mattharris75

Well, not everybody...

Weber makes a mandolin they call the 'Red River' that has an orange/red finish. It's pretty cool looking:

It's called FFcP, or four finger closed position technique. It's really pretty natural on a short scale instrument like a mandolin. It's also essentially the same way one plays a violin (minus the frets of course). Since I first bought a mandolin several years ago I've hardly touched a guitar. They're just so much fun to play! You may find that out yourself and be forced to make another to keep!

I have, what I'd consider to be, very normal sized hands. I find the mandolin very comfortable to play. Mandolins are fingered differently than guitars, so the scale length is helpful in proper fingering technique. Two frets per finger. The longer the scale gets the more difficult it is to play that way. Octave mandolins and mandocellos require different fingering techniques.

I have no doubt that whatever you decide to do will look great, Scott. Do you have any ideas on the direction you're going to go with the finish? I've been planning on building a mandola (slightly longer scale, tuned down a 5th from mandolin) for a good while. Got it drawn up, but trying to hammer out a few things before I get my templates laser cut. So I'm looking forward to seeing where you go with this.

Also, I know for the stremac kits you need to buy a bridge and tailpiece. If you haven't already, I would recommend a Cumberland Acoustics bridge. As far as tailpieces, James are considered the best, if you like the traditional Gibson look. I personally like the Monteleone style tailpieces, replicas of which are available from a lot of places. But the two style have different hole patterns, so something to be aware of.

Scott, There is a 'Builders & Repair' forum on the mandolincafe.com website, if you have specific mandolin related questions. Lots of professionals hang out in there. Looking forward to seeing this progress! I love mandolins. I own 3, and play them almost exclusively these days. Also, since you have had limited exposure to the instrument, here are a couple of links for your listening pleasure. Saw these guys play this song live a few weeks ago, and it was absolutely amazing: One of my favorite singer/songwriter types. She's great on the mandolin, guitar bodied octave mandolin, and clawhammer banjo: And perhaps the best mandolin player in the world, Chris Thile, with his band Punch Brothers, looking forward to seeing them live in May, They're all incredible players:

They think it's cool, but I imagine they'll like it a lot more once it makes some noise. Especially the little one.

I guess this deserves a quick update. I did get it strung up by my self imposed deadline, so the girls could bang on it a little bit. But due to other projects (and life in general) taking priority I haven't had a chance to do any kind of setup or get it wired up. Hopefully soon...

One of the things my buddy said they do when making larger pieces on the laser cutter is to separate them into smaller pieces and use interlocking 'jigsaw puzzle' type areas to register them together, so that they can be combined into one larger template later. They then use acetone to bond them together. That might be a possibility for you if you can't find a better alternative.

You should look for a local maker space. Some of them will have laser cutters. Either join up or befriend some folks there, they often have lots of cool and useful tools. Laser cutters, CNC, 3D printers, etc. One of my best friends is the head of a maker space called Freeside in Atlanta, and he's laser cut acrylic templates for me in the past.

Pictures taken in decent light. Didn't get a chance to get the nut in there and get it strung up tonight. Spent the evening working on another woodworking project for the family. Should get it strung up and wired within the next couple of days, just have to find the stupid nut that goes on the end of the stacked pot I'm using. Also, rookie mistake, the stacked pot has a different shaft size than the regular pot I used when I drilled the hole. So, I had to re-drill, and you can see where it tore out a little of the top. It will be covered by the knob, but it's still pretty annoying. Just one of the many little things where you look back, as the person who made it, and also a perfectionist, and are annoyed any unhappy. But that's just the nature of it I suppose...

Thanks Scott. Crappy midnight cell phone pictures, but it's coming together...

One more session with the 3M Finesse It, and then buffed up with a coat of paste wax, now we're ready for assembly. I've been gathering up my hardware, and I have a few little things that I need to locate/re-purchase.

