Now What?

So I’m done that binding around the back, actually done the whole 9 yards. Here’s a quick update on what I’ve learned about the whole thing.

Finishing up the binding on the back was a serious pain in the ass. That dremel tool just doesn’t have the gas to do the job right, and that makeshift guide I made helped create a really scary experience. In the end, I settled on pulling out the carving knives I haven’t used in 20 years, and the job got done.

Here's the finished mandolin!

It’s finished with a french polish – I’m not entirely happy with how it turned out as that pesky padauk dust gets into every nook and cranny, and there are a few spots with a reddish tinge. Maybe someday I’ll go back and re-finish the thing, maybe not. If I look back on what I thought success would look like when I started this thing (and I wrote that down in advance), a highly polished finish wasn’t at the top of the list.

I’m more happy with the overall build, the fit of the neck to the body, the straightness of the fretboard, the overall style and consistency of the look. Surprised, in fact.

And here's the back...

It took a while to get the playability to where I want it. My first timid steps had the strings so far from the fretboard that it wasn’t playable at all, but really that first time I strung it up was really to be sure it wouldn’t just fold up on itself with all that string tension.

With a little work, shaving down the bone nut and trimming the bridge down, it’s now at the point where it is quite playable. Intonation is great across the fretboard, action is nice and low, there’s no buzzing anywhere along the neck. Given the 7-layer neck and the stainless steel truss rod, I really shouldn’t have been worried about the neck bending, and it remains nice and straight.

So what now? Well, I get to explore how to actually play the thing, to see what I can carry over from my feeble knowledge of playing guitar, and what’s different between the two instruments. More options for duets with Owen, I guess.

Building another one? Owen says he would be pleased to be my business manager for only 50% of the proceeds if we sell a bunch, but let’s get real here. There’s still a lot of things I could do better and would do differently next time. By the numbers, I spent about 130 hours on this thing overall, including design time up front and some time to build a few jigs), and there was close to $300 in parts and raw materials (including the extravagance of a pickup) and about $130 in specialized tools.

Custom-built mandolins go for more than custom-built guitars, as there is more effort in the carving of the top and back (and other stuff), but many builders say that you shouldn’t really even think of selling anything before your 20th instrument. While I’ve learned a ton with this project, I’ve also learned that there is way more that I could get better at.

Even if I got more efficient (which I would) and built 3-5 at a time (which only makes sense), it’s still a pretty big investment in time to build these things. Certainly wouldn’t see this as a potential career change, I’d have to build a ton of ‘em, and all that joy in building would become just a job, with deadlines and expectations and all that crap.

So far I think this one holds it’s own against the ones I’ve played with in guitar shops, but there’s not a lot of high-end mandolins around town – most are all under $1000. It certainly does well against those entry-level mandolins that don’t sound much better than those toy ukeleles that we all had as kids – pressed tops, plywood sides, crappy hardware – you would have to go that way to get an instrument on the shelves for a couple of hundred bucks.

I’ll bounce this one off a few players around town to get them to put it through its paces, and learn a bit more about what worked and what didn’t. There might be a few more down the road, maybe next summer or so, we’ll see what time brings.

Winney’s already asking for a cello, though, I’ll have to counter that with a demand for a bigger workshop!

More importantly, though, I’m taking the hint that I’d better finish off those home renovations that have been dragging around for months while I’ve been distracted by building this thing. Perhaps the trim in the downstairs bathroom, or maybe those window sills from 7 years ago…