A4 cont.

sides in the completed frame



tail block shaped to match the curve and glued in place. No, you CAN'T have too many clamps!!



kerfed linings glued into place around the rim. I prefer to put the kerfs against the side rather than away from the side. this (in my humble opinion) is stronger when planing the top edge to provide a glueing surface for the back or top. Any time I've glued them in with the kerfs outward (as is traditional) I always manage to break a few. Is having the clothes peg alternate colours a bit anal retentive? maybe I have issues.......



so, the back. using the original outline. I already had this back joined and "resting" in the store.....



and roughly cut out with the band saw

SO the mando sold on Ebay, so I have some pennies in the kitty to buy some new parts for later builds..... I have my eye on a fanned fret acoustic guitar, but it'll have to wait, because of the interest generated by the sale of the mando on Ebay. I have 4 negociated commissions and another guy thinking about it. No deposits yet, and of course, with the credit crunch there's every possibility that some (or all) of them may cancel, but still, looks like a busy few months ahead.

The 3 builds that are pretty much agreed are a guitar shaped bouzouki in Rosewood, a mando based on a Gobson Dove acoustic and a A4 style mando.

for each I'm going to have to make new moulds and as a mould is just some MDF or ply sheet I decided to get the A4 under way, even though there's no formal agreement yet......

My technique is to find a straight on pic from the net and using a data projector, throw the image onto a screen. zoom until the scale is right, then draw round it and cut it out. 6this is a 1906 Gibson A4





then cut out the mould from MDF. as a mando is so thin it only needs one thickness of 25mm sheet. guitars need a thicker mould.

once they're cut I clamp them together and sand them smooth on the inside to ensure symetry.


here are the unbent mahogany sides



and now bent & clamped to allow the wood to dry again overnight. note the neck & tail blocks to the left.

a conversation with a pal got out of hand recently and in a week I threw together this mandostrat.

the body is solid ash, neck maple, fretboard East Indian Rosewood. the pickup is half a precision bass style split pickup, and the bridge was canabalised from a squier strat.





this pic shows it in proportion with an archtop.....



and here's me rockin'!!

OK gang, heres a pair of cherry mandos that I've just finished. cherry back, sides & rosette, Engleman spruce tops, mahogany necks & East Indian Rosewood fretboards. one has edge fret markers and rosewood binding, the other has MOP dots and maple binding.

The rosewood bound one is for a work collegue's husband for christmas and the other is on Ebay at this very moment.......

Oh, it's been a while!!

OK sorry, I've been neglecting you faithful reader (all 29 a week of you!!) but I've been too busy actually making the archtop to spend a lot of time here writing about it......

Now this is a "warts and all" blog, so the 1st pic shows my biggest mistake in the making of this guitar.

rather than that big step all the way round, there should have been a smooth transition from the edge to the arch..... Still, this comes from building a guitar using only the Benedetto book, which although it is a great HELP, it isn't ALL you need.



this was my first attempt at binding a neck, and I'm delighted to say it went really well. it looks and feels GREAT!!



cutting the top binding shelf wasn't without it's problems, and there was some tearout, mainly because the top was too thick (more on that later). I filled the tear out, but it was still WAY too visible, so I decided to go for a cherry top. it's still possible to see the grain through it (which I like) as its stained lacquer rather than paint...... Tuners are art deco ones from those lovely folks at guitar fetish



So, assembled and with the strings on......

it is REALLY comfy to play. the curved front means no sharp edge digging into the forearm when strumming. the neck is the best I've made and I'm REALLY happy with it. It LOOKS great too, doesn't it?

the Ovangkol back & sides really glow, and I'll definitely use that wood again...

down sides? well, unplugged its weak. there just isn't any projection as the top is way too thick. plugged in with the under saddle piezo, its lovely, and the graphic on the preamp gives a wide range of tones from bright and zings to dark & bassy jazz.





still to come?

well, I have a set of humbuckers from an epiphone Les Paul that I could well stick into it, "just to see"......

later on I could upgrade em if I feel I need to.

overall, I'm very happy with this and have ahrdly put it down since I put the strings on. the action still needs tidied, but I can do that while I'm fitting the pickups. will I make another?

YES!!!

only next time I'll go for a thinner top (now that I know nore what I'm doing!!