As a preface, I have no idea what I'm doing or if I'll be able to do it. But I suppose there's no harm in trying.
After almost a decade of playing mandolin and seeing all of the incredible builds that members on this site have made over the years, I finally decided to bite the bullet and start thinking of building my first instrument from scratch. I've done setup and minor repair work in the past and completed a half-finished Gann dobro kit, but I've never dared to build something from the ground up until now.
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Aesthetics:
After some preliminary doodles to play around with shapes, below is the first full concept sketch to visualize the design:
It takes bits of design elements from various instruments from 1900-1920 along with some unorthodox aesthetic considerations. The body style draws inspiration from a Bacon Artist mandolin, the inlaid pick guard is akin to those on the earliest Gibsons, and a headstock somewhere between that of a Martin Style B and a more art deco design.
As for the color, I originally sent a concept with a pumpkin top and reddish brown sides to a friend whom I design and build model locomotives with, and he said that the colors were nice but he expected something a bit more unorthodox. I wanted to avoid making something too vivid or in-your-face so I went with a very subdued blueish-green that fades to a lighter pale green in the center, with darker, grayish-brown on the back and sides and a couple of nickel/silver accents, sort of a "Mint & Chip" palette, if you will.
It likely will have an unbound body for both simplicity's sake and to maintain the softer look.
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Specifications:
I'm still open to changes, revisions, or suggestions for structural specs, but as of now I've worked out the following:
- the sketch is drawn with a 21" scale for easy playing, 20 frets total.
- Maple neck with non-adjustable carbon fiber truss rod, ebony fingerboard and headstock veneer, 13th fret joint and flush with the top (no elevated extension). I've started finding material on making either a dovetail or mortise & tenon neck and would appreciate recommendations/pros/cons of each.
- carved solid maple sides similar to Rigel/Mann construction rather than steam bent, with the blocks notched and glued to provide good compression strength in line with the strings. I know Rigel used a rounded-out profile to their solid sides in lieu of kerfing, but would flat sides require kerfing or would they simply be carved thicker near the joints? (or thicker in general?)
- carved spruce arch top with oval soundhole, x-braced with a transverse brace just before the soundhole, with the graduation a bit thicker around the hole just to be absolutely sure it won't get any top sagging near the hole.
- as for the back, I'm still deciding between a carved or flat maple back. I like the quality of tone that is attributed to each. That being said, budget and ease of construction may lead me to gravitate toward a flat back with guitar bracing.
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This is still very, very early in the design process and details will hopefully become more refined as time goes on. Woods won't be purchased until the design is finalized and full-size plans are drafted along with some clear plastic templates to help the building process.
Any ideas, advice, wisdom, suggestions, corrections, or other inputs would be more than helpful and greatly appreciated, and even if my work ends up producing a dud, I'm hoping the journey is a rewarding one.
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