Is this the same cypress slab you were working on last October Matt? I really like it and your headstock shape and layout. Hope all is well there and your wife and newest addition to your family are home and safe before this pandemic arrived. I’m finishing up on our ClearView Cyclone installation in our basement shop and hope to get started on a couple of F4’s when I finish tweaking this gigantic dust vacuum system. I wanted a Woodmaster 2675 drum sander but decided this had to happen first since we have a basement gas furnace and our lungs are old and more-fine dust sensitive.
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
It is, Hank! I've been working on it on-and-off for a while now. I have really liked the bald cypress as a solid-body guitar wood, but it does scratch and dent very easily in its unfinished state.
All is well down here. Hope we can get together again once all this stuff passes. That'll be nice having that big vacuum system up and running in your shop. Glad to hear you'll soon have some mandos in the works. That chocolate and vanilla F-5 was outstanding!
Matt Morgan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jztTl1mas94
Graham, both of those headstocks are very aesthetically pleasing. I'm partial to the one on the right, ( very Monteleone'ish ). I also go out of my way to use sapwood to add another dimension to my headstocks. I find stark , black headstocks incredibly boring. I was just curious if a set of regular F tuners will fit with such dramatic flares to the sides.
Thanks,
Jim
Kit
Guitars, Mandos, Violins, Dulcimers, Cats
Thank you Matt. I used some of Mr. Heidens special sauce on that F5. I plan to copy my 23 F4 for the most part on these next two builds. I considered giving hobby luthiery up because of the fine dust lung damage and explosion risk in our basement but decided to deal with it a couple months ago. I ordered a clearview cyclone 1800 CV max and a bunch of plumbing stuff and have been working way too hard to install it. My Immune system or lack one and a pandemic has made me pretty happy with my decision.
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
Pics of the two mandolins. The more guitar shaped instrument is the second of this design after I posted the first one a few weeks ago. This one is around 1/4" wider and longer and seems more in proportion than the first one. A single soundhole in the upper bout instead of the stylised f-holes of the first one. The other is a modified A shape with a squared off neck block. The idea for both mandolins is to bolt on the neck from the outside using a 3/16" bolt into a t-nut mounted on the inside of the neck block. The head of the bolt is hidden by a hole in the front of the heel drilled using a counter-bore. The A mandolin is also trying a paulownia lattice capped with carbon fiber on the outside only. The soundboard is a piece of King Billy pine from Tasmania which was a bit thinner than I would normally use and has a noticeable knot in the middle which I had hoped I could carve around but it went at an unexpected angle. It is carved to a around.140 - .150" all over. The other one with the tone bars is carved more or less normally as you would do for an F-5. The tailpiece mounting are also an experiment. The tailblock is laminated from three pieces of mahogany with a hole drilled to take a barrel nut and a smaller vertical hole drilled for a bolt the the tailpiece will pivot off. I am suspecting the King Billy soundboard with the CF lattice especially will respond best with a lower break angle over the bridge, so the tailpiece will be height adjustable with the mounting bolt. The carbonfiber tubes (old arrow shafts from a bow-hunting friend) should absorb the compressional force from the tailpiece. We will see what will happen.
http://www.mcdonaldstrings.com
The Mandolin Project on building mandolins
The Mandolin-a history
The Ukulele on building ukuleles
Great Ideas Graham. I really like your headstocks and reworked guitar shape/aperture location. Can I suggest using a magnet with a wooden laminate cap for a flush fit bolt hole cover on your neck. I used one on my truss rod cover. Removal is easy because the magnet’s attraction to your bolt(small distance)isn’t as strong as steel against it’s outer wood covered side(no distance).
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
I was given an upright bass with a failed neck repair. There were existing holes in the heel where someone had used long wood screws. I used the barrel nut system to secure the neck. The hardest part was drilling for the barrel nuts since accuracy was critical. I made plugs out of dowels to cover the enlarged hole openings. It worked out well.
Old Hometown, Cabin Fever String Band
I like the carbon fiber rod to reduce top tension. Will be interesting to hear the resulting sound.
Not all the clams are at the beach
Arrow Manouche
Arrow Jazzbo
Arrow G
Clark 2 point
Gibson F5L
Gibson A-4
Ratliff CountryBoy A
Old Hometown, Cabin Fever String Band
I have been slowly building my 4th mandolin and thought there may be some interest in the set-up I use for cutting a Vee slot for the neck. (I don't have the skill to cut a well fitted dovetail, and IMO there is nothing worse than a poorly fitted dovetail).
-Newtonamic
Larry, nice router fixture. I sent my first mandolin build wood to Chris Baird AKA Arches Music Co. for CNC cutting, build fixture and headstock veneer with vase shell inlay. Chris did an amazing job on all. Attention to detail in a one pointed focus, I can’t brag enough about Chris’s work. The neck joint Chris used on his builds, kits and my build was a really nice V tenon Mortise main fit with a small locking dovetail behind the tenon heel within the mortise. I can’t imagine a better neck joint so far as 0 void glue or air spaced areas. The response is phenominal on this instrument that I attribute to Chris’s Master Grade CNC Joinery. The neck body junction finish attention to detail is probably faster than on a standard dovetail. Junction. I’m gonna do some standard dovetail first but I’m not sold on the merit of them in comparison to a locking mortise Tenon neck joint. As a hobbyist I don’t have to think of warranty issues pushing the boundaries, taking chances and following my own muse in all aspects of building.
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
Headstock preview of the partial new batch of instruments; just the two guitars as the mandolins are still in the clamps...
Backside beauty. Do the lighting holes just look way cool or is the reduced wt. to balance an instrument longitudinally?
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
Hi Hank!
I could come up with plenty of fairy dust and unicorn theories, but mainly I try to not overthink the process too much and let it happen. My mandolins already exist inside a nice piece of wood, I just help them come out. I've been building some form of open headstocks for over two decades; if you put a strong backstrap on the headstock, the additional strength gives a lot more possibilities. My titanium truss rods have much more impact on neck balance, but all the small things add up on the finished instrument.
James are you using cold rolled titanium?
"A sudden clash of thunder, the mind doors burst open, and lo, there sits old man Buddha-nature in all his homeliness."
CHAO-PIEN
Here's the finished sapele back for my my next archtop.
Cheers Gary
Gary Nava UK luthier
Website; http://www.navaguitars.co.uk/mandolins.html
A Luthier's Blog; http://guitar-maker.blogspot.co.uk/
Instrument Archive; http://nava-instruments.blogspot.co.uk/
They’re the screw holes for individual tuners. As opposed to four on a plate one’s. This is going to be my own instrument, I am building an almost identical one with regard to shape and pickups etc but different choice of woods and furniture for a friend. He will use it in a band and for recording.
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