Another one out the door

[thistle3585]

My second, and last, Tele style mandolin. It sports two single coil pickups with a coil tap/humbucking/out of phase switch. Mahogany body, maple neck, Grover tuners, ebony fretboard. The jack is in the tailpiece. I think the owner is coming to pick it up tomorrow. The LP headstock does look a little strange though.

Now off to assemble my first carved top mini LP.

[Paul Busman]

Why last? That's a nifty little mando!

[crazymandolinist]

Perhaps if you left the maple on the headstock it would look better I think a maple fretboard would be nicer too. Very nice work nonetheless.

[woodwizard]

Way cool!

[Jim MacDaniel]

Looks great Andrew -- and I especially like the pickups choice and electronic approach.

[thistle3585]

Why last? That's a nifty little mando!

All my jigs and templates are designed for the instruments that I currently make, and building one offs takes much longer and a lot of trial and error when fitting parts. Besides, there are plenty of people making Tele style mandolins.

[Steve Perry]

All my jigs and templates are designed for the instruments that I currently make, and building one offs takes much longer and a lot of trial and error when fitting parts. Besides, there are plenty of people making Tele style mandolins.

Yeah.. but you're the only one I've seen making the Tele style with a 14th fret neck join... which looks much more Tele-ish than all the others with a 12 fret neck. Now, if that one in the picture was a 5 string with a Tele-like headstock, i'd be all over it!

Just a question, though... After you've got the first one figured out, wouldn't it be easier to build more like it?

[thistle3585]

Well, I do have to admit that I am going to build another one, BUT only because its for a customer that has already bought two other instruments from me. The problem is that all three are different. The only similarities are the body shape. They have different electronics, different pickguards, different headstocks, different neck shapes etc. For a five string, I would need to use a different neck template to account for the wider fret board than a standard four string, so that means a larger neck pocket, which means it shifts the centerline on the body or I have to increase the size of the body. Also, I would assume that it would now need to go to a 14.5" scale, to get an adequate C string, so that pushes the bridge location back on the body which means I need a larger pickguard. A lot more goes into it than just putting a different neck on it. None of the Tele styles that I've built have been 14.5" scales.

[bjc]

Do you have pics of the LP style?

[thistle3585]

Do you have pics of the LP style?

See my website. www.crossroadswood.com

[Steve Perry]

Thanks, Andrew... I figured that there was more to it than I was thinking...

Don't ya just love the folks that go...

"Well, All ya gotta do...."

[jlsmandolin1952]

Andrew,
Nice looking piece. Nice color. I'm glad that you explained briefly, that its a whole different animal, going from a 4 to 5 string design. There is definitely more to it than meets the eye. It took me quite alot of work to get my templates accurate giong from a 4-string model to a 5-stringer.
John
www.jlsmithmandolins.com

[thistle3585]

John,
Yes, and I recently learned that the hard way on an instrument that I tried converting from a four string to a five. Now I make a new neck or strip the headstock veneer and plug one of the five holes.
What scale is your five string?

BTW, I got your saddles. Will work on that this weekend.

[jlsmandolin1952]

Andrew,
I'm using a 14.5 Inch scale length on the 5-stringers. Works out real well. It gives that 5th string the extra length needed.