Post a picture of what's on your bench?

[Dusepo]

A 5-course late medieval lute in Cherry which is almost done.

[Drew Streip]

Not much, but I made a high-angle armrest for my mandola. I never got used to the sharp edge. So I decided to make a “distressed” amber burst to mirror the factory finish. I might dull the lacquer later but I’m pretty happy!

[David Houchens]

SGraham, I really like the figured walnut. I have a few nice pieces set aside for a size 1 guitar.

[SGraham]

Thanks David. It was such beautiful wood, but I only had a small piece. It ended up being just enough for a soprano uke. I hope you'll post pics of your curly walnut guitar when you start building it.

[Marty Jacobson]

I think I'm finally going to have enough Z axis reach....

[Dusepo]

One of a pair of renaissance mandores I've been commissioned to build...

[Walt]

A pair of mandos: one for a friend and one for my three-year-old daughter. The smaller mandolin will have an 11" scale and four strings. It will be tuned to standard GDAE. The idea is to have something (a) with low string tension, and (b) small enough so a child can learn proper chords. Both mandolins have a treble sound hole and a bass side port. Both have a forward-shifted bridge like the original A-5.
There's a lot of cleaning up and gap filling to do.

[soliver]

My wife and I recently lost our beloved 50-60 year old Redbud tree that has been in our yard since we bought our home many years ago... before we knew we had to take it down last winter, it lost some if its larger branches which I saved and seasoned because I could tell that the wood was attractive. So here is the first armrest made of Redbud wood and I had to share because I was so pleased with how attractive the grain was:



Needless to say when I cut the tree down last month I saved some of the bigger hunks to season!

[David Houchens]

Marty, that would do a high arch for sure.

[resophonic]

No mandolin content...

I had a guy I do a fair amount of repair work for, ask me to build a custom case for his wood key xylophone. I put him off several times but finally relented from his persistence and said I would take it on. I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into at the onset, I had never built a case before, let alone one with flight case hardware and a felted interior. I never felted anything before either but figured I could teach myself how to do it. I have worked in a custom cabinet shop since 1983 and done instrument repairs since 2000, should be easy, right? 72 hours later, spread out over 10 months, this is what I came up with.

The case is designed with a lift off lid and stacking trays. Bottom tray holds the keys, resonators in the next tray in the stack and the break down stand components in the top tray. The parts are presented in the order that you would need them, build the stand, add the resonators, finally the keys and stows away in the opposite order. The felting was very involved and I started with the rectangular compartments first to get the hang of it, the key tray was last. The flight case hardware all came from DIY Road cases on-line store. I have approximately 230 screws and nut and bolt fastenings which took longer than I would have guessed but then, so did everything else. I added the wheels after the case was done, it got a bit heavy. The tilt and roll wheels work pretty well.

Here are the trays prior to finish and hardware.


And images of the finished job with the Xylophone parts in place.






It's owner was very happy. I told him not to tell all of his xylophone pals who made it though. Told him I would bare my teeth, hiss and hold my fingers in a cross if someone else asked. The case was some what interesting, just to see if I could pull it off but not such a great money maker, I'll stick with instrument repairs and leave custom case builds to someone else hungrier than me.

[Marty Jacobson]

Marty, that would do a high arch for sure.

It's the arch + side depth + neck angle combined that starts to get up there for a 1-piece carbon fiber mold...

[j. condino]

The new Condino quintet- three Brazilian rosewood A5s, a striped ebony F5, and a 16" Brazilian rosewood octave mandolin, all with Ted Davis 1989 Red spruce tops....

[sliebers]

The new Condino quintet- three Brazilian rosewood A5s, a striped ebony F5, and a 16" Brazilian rosewood octave mandolin, all with Ted Davis 1989 Red spruce tops....

Those are amazing James. Would love to hear the octave.

[Chris Pritchett]

Octave mandolin No.2

[Dusepo]

A trio of baroque guitars I've been commissioned to build...

[John Kelly]

More interesting stuff there, Jo. The bridge/saddle seems to sit much nearer the tail of the instrument in those baroque instruments, even nearer than on a classical guitar. Does this have a big effect on the tone you get? What sort of bracing is used on the soundboard? I really enjoy seeing all the less common instruments you have made your speciality.

[Dusepo]

More interesting stuff there, Jo. The bridge/saddle seems to sit much nearer the tail of the instrument in those baroque instruments, even nearer than on a classical guitar. Does this have a big effect on the tone you get? What sort of bracing is used on the soundboard? I really enjoy seeing all the less common instruments you have made your speciality.

Thanks! Yes, the bridge is further down than on a modern mandolin, certainly (though not relatively more so than a baroque mandolin of the same era). It might be to do with fixed vs floating bridge. I am using a bracing pattern based on this surviving instrument by Voboam:

The sound of a baroque guitar is quite different to that of a modern guitar - more delicate and with lots of 'campanellas' ('little bells') facilitated by the re-eantrant tuning, where the melody is between the thumb and fingers and rings out differently. This video gives a good example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC7JNE8TdmY

[buckhorn]

now that the weather has cooled, I've started forming rims and building necks.. Gotten pretty good with the hot pipe method.. Ran across a good few lengths of 2in x 3in maple and also made several 1pc necks too

[John Kelly]

Thanks, Jo, and especially for the link to the baroque guitar being played. It has a really lovely sound and so different from a modern classical guitar.

[David Houchens]

Well the Cocobolo 00-14 fret ended up with a rubbed stain top. The owner was very pleased and so was I.
Again I'll say thanks to James Condino for some lovely wood.

[jim simpson]

I did my first x-brace in a long time. This is the inside of what I call my Dudenmonster. The top was one of Lynn D's that didn't meet his quality level. I cut out the oval hole and made a rosette so far.

[David Houchens]

Just sent this one out yesterday. Finally getting caught up.

Sorry for the glare.

[j. condino]

Well the Cocobolo 00-14 fret ended up with a rubbed stain top. The owner was very pleased and so was I.
Again I'll say thanks to James Condino for some lovely wood.

I have more of that log available if anyone is interested....

The mandolin looks great!

[sliebers]

Very nice David. I bought some of that cocobolo from James as well. Have not gotten around to building with it yet. How was it for bending the sides?

Well the Cocobolo 00-14 fret ended up with a rubbed stain top. The owner was very pleased and so was I.
Again I'll say thanks to James Condino for some lovely wood.

[sliebers]

#11 mando and #12 guitar almost ready to leave the bench for their new homes.