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This might help, it seems to work quite well.

181299

Evelyn very generously contributed to the Kickstarter campaign a few years back, putting her hand up for a bent-top flat back classical mandolin which she said she enjoyed playing. She was a great...

I didn't try to move the bridge and I can't imagine why it would be glued down, other than the Lombardic mandolins had fixed bridges. It may simply be that the shellac or varnish had softened and the...

I spent a couple of days in the old warehouse that the Stearns collection was housed in back in 2012 or2013 and photographed and measured pretty well all the mandolin family instruments there. From...

Eugene, might that odd Embergher be the six course instrument in the Stearns Collection at the University of Michigan? I will post some photos tomorrow.

Stephen Morey mentions 6 Cremonese mandolins for his book with the body lengths 245mm,226mm, 243mm, 225mm, 235mm, 229mm though he notes most of those measurements were from the various museums'...

There are several of us who make such things to order in Australia, but in a higher price bracket :)

Looking forward to hearing what you do with it!

I see them more as a separate evolutionary line of mandolins, a direct descendant of the early gut-strung Baroque mandolins which were really just a very small lute. They lost their double courses...

An off topic moment, but I would crave your indulgence.The first copies of my new book on building ukuleles have arrived from the printers, but it is really only relevant for folks in Australia (and...

Hello Bernie

Nut is 48mm / 1 7/8" wide (I think). That is the width of the headstock shape at the nut. I didn't make up a template as I figured this was a one-off, so I layed it out based on my...

I did find a reference somewhere that only 8 of these mandolins were made with Gibson (rather than Flatiron) branding and presented to various world leaders at the G7 summit in Houston in 1990. A few...

The rise in popularity of mandolin orchestras in the 1890s led to the introduction of various mandolin family instruments, initially following the pattern of the bowed string instruments: mandolin,...

My timeline might not be totally precise, but I am pretty sure that Gibson were not making A-5 mandolins in 1986. It would have been at least a year or two later before the factory in Bozeman was...

There is an active Irish Bouzouki page on Facebook, managed by an Irish bouzouki player and with several Irish builders active contributors. That should give you a start.

Cheers

The Chinese ivoroid (at least the bits I got from China) don't quite look right. They are more translucent than the ivoroid from LMI and the graining just looks a bit wrong. I have had some tortoise...

Both David Dyke and Touchstone Tonewood in the UK offer plastic and timber binding strips. I don't think there is all that much actual celluloid binding out there as much as various other plastics...

Itis also structural. The uninterrupted longitudinal arch is a stronger structure than an arch with a hole cut on the centreline of the arch. They can be carved thinner for the same strength and...

It looks like a higher grade Italian mandolin in the Neapolitan style, perhaps from Catania in Sicily with all the pearl around the edges. At the same time it could be of Greek manufacture if you...

The double soundboard mandolin model was the Radiotone 855r and pretty much the top of the range. They were mostly built for the British market by a co-operative of stringed instrument builders in...

I have done satin finishes using 10% gloss lacquer. Three double coats, let sit overnight, then a scuff back with 400grit paper to get rid of any bits and then a couple of coats with straight...

Thank you for the kind words.

Maybe a mandolin family book, looking at mandolins, mandolas, octave mandolins, bouzoukis and mandocellos. Just an idea at the moment, pulling in elements of the...

I built it here in Canberra for a customer in Victoria and being delivered next week. His wife is a cellist as well while the buyer is graduating up from a mandolin. I will see if I can get someone...

A five course mandocello (with added high e string). Carved sitka soundboard, Australian blackwood body and mahogany neck. 25" scale, 14" wide body, 3" deep and slightly deeper at the tail. CF...