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Bill,
Glad to be back! Hope I can find the time to check out the Cafe, I have been building guitars but now I got Mando fever again.

I have been building about four years now and I have used allot of Cedar. I think that if you use a Cedar top with the hardwood of your choice as the back, you might find the sound that your after....

Great work!

You did a fantastic job! It doesent get any better than that. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

Bill...Now this is freaky!

I'm a big fan of old Kay style instruments and I hope some of you are as well. Don't make fun, not everybody can afford a Gibson master model.

The cafe feels like home, I would be lost without it. http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

I can relate to everything that you said Keith. I do the pacing thing and my desk is full of hand drawn blueprints. My wife will see me pacing and have that far away look in my eye and she will ask...

All this chit chat about nylon strings has inspired me to build a mandola. I cut the wood (Western Red Cedar) last night. It will be my own variation of the old Kay style and be an 8-string flat top....

Very cool! Keep up the good work!

Yes Gail, It seems that I am starting to conform to the norm. I still think about doing an F5 every day and I can see that coming in the future sometime....

I have posted this before.
This is how I use to do it before I found the instant gradification of resawing with a bandsaw.

Jamie, I did the body and headstock with a white paint pen then used amber shellac to make it look old.

Bill, funny that you would say that because this will be the first style out of the 14 that...

The Back.

Number 13 was total bad luck so I got tired of carving archtops and wanted to make something a bit easier and this is it.
Western Red Cedar
Aspen X-braces
Popular bound fretboard
Pine fretboard...

Like this? Walnut burst

I thought that I wrote shirt? http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Paul Doubek[/QUOTE]
you have to treat the material with Soda Ash first then use Rit and that will keep your #### looking good for years. no need for soda ash on wood. Keep your mandolin out of the...

Here is the deal from my experience.
Anything that you can dissolve with Denatured Alcohol can be used as a stain.
To use Rit Dye, put two packs of the powdered kind into a quart fruit jar then...

I was reading the page on mandolin family instruments and I cannot figure out why uke's were not mentioned? What is a tenor guitar if not a jumbo uke? Here is the page Mandolin Family...

If you don't care to make your own, then check out all the cool materials they have here. Texas Knife makers supply

I dont know if this will help you guy's but I have done business with this company and the service is good. I haven't ordered their Ebony but here is the link. Ebony

Dave, I agree with you completely. Sometimes I forget that not everyone out there is a front porch picker like myself. I suppose that traditional instrument construction is serious to those who want...

I use Western Red Cedar for Tops and I highly recomend it. Not as bright as Spruce but it has a wonderful warm and balanced tone. Im sure that someone will disagree with me.

Looks kinda like Koa to me?