The Cecil B. DeMille Fanned-Fret 'Dola by Girouard Mandolins....

[Spruce]

A few years ago a friend in SoCal gave me this piece of birdseye maple, after I pestered him for many a year to let go of it...
It was salvaged from a drawer panel from the Cecil B. DeMille School in Long Beach, CA, and must be about 60 years old or so...
I just loved the rolling figure behind the eyes, and the piece has always spoken to me in a good way...
So-ooo, off to Girouard Mandolins it went...
It was barely wide enough for a one piece mandola, so that's the way we went--a fanned fret 10-string 'dola...

Max didn't have side stock to match, so he ripped up a plank from the floor of his shop, and so here we have the set of reclaimed wood for back and sides:



I haven't seen the finished instrument yet, but it is on it's way to Orcas Island and I'm stoked...
Will post a few build shots here, and a shot of the instrument when it arrives...

Planing the drawer front:



Woof:



Pantographing...
A nice little snot mark appeared, and I couldn't care less...



Sides:



I'll post a few more build shots in the coming days, leading up to opening the box...
I have no idea what color it'll be...

[sgarrity]

That's gonna be a looker!

[Dale Ludewig]

Bruce, that is way cool. I hope Max or Lauri (or Beegs) doesn't hurt an ankle from the hole in the floor.

[ferrousgeek]

Nice! After I got my Girouard I told Lauri I thought my next build would be a Birdseye Blackface 'dola. Glad you chose them to convert your killer piece of wood into a fine instrument.

[Timbofood]

Sort of makes you want to part the Red Sea doesn't it!?

[trevor]

Wow! Max and Lauri's work plus fan fret dola plus that wood is going to be amazing.

[Timbofood]

Six posts and no one has said...
"I'm ready for my close up, Mr deMille."

[Spruce]

I've been really tickled with the Western Red Cedar I've been running into the past few years...
I still can't believe that they are still putting this material on top of roofs...

The big deal for me when selecting cedar is whether the wood is hard-to-the-fingernail or not, and this stuff is as hard as most spruce, and yet light in weight...
Reclaimed wood, this tree was dug out of a bog, and was just full of water. Maybe 300% MC or so...



Froeing up the sets:



The 'dola top
(I just noticed it's a one-piecer--cool!):



...fitting bars:




F's:



Always more later...

[Timbofood]

Way cool!

[Spruce]

Some build pics...















A few more days and we'll see this thing in action...

[Don Grieser]

I'm really enjoying this. Love the G logo inlay--might have to borrow that for my oval. I really love the cedar top mandola that Max and Lauri built me. This one looks extra special.

[F-2 Dave]

I'm envious and curious. That looks like it's going to be a gorgeous mandola with a great story to go along with it. But, I have to ask, is there a technical reason that fanned frets are more desirable than the normal straight frets? They definitely look more exotic.

[pheffernan]

But, I have to ask, is there a technical reason that fanned frets are more desirable than the normal straight frets? They definitely look more exotic.

As I understand it, fanned frets are one solution to allow a longer scale length mandola and a shorter scale length mandolin to coexist and intonate correctly on the same fingerboard.

[trevor]

That is correct. If you use standard mandolin scale length 14" for a mandolin/mandola, tuned CGDAE the C has to be too heavy to give good tone. If you use standard mandola scale length of 16" (some are 17") the E string has to be so thin that it sounds weak and is prone to breaking. When I have had them made with a 15" scale both problems are improved a little but still there so a fan fret does as pheffernan says and allows both correct string gauges across the range and good tone.

[Spruce]

That is correct. If you use standard mandolin scale length 14" for a mandolin/mandola, tuned CGDAE the C has to be too heavy to give good tone. If you use standard mandola scale length of 16" (some are 17") the E string has to be so thin that it sounds weak and is prone to breaking. When I have had them made with a 15" scale both problems are improved a little but still there so a fan fret does as pheffernan says and allows both correct string gauges across the range and good tone.

Yep, and it works well...
I've played some 10-string mandolin/mandolas by some very well-known makers that just do not work at all...

[Jeff Mando]

That's some wild stuff -- fan frets!

[trevor]

It looks like quite a big variation, what are the max and min scale lengths?

Is the parallel fret at the 7th or higher?

[Spruce]

It looks like quite a big variation, what are the max and min scale lengths?

Is the parallel fret at the 7th or higher?

In the pink:

[s1m0n]

That's a handsome axe.

[ccravens]

Drool.

[Timbofood]

I repeat
" I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille."

[lauri Girouard]

I repeat
" I'm ready for my close up, Mr. DeMille."

The 'Dola wonders silently "Is this close enough?"

[lauri Girouard]

It looks like quite a big variation, what are the max and min scale lengths?

Is the parallel fret at the 7th or higher?

The scale is 16.5” to 14.5”. Perpendicular to the centerline is the 8th fret.

[Bernie Daniel]

The scale is 16.5” to 14.5”. Perpendicular to the centerline is the 8th fret.

Looks awesome but that fret board makes me think playing would be a challenge? Steep learning curve?

[Max Girouard]

Looks awesome but that fret board makes me think playing would be a challenge? Steep learning curve?

You'd be surprised. We've taken it to a couple festivals as well as put them in the hands of many of our shop visitors. It usually takes a couple minutes getting used to, but after that it just "clicks" and people are playing their normal repertoire of tunes up to speed. The most challenging part of it is to play picking on an angle so that you are hitting the sweet spot on the strings.

We'll post some photos of it finished once Bruce gets it and see's what color Lauri came up with. He only told us to make it "weird", so stay tuned............