My project, recently finished

[DarwinStrings]

Here is a recently finished Mandolin. Blackwood back and sides, Western Red Cedar Soundboard, Rock Maple Bindings/Bridge, Stainless Steel tailpiece/Neck Bolt Plate and a Rock Maple one piece neck a la Leo Fender.

The Bridge in the photo is different to the bridge in the sound clip, I'll post some pics of the altered bridge later.

I don't do much in the wet season and am mainly doing home renos and repairs as well as a few shed bits and pieces.

Is there anyway I can upload a MP3 rather than having to make a YouTube movie so that I can let you mob hear my instruments


[youtube]http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0Mrew4Q2Y[/youtube]




That Strap Button is just a temp till i get around to my next order



You may notice that I prefer to mark the 9th rather than the 10th as I like the way this method looks on the front of the fret board.



The action is up high as this pic was taken when it was first strung up. I set it high and play for a month before setting it low.




I bought cheap Tuners to see how they were....never again, worth a try though you never know.



Jim

[Bob Connor]

Looks great Jim.

You can email MP3's to me and I'll chuck 'em on the server.

bob at connor dot net dot au

[Kim]

Great work Jim,

She looks sweet as a nut and shimmers with tones reminiscent of the gypsy queen

Cheers

Kim

[Allen]

Nice looking instrument Jim. I'm looking forward to the sound clip. We need to see some more instruments built in different styles.

I'm interested in how the neck is being held. I'm assuming that the neck block is fairly large, and that stainless plate on the back is supported by it? Do you use some sort of inserts in the neck for the screws to attach to?

[ozziebluesman]

Looks great Jim! Some fine craftsmanship there mate. I'm with you and don't do much if any gluing up in the wet season. I may try a few controlled glueups in the airconditioned house shortlyand see how it turns out.

Cheers

Alan

[John Maddison]

Cheers Bob ... so THAT's how we can get MP3's uploaded ... by email!!, too easy (I know that Localele has a few ready for broadcast).

Hi Jim - one of our local Albany makers built a similar-looking mando, he called it a 'Mandola' ... think it's a traditional design (??) ... where did you get the plan?

Sweet sounding clip btw .

Cheers

[sebastiaan56]

Hi Jim,

Im glad you posted, the world needs more Mandolins! Look forward to seeing the new bridge and I still like that tailpiece a lot. How do instruments sound during the wet? Must play havoc with tuning and volume.

John,

Get Graham McDonald's Mandolin Project book, there are plans as well as lots of great building stuff. Here is the Mandolin cafe's take on differences between instrument string lengths. http://www.mandolincafe.com/archives/ho ... ml#mandola Essentially a Mandolin mirrors the Violin, A Mandola the Viola, etc

[DarwinStrings]

Thanks Bob I will do that next time to skip YouTube.

"shimmers with tones reminiscent of the gypsy queen" (chuckle). Thanks Kim for the compliment, I wonder if that has anything to do with the sound of the crickets in the background of the recording, I could get my kids to be quiet for brief periods but not the crickets.

Allen I'm not sure if you missed the YouTube link above the first pic, it has a brief two chord piece, G and Amin my favorite chords. The last 6 or so bars are just one track of the instrument being strummed alone. And the neck to body joint is just like a Fender Electric Guitar, the heel block extends just past the end of the fret board, through that block into the neck is three #12 x 2" SS screws that screw straight into the piloted Maple with the SS neck plate being nothing more than a fancy washer to stop the countersunk screw heads from splitting the block. No bolt at all its just refered to as a "bolt on neck".

A airconditioned workshop is a bit of a future plan Allen(Ozzie), for now I just work around the humidity.

Thanks John. It is definitly a Mandolin, that is to say that the scale is 350mm long and it is tuned to G,D,A,E. Mandolas are around 500mm scale and are tuned C,G,D,A from memory. Also it is my design so I have no plans other than some lines drawn directly on my bench top and a 4mm ply template that i use when bending the sides.

How's ya hols going Sebastiaan. That YouTube clip is this instrument in the Wet Season. The main problem is for musicians who play in Airconditioned Venues, if they don't keep their instruments in aircon then going from the humidity into the venues slowley dries things out on them as they are playing and they need to continue to adjust.

Jim

[Taffy Evans]

Hi Jim
The mandolin looks cool, I have not heard it yet, my computer seems to play music in fits and starts so I don't bother much with listening to sound clips. When I built instruments in Alice Springs [dry as] I was always worried about the ones I sent to Darwin, but never had any complaints, I pleased to say. Thanks for showing your instrument, nice clean work.

[DarwinStrings]

Thanks Taffy
I remember your name coming up when I first started building instruments about 15 years ago in a discussion about builders in the Northern Territory, It didn't gel till you mentioned Alice.

The finished Bridge

Before anyone starts to feel sorry for me because they think the Mastotermies have got to my new Mandolin, stop worrying, the holes were a design by Red Henry. Sebastiaan pointed me in the direction of Reds website so I thought I would give it a try. I did notice a variation in the way the Mandolin sounds but not a huge difference. I will try some of his other designs next time.

Jim

[Hippety Hop]

Toejam.

To share sound files I suggest you register at box.net, then upload your MP3's or WMA's, then paste a link to them in the forum.

Nice mandolin.

Cheers Hip.

[Hesh1956]

Oh my this is one beautiful instrument - very well done!

[PHANTOM]

Great looking instrument mate very neat. Ive never played one before but it looks like it would be great fun maybe it will be my new years resolution.