Luthiery

I’ve just started building my next mandolin. In this video, I look at making its rosette in quite some detail. Hope that you find it interesting.

About a year or so ago, I built myself a short scale bass, inspired (aesthetically) by the Kay EB-100 that I had previously restored. I play this bass pretty much daily: it’s set-up with flat-wound strings and I love its smooth richness of tone. However, having recently restored the Westone Thunder Bass which has a long-scale and round-wound strings and spent some time playing it, I have found whole new range of tonal possibilities, which contrast and complement the short scale.

So, whilst having a brief breather from mandolins, I thought that I would make a bridge for a bass guitar which I intend building at some point in the future!

In 2012, a follower of my blog sent me a question, which size smoothing plane do I like best, the No. 3 or No.4? My answer was the No.3, and if you want to read what else I had to say about those planes, click here to read the post, which has had a good number of hits over this past month. 

If I were to get asked that question today, I would answer with one word, “Neither!”

I really enjoyed using those old planes, but as I worked with more visually stunning tonewood, I discovered that I couldn’t really get those planes to step up and create a smoother surface. No matter how I sharpened and tweaked the irons, or flattened the bottoms of those planes, I was always a little disappointed with the results. By the beginning of 2020, I decided to make a change. I purchased a Lie-Nielsen (L-N) No. 62 low angle plane. 

Once I sharpened up the iron on that plane and used it on some righteous East Indian rosewood, I knew my time using bevel down hand planes was done. I sold every bevel down plane I owned, I mean every plane, including a Stanley No.5 type 6 that was once owned by my maternal grandfather. The only two bevel down planes I kept were a vintage No.40 scrub plane and an Ibex violin plane.

I ended up buying a toothed iron and several extra irons for the L-N to experiment with cutting angles, all of which I still use for different planing situations, and I bought a Lee Valley Veritas Small Bevel-Up smooth plane. That small bevel up plane is a workhorse for me, with a toothed iron in it I use it for thinning down guitar backs and sides, and with a 55 degree angle on an extra iron its a great smoothing plane for Sitka spruce tops.

A L-N no.9 1/2 and a Violin maker’s plane round out my working planes. 

If I were to go back to making furniture and other bits that are based upon squares and rectangles, I would willing spend the time and money to purchase a L-N No.7 1/2 jointer for jointing long boards.

Bevel down planes work well for me. 

You should use what works best for you.

Now get out to the shop and make something!

I updated my Guitars Currently Available page!

I added "Violante", guitar #50 to the list which will be available later this year! I will post updates on this guitar as I finish it!

The Lorenzo Frignani #221 guitar is now listed on Reverb!

 The last word! The Nava New Model mandolin and its happy owner!

I took these downstairs and showed them to my wife, she proceeded to laugh and said, "I guess axes just follow you around! They always find you!"

Had a great day! John and his wife (a delightful couple) came over to pick up his new Nava mandolin.

 My "New Model" mandolin (as I'm currently calling it) has now been completed. I'm incredibly happy with the final outcome and looking forward to building the next one! Here is the last video in the series and below that a whole batch of photos for you.

Cheers Gary

Well, this is another long video but so, so much to get through!

The bridge is made and I have brief chat about its design, the strings go on and I show you how I set-up my mandolins. And finally……..the New Model Mandolin gets to sing its first notes!

So, cuppa at the ready and off we go.

Cheers Gary

The saws aren't sharp upon arrival and I have to give the teeth more set so they will cut proper sized kerf required for the fretwire I use. And the saw blade is backwards, the teeth cut on the pull stroke, but they are not filed and shaped like a Japanese saw. I was always told by old time carpenters that that fancy bit of folded brass on the saw's back is supposed to help keep the saw cutting straight, and they said there was no need for a Westerner to cut on the pull stroke.

...and glued it to a piece of quarter sawn walnut and cut out the handle. I didn't take more photos of the carving/shaping process, I am in the middle of renovating an early 20th century adobe house, meaning that I am the carpenter that is doing all the work. I don't have much time for side work these days, I had to put guitar building on hold.

I shortened the brass back bar and trimmed the saw blade, which it hindsight I didn't have to do. Next time I do this I will leave the saw blade saw and then do some tricky ripsawing on the handle to make the blade fit. 

A Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw has the right set for the slot, the fretsaw blade fit perfectly.

The completed saw handle mounted on the saw with split nuts. Please note that the saw's teeth are properly oriented to cut on the push stroke. 

When I have time, I will buy a 16 tpi gent's saw from Tools For Woodworking, cut off the stiff back and handle and make a new handle useing the same saw handle template. I will also drill holes in the saw so I can use the same kind of depth stop that is on the original saw. If you are still reading this post, I may end up putting this saw on eBay, stay tuned for that annoucement!
 

Time now to shape the neck!

Also, I have a brief chat about the tools needed for this process. After running through the shaping process, I start the clean-up in preparation for setting-up the mandolin, “in the white.”

Cheers Gary

In this episode, I design and make a new jig for routing the neck joint. Then: fit the neck, the fretboard’s supporting wedge, and the fretboard itself. Quite a lot there to take in!

I skim over the fretting process as I’ve demoed this many times before, but if you’re interested in how I fret, have a look at thisvideo- 

Although I fret my short scale bass, the actual process is the same, just the scale is different!

Cheers Gary