top mandolins.

My...

It is not so much a disagreement in science as a disagreement in philosophy. Popperian falsifiability requires that experiment is the ultimate determinant of what is true and what is not true. That...

Late to the party, so for today and all the rest of the days between now and April 01. 2017, have a very merry Un-birthday!

Yes. When a string's first harmonic frequency sits on or very near to the peak frequency of a body mode, they exchange energy. The string loses more energy to the body mode than it would otherwise,...

It is not just a matter of hypothesis or inference from theory; it is long-standing, empirical, experimental fact. It is not like I have elucidated something new with my interferometric modal...

I have probably posted answers to your questions hundreds of times on this forum alone. If I were paid for the time spent on those posts, it would probably have augmented my academic salary...

Peter got it pretty much right. Although, he said a couple of things that I would not entirely disagree with, but would perhaps modify a bit. One is the statement that there is a lack of evidence...

It wouldn't be a bad idea to source the fret wire yourself, except that you will have to buy a pound of it, and the luthier will use only a small fraction of what you will pay for. That, and the...

This is not gonna help you very much, but it is the best I can do. If the tap tone of a piece of wood is "thuddy" or dull, that will not be changed very much by changing the thickness. The "thuddy"...

Since FEM has been brought up, I think some clarification is necessary. FEM stands for "finite element matrix". What you do with FEM is draw your object (instrument) as accurately as possible. The...