Progress on the mandolin has been slow for a couple of reasons. I whined in the last post about my crazy travel schedule (I just got back from Whitehorse on Wednesday, and I’m in Toronto over the weekend), but there’s another reason for the delays.
This is the first time I tackle anything like this instrument. I carved a loon about 20 years ago, but there were no close-fitting parts in that, and the thing doesn’t have to sound good or behave like a loon when it’s done. I haven’t really worked with wood in this way in a long time, and there has been quite a learning curve to figure out how I’m going to do things. Part of that has to do with the limited set of tools I have to work with (I’m working on remedying that as I go 
), but certainly not all of it.
There were a few things that were holding me up, with a lot of time spent figuring out just how to do certain jobs. Simple things really, but things that need precision because the result is something that will be visible when the instrument is done.
Trust me, there have already been a couple of gaffes that I’ve had to work through. Nothing that has required me to scrap a piece of wood and start over, mind you, but certainly things that people would notice if they had seen it. My guess is that there are some of these in almost any hand-made instrument. As our friend Tam says (when talking about the few things that weren’t done quite right as we built the studio in our backyard last summer) “It’s OK to have some small mistakes – after all, only God can make perfection.”
I’ve told myself that a few times so far, and I don’t even believe in God…
One thing that I ruminated on for a long time was cutting precise angles on some of the pieces. I’ve got a 15 degree angle between the neck and the headstock, and while it was easy to make that cut in the neck pieces, the headstock was too wide and cumbersome to cut in the same way. How to hold the damned thing steady at 15 degrees to the blade?
After thinking through a bunch of hairbrained (and dangerous) ideas, I decided the best route was to screw the damned piece (in an area that would later be cut away, you can see it in the picture) to a 2×4 and use my big fat chop saw. It turned out to be easy and precise, after all that worrying.
I'll put this together like interleaved fingers - kind of a lap-joint dovetail thingy, or (duh) a finger joint
From there, it was simple work to cut a slot in that headstock to accommodate the neck extension. A little chiseling and sanding and filing got me to the point where the two pieces interlocked nicely, kinda like lacing your fingers together. It’s an approach I haven’t seen on any other neck designs, and given the string tension on the final instrument, it will serve to make a very strong design. It’s quite easy to imagine a design like this being used for an instrument that could be taken apart for travel. For this one, though, I think gluing the pieces together is prudent.
Quickly after that, there was shaping the headstock, laminating a piece of mahogany across the back, and shaping the neck closer to final shape. Starting to be recognizable as an instrument…
Simple wooden fret markers - no bling on this thing!
I then tackled the fretboard, installing the marker dots on the top, cutting to width, installing the side dots, and sanding smooth. Once I decided on how to do it, things went quickly.
The other thing that was puzzling me was how to pre-bend the frets before installing them on the fretboard. Supply stores will gladly sell you a bending device for about $90 that works like one of those old can openers, but I’m really trying to minimize the special purpose tools I buy for this thing.
Really.
The finished fretboard!
I went for a slower approach where I just used a pair of pliers and gradually ran along the wire, gently bending at each point. No cost, and a good enough job. The fretting went a lot more smoothly than expected, and appears to have gone well.
That Japanese file I had bought from Lee Valley is turning out to be the best tool investment I’ve made. It made short work out of dressing the ends of the frets, and made the results look outstanding.
At this point, with the fretboard done and the neck and headstock almost complete, I couldn’t resist drilling the holes for the tuners and test-installing them.
Still to add a thin maple veneer to the top...
The results were a little heavier than expected, but I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made in the past few days.
...just like this mahogany slice on the back.
Overall, there has been far more time ruminating than actually building. Now that I’ve figured out how to do some of these things, I could easily expect the next instrument to take far less time. I’m learning at each step along the way – I would do things differently next time, shaving even more time off the process and doing a better job. The fun and challenge is what I’m in this for, though, so no complaints.
Next step: attacking the sides and the front and back. We drove out to the valley a few weeks ago to check out my sister’s new digs, and on the way stopped by to pick up a set of wood from Bow River Specialty Woods, a supplier for instrument makers. A wonderful place to visit (if you are into wood), and we left with some beautiful maple for the back and sides, and some Sitka spruce for the top. Other than that $9 piece of Padauk from Lee Valley that got me jazzed about this thing to begin with, these are the only pieces of wood I’ve bought for the mandolin.
Sides, back and top - absolutely beautiful, hope I don't screw 'em up!
More on these as I progress…
Wow Jim, looking very professional!