German concert bowlback plan

[boni]

Can someone direct me where to obtain a plan for building a German concert bowlback? There are F- and A-style plans at LMI and StewMac but none for the German bowlback.

[Graham McDonald]

Can someone direct me where to obtain a plan for building a German concert bowlback? There are F- and A-style plans at LMI and StewMac but none for the German bowlback.

I suspect you might be on your own for this one. Lorenzo Lippi in MIlan might be able to sell you plans for a 1890s Maldura and and 1900s Embergher, but the only people who might have plans for a modern German bowlback are those who make them. A look through the Builders database on the Cafe will give you contact info on several builders of these in Germany

Good luck

graham

[Jim Garber]

The German bowlback, I believe is a relatively recent design, coming out of the German school in the 1930s or 1940s (please correct me if i am wrong about that) and also from the luthier work of Reinhold Seiffert. I know that doesn't give you a source of plans...

Builders of that style in North America include Brian Dean and Peter Sawchyn, both working in Canada.

[boni]

The German bowlback, I believe is a relatively recent design, coming out of the German school in the 1930s or 1940s (please correct me if i am wrong about that) and also from the luthier work of Reinhold Seiffert. I know that doesn't give you a source of plans...

Builders of that style in North America include Brian Dean and Peter Sawchyn, both working in Canada.

Thanks for your responses, Graham and Jim. It would have been quite an experience to build my own German bowlback but no can-do. Almost once a week I see one that was built by Brian N Dean and, oooh, what a beauty it is in both looks and sound.

[billhay4]

boni,
Don't let the lack of a plan dissuade you. These are built on a mold, I believe, and what you need is a mold and a really good idea of how to go about the construction. The mold is easy to build but hard to get right. The construction methods are demanding, but not impossible.
If you do enough research on the web, you'll find pictures of these being built and can develop your own technique.
Bill

[Graham McDonald]

boni,
Don't let the lack of a plan dissuade you. These are built on a mold, I believe, and what you need is a mold and a really good idea of how to go about the construction. The mold is easy to build but hard to get right. The construction methods are demanding, but not impossible.
If you do enough research on the web, you'll find pictures of these being built and can develop your own technique.
Bill

Bill is quite correct. Don't let the lack of a plan stop you if you reckon you can make a mandolin. Materials for a bowl back would be available at minimal cost. If you know a guitar maker mandolin sized pieces tend to be the size of their offcuts!

Bowlback mandolins are just small lutes, more or less and the GAL sell's Robert Lundberg's book on lute construction. My book on mandolin construction doesn't cover bowlback bodies, but does have a chapter on canted soundboards (if you will excuse the self promotion) or alternatively there was an extensive and well illustrated thread in the classical section here a few years back where Dave Hynds went through the stages of making a new soundboard for a Neapolitan mandolin. From what I understand the Seiffert design of the modern German bowlback uses a hemispherical body cross section, so one of them would be about as simple to make as any bowlback. The mould need not be very complicated. Again there was a thread about making Baroque gut string mandolins (I think) and I posted a pic of a mould used for one of them. Really just a spine with a few shaped bulkheads (looked like the framework of a very small boat) with room to glue/screw neck and tail blocks.

cheers

graham

[billhay4]

...and Graham knows a whole lot more than I do.
Bill