Flat top mandola plans - resize McDonald project?

[chilos]

Just completed my first build - flat top mando based on Graham McDonald's excellent book, and pretty pleased with the result (despite putting the tuners on the wrong way round). Now a friend has commissioned me to make him a mandola (with tuners the right way round). I can't find any plans I like though, so how about just upscaling the McDonald plans? I'm looking at a 17" (433mm) scale length and reckon upscaling everything in proportion would give me a body width of about 332mm or a tad over 13", which seems a bit too big. What would be reasonable. Or is this approach a bad idea? And how about other mods, particularly top bracing? Any other comments or advice would also be most welcome
Thanks.

[Marty Jacobson]

That's about how it works. Scale everything up proportionally, more less, and then adjust where necessary. Also, in Graham's The Bouzouki Book, he details the construction of instruments which might be a closer starting point for you.

[Graham McDonald]

What Marty says. I think Gibson's idea was to scale the body up around 15% and that is a good starting point. I find it often depends on what size case you can find as well. Another thing to consider is fretboard width. You might want a slightly wider fingerboard with the heavier mandola strings.

Cheers

[joehendrick]

If you want to tackle an F style mandola I take a look at what Smith Creek offers.

http://www.smithcreekmandolin.com/pl...stemplate.html

I did the mandola last year and it has a great sound with the 17 in scale