Prostheta, the small scale of the guitar may be making things look bigger as well. The z-poxy is the 'normal' size available in hobby stores here. As for the Tru Oil, I bought the larger size only because I was no longer able to find the small ones that I've used in the past locally, so it was easier to order from Amazon in that size. As for the sweatshirt, yeah, it previously belonged to a 6'4" 300+ pound former college football offensive lineman. Pretty big dude... Scott, thanks, but I imagine my next instrument project will be something acoustic. Possibly a second small scale guitar for my other daughter, but I figure they can share...

Yup. Twelve days, the 30th. I think I can get it done. We'll see. I'm also working on wall mounted TV cabinet that's an ASAP house project as well, so I'll be busy these next few weeks. Getting close:

So, it's getting there. I hit it with some Finesse It. The luster is back. It doesn't look as good under the the fluorescent light as it does in reality. It's funny that this picture looks worse than some of the early pics in this thread, but in reality it's much smoother. However there are definitely some visible scratches and a little bit of haziness in some spots. I'm going to give it another week to cure, give or take, and hit it with the Finesse It again and see how it's looking. This weekend I'll micromesh the back and sides. Still thinking I may make wood pickup ring. Hoping to have this thing finished by my daughter's birthday at the end of the month, so if I do make a pickup ring I'll need to get on it pretty quickly.

After letting it cure for 5 days I went ahead and micromeshed the top all the way through 12K grit, just to see if I had enough tru oil built up, or if I needed to keep going. It looks nice. It has that old, warm, varnished look to it right now. Not dipped in glass, but glossy. And not quite the sheen of the raw tru oil. In another day or two the back should be cured enough to micromesh. The one thing I'm not particularly happy with is the front of the headstock. There were some drips on the front from when I put tru oil on the back of the headstock, and they made things a bit uneven. I need to re-flatten it and do three more coats of tru oil. I've ordered some 3M finesse It, which will hopefully bring up the shine where I want it to be. If not, I can always keep re-coating with tru oil. But I have a feeling I'll be happy with it. The lighting was poor, so it was difficult to capture what it really looks like. I think you can tell that the sheen is different than the raw tru oil, but it doesn't really capture the reflectivity of it either.

Komodo, that sounds pretty cool. Would love to see pics. Mine is a 17" scale. I have several more 17" scale fretboards, so I was thinking of making an acoustic mandola next with one of those, since I personally play mandolin a lot more than guitar these days, and have wanted to build an acoustic instrument for a long time. I put 3 thin coats of tru oil on the front yesterday, in better light (laying on my bench top) and being as careful as possible. I'll knock out the scratches with micromesh, hit it with 3 more coats, and hopefully will be able to micromesh that all the way through 12000 grit.

Things got busy during the holidays, and my work space got cluttered with christmas decorations and whatnot . But I kept trying to trudge forward with the finishing process. In order to make faster progress I hung the guitar off of my ladder, so I could put a coat of tru oil on the entire guitar at once. However, due to the location the lighting was very poor, and I was getting some runs that I was unable to see. After four full body coats had dried I pulled the guitar down and brought it into the light where I was able to notice for the first time how bad it looked. Crap... So, I let it cure for a few days, sanded all four coats back off, and promptly stuck the guitar inside and have ignored it for the last few weeks out of frustration. If the garage warms up a bit in the next few days I will pull it back out and have another go.

I've had luck getting rid of streaks in Tru Oil using micromesh, in the distant past.

You may think there are lots of little flaws, but keep in mind that when 99.9% of people see that thing they're going to think it's freaky beautiful. We're our own worst critics... Looking amazing!

Prostheta, you're absolutely right, I don't want to futz with it! It plays well, all things considered. The action isn't as low as my Weber, but it's still easier to play than any guitar. And this thing doesn't have a truss rod either. I just don't trust anyone (certainly not myself) to mess with it. We were at Gruhn Guitars in Nashville on my birthday and I was playing it. My wife, who is a lover of antiques, said, "You must buy that and hang it on the wall, it's a piece of art and history!". Who was I to disagree?

Not a guitar, but vintage nonetheless. My 1918 Gibson F4 mandolin. Purchased this summer as a 40th birthday present for myself, at my wife's behest. It's looking pretty good for a 97 year old...