cherry OM.

tuners fitted....



and now a choice of tail pieces.....

chrome?



or brass?

#60 edges trimmed... it starts to look like a guitar!!



walnut tail wedge



to match the walnut bindings



and the neck profile cut.

another few coats of finish onto the Cherry OM. Looks the same, so no pics!!

carved the bracing on #60



and then glued on the top.

no you CAN'T have too many clamps!

#60... bridge plate glued in...

banjo refit.......

new neck complete and fitted.....





and here's a very happy looking Joshua!!

Banjo rebuild.

This mandolin banjo came my way via freecycle. wonderfully free of charge, but needing a LOT of work.



The neck angle is all off and the glue joint between the sides and the back has let go.





My PLAN at this stage is to keep the one piece drum section, repair the pot (the wooden surround) and fit a longer 4 string tenor neck, so that my #2 son who plays cello will have another instrument with the same tuning........ Worst case scenario is that the pot doesn't hold up and I'll have to make another one from scratch.

so, first it comes easily apart with the aid of a screw driver



then re glue the back & sides joint. I also added a L shaped block of wood to provide extra support when the neck goes back on.



and the neck is a piece of beech I had in the stash. I decided on a 550mm scale length..... there's probably a good reason for that....... anyway, the fretboard is East Indian rosewood. I have a drawer full of strat tuners so this will have a 4 on a side headstock.

#60.....

back braces carved and fitted, back & sides attached.



the neck was a 3 piece blank left over from a build a while back. maple centre and mahogany on the sides. rosewood fretboard glued on after milling out the trussrod slot and sanding the angled headstock.



top bracing fitted.

After playing around with 3 sizes of Mother of Pearl dots, Glen came up this design.

still needs a little sanding, but looking good so far!

#60......

Variable scale fretboard cut.......

647mm & 610mm.....




and laid on the top to work out the bridge angle.....



linings on.....



back bracing on....

It's pay it forward time again!!

for those folks who are new to my blog, I try to give away a guitar or mando every year, as a tithe, giving it back as it were. I get a LOAD of my wood for free, from church pews and skips (dumpsters) so it seems only fair to make something every now & then to give away.

Hopefully this will be finished by the summer when I'll be attending a few Christian festivals & conferences. Last time I did this I found a wonderful young woman who sang like an angel and played a cheap nylon stgrung guitar. it was an absolute pleasure to hand over a steel strung acoustic when she had no idea that it was up for grabs. the idea is that this will be given to someone at one of the things I'm at in the summer and I trust God to guide them to me and let me see that they're the "one" when it happens.

anyway, this will be a mahogany/engleman 00 sized acoustic with a pair... maybe three.... soundports on the top edge and none on the front. some sort of pickup system.......

anyway, here we go!!!!

the top..... Engleman spruce.



the back...... Mahogany.



the sides...... Mahogany

Cherry OM.... lots of sanding and a first coat of lacquer.......



cutaway jumbo....

tuners on, nut cut.....



bridge placed using my handy dandy bridge jig



bridge glued in place (in case?)



bridge pin holes reamed out. strings on!!



LOADS of setup to do, including replacing the nut as I took the high E too deep..... but I'll leave it under tension for a few days before I get to it.

LOTS of body sanding on the OM and then the neck mortice cut



tuner holes drilled and some more neck shaping



then the body and neck permenantly brought together.....

Glen's Les Paul neck work.....

lots of shaping on the sander.....





and the fretboard radius is under way.....



still a good bit to go, but visible progress made each time!!

Cherry OM fret dots.....

holes drilled



filled



sanded



and fretted.



body binding on



and a mock up of how it'll look once it's all joined up.......

jumbo bridge, slotted and drilled



then shaped a little too......



Cherry OM.....braces carved and top glued on.