Progress of my Bernabe Mandolin

[John Duncan]

James Bernabe from Winston Salem NC has started working on a F-5 for me.

James is a great mandolin picker and singer in addition to being a good up and coming builder.

I got on his list last August when we picked at Galax.

I'll post pictures to this thread as they come in.

Here is the beginning:

[rb3868]

that back is going to look sweeeeeet. What color is your finish going to be?

[John Duncan]

James is going to base most of the aesthetics off of the Pee Wee Lambert Loar. Like:

[John Duncan]

Coming along:

[Don Grieser]

That's some gorgeous carving. Congrats! Thanks for posting--I love to watch them go from chunks of wood to finished mandolins.

[John Duncan]

All of a sudden it is coming together.

I'll be testing the neck tomorrow.

[Cheryl Watson]

The "Pee Wee" Loar has the perfect look to me too. Your Bernabe is looking really nice! I'm looking forward to more pics.

[Dave LaBoone]

Yes! James is a great picker and a fine builder. Thanks for sharing his progress on what will surely be a nice instrument!

[harryclark]

Looks killer John! James is about to start building me one and I'm really pumped about it.

[Eric Michael Pfeiffer]

sweet!

[John Duncan]

I'm really looking forward to playing it tonight. We are going to be shaping the neck down.

[bernabe]

Thanks for the comments. John's mandolin will be have the neck fitted to his hand this evening along with two others [other mandolins, other hands]. To be clear, this is not an attempt at a Loar copy or "replica". It will simply be my version of the F5 with a general Lambert Loar look minus the fern inlay and adding a flowerpot inlay. I also did not go with the back that's in the first photo due to carving into some dark streaks. The wood was selected solely by species/characteristics before the Lambert Loar was brought up. So...I ended up using some nice slip-matched maple which was what was used for Loars back in the day.

[John Duncan]

We had a fun time the other night!

Shavings were flying everywhere



I've got the A-Style on the right. The one in the white with the full fretboard extension is mine.

[John Duncan]

James in his element shredding away