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Flat top mandola plans - resize McDonald project?
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.
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Easily Distracted
Re: Flat top mandola plans - resize McDonald project?
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.
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The following members say thank you to Marty Jacobson for this post:
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Mandolin tragic
Re: Flat top mandola plans - resize McDonald project?
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
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The following members say thank you to Graham McDonald for this post:
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Re: Flat top mandola plans - resize McDonald project?
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
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