Anyone here "roll their own"?

**musicofanatic** · Oct-31-2008, 1:31am

Here's a four-string pizza oven spatula I whipped up one weekend from available materials lying around. Mahogany, neck-through, Lawrence p.u. It sounds great through any tube amp, but it loves a 15" spkr. I owned two old fenders and hated the tinny tone from the p.u. placement, so was motivated to try my own. The body shape is from the silouette of an L-5.

**igowing** · Oct-31-2008, 3:24am

Rolling your own is my favorite way to rock. Here's my second that I built this summer. 14.5" scale five string, lace sensor gold in the neck, emg select humbucker in the bridge. Bootleg attempt at n Alembic hippie sandwich style mando with mahogany, walnut and maple and a 5 piece maple and walnut neck. I'm quite happy with the tone and playability but my finish work leaves room for improvement. My band's guitarist also plays a guitar I built after this mando. I'm currently drawing up plans for my third mando.

**igowing** · Oct-31-2008, 3:31am

I forgot to mention that I really dig the sleek l-5s look, musicofanatic.

**Larry S Sherman** · Oct-31-2008, 5:34am

Originally Posted by igowing

Bootleg attempt at n Alembic hippie sandwich style mando with mahogany, walnut and maple and a 5 piece maple and walnut neck.[/IMG]

I love the Alembic vibe!

Larry

**Ken Olmstead** · Oct-31-2008, 10:34am

Wow, I wish I could "roll my own!" Modifications are within my rhelm but not building from scratch. The L-5 is my favorite but I like a good warlock with a scroll!!

**musicofanatic** · Oct-31-2008, 12:25pm

Originally Posted by Ken Olmstead

Wow, I wish I could "roll my own!" Modifications are within my rhelm but not building from scratch. The L-5 is my favorite but I like a good warlock with a scroll!!

It ain't no big deal; I really did build that one in a coupla days. 'Course I was greatly aided by the fact that I was, at the time, temporarily lodging in the office/apartment of my friend's super-deluxe wood-working shop. If I didn't have access to a pro-quality jointer, planer, drill presses, overhead router, etc., it would be a different story.

The quasi-Garcia look is not my cuppa tea, but it looks like d@mn fine woodworking, Igowing! Thasa whole lotta laminatin'! How does the 14.5" scale work for you? I tried making a five-string with the normal mando scale (14-ish"), and the low string was too flabby. Tried another with a 15.25" scale (very unscientifically split the difference between a mandolin and mandola scales), and I can't tune a high string (went as light as 0.008) up to pitch without it busting. I'm thinking of trying a Novax, fanned fret fingerboard, allowing a combination 14"/15.25" scale length.

**igowing** · Oct-31-2008, 2:36pm

^That's an extremely beautiful mando, I'm sure you could find some tuning to complement the scale length. I would expect the combination of mahogany and maple in the neck to have quite a full and clear tone. The 14.5" scale has worked quite nicely, I string it 009, 012, 020, 34, 052 and the string to string balance is fine. My first build was a 13 7/8" scale 5 string and the c string was rather useless. Novax style fretboards seem really cool and I would expect them to work quite well on a five string, but a 14.5" scale is perfect for me.

**Christian McKee** · Oct-31-2008, 3:28pm

Am I the only person who sees no images here? I'd love to, especially since my five stringer is a quasi-Alembic thing! If it's just my browser, I'll see about upgrades...

Christian

**crazymandolinist** · Nov-22-2008, 8:28pm

Originally Posted by musicofanatic

It ain't no big deal; I really did build that one in a coupla days. 'Course I was greatly aided by the fact that I was, at the time, temporarily lodging in the office/apartment of my friend's super-deluxe wood-working shop. If I didn't have access to a pro-quality jointer, planer, drill presses, overhead router, etc., it would be a different story.

The quasi-Garcia look is not my cuppa tea, but it looks like d@mn fine woodworking, Igowing! Thasa whole lotta laminatin'! How does the 14.5" scale work for you? I tried making a five-string with the normal mando scale (14-ish"), and the low string was too flabby. Tried another with a 15.25" scale (very unscientifically split the difference between a mandolin and mandola scales), and I can't tune a high string (went as light as 0.008) up to pitch without it busting. I'm thinking of trying a Novax, fanned fret fingerboard, allowing a combination 14"/15.25" scale length.

I get all tingly inside just looking at it. Keepum comin!

Currently I'm working on an emando as well, turning out well enough, but I messed up in a few spots.
It's got a Gibby Xplorer shaped body (5 play blk walnut/splted sycmore neck with 2 play blk walnut wings). Apparently I didn't look at enough actual Gibby Xplorers because I cut it out all wrong lol. I cut the two sides so that they meet at an angle, resulting in me making channels with the bandsaw, so it now has two little slits on either side going from top to back instead of the nice smooth curves that an actual Xplorer does. Better luck next time I guess. Real bummer because that walnut's expensive stuff (in hindsight it was stupid to use it but it smells nice anyways

. Right now I'm focusing on getting the right tools for carving and finishing instruments too, so let's see how much I have left over after Christmas and then we'll see if the little guy'll make it

.