Belated Updates

I've been a bit slack updating the blog of late. Summer was busy with non-luthier stuff and life just gets in the way sometimes. I have however not been completely ignoring luthier work however. I've actually got a fair bit done over the last few months considering all the others things going on in life..

First off someone in the small orchestra Julie plays in had a cello in need of repair/restoration. Turned out to be an Englehardt Cello, a pretty cheap student model but apparently pretty common in school music programs. The cello was the victim of and attempt at refinishing that was at best misguided.. It was also missing most of the parts like a bridge, tuning pegs, tailpiece and sound post. Anyway this got those parts replaces and a new finish put on it.. It is going back to a local music program, It was interesting to do as I am really not a repair person.

The only "before" I did, after I removed the rest of the finish

Ready to be played again

Also the next builds are well underway, those are an Irish Bouzouki and a Octave Mandolin, both built as flat top guitar bodied instruments. The Bouzouki will be Rosewood and Spruce and the OM Honduran Mahogany and Cedar. I started by making the bindings for these, I've been meaning to try my hand and making my own bindings with purfling for some  time so it was good to try that and it worked out great.

The Setup for cutting thin binding strips with a slitting blade on a small table saw

The end result

I've also got the sides bent and glued up to the end blocks for both instruments and the tops and backs well on the way to being done.. Just starting to brace up the tops today..

Here I'm doing the rosettes..

And here are one of the backs and top bracing underway.

Finishing and Starting

Nice when things progress smoothly..

The Crossover guitar has had it coats of Royal-Lac post catalyzed finish applied, A new finish that I am trying for the first time and so far so good, it does get very good reviews by those who have tried it. it needs to cure for 5 days then I can buff/polish it.

The Tenor Ukulele is done and plays actually quite nice despite all the build issues.

The Celtic Hap has had the pillar and neck cut to shape and I need to start on the soundboard glue up soon.

Also new projects are getting going:

I've jointed 3 tops to take to the guitar voicing course I'm going to in June so I just need to fit the rosettes to those and they are ready to go.  Of course that will take some time as I am trying a slightly different way of building rosettes as I mentioned earlier.

I've also started another Tenor Ukulele this one using Wenge (left over from the crossover guitar) and Western Red Cedar.

Lastly I've started a bit of an experimental instrument. I really like the Mandocello sound but personally don't play double courses of strings very well and also that low C on a Mandocello is tough to get enough tension on using a scale length I like so I'm trying what I call a Cello Guitar. A 4 string guitar tuned to Cello tuning CGDA and using nylon strings designed for Goldtone's Cello Banjo... I just need to decide on the bracing for the top.  I'm using a Gibson L0 body shape so either a classical style fan bracing or maybe a version of Gibson old H bracing for that body style. We will see..

"Scraps" from cutting out the harp parts, I'll need to find some way of  using all that Koa and Walnut

The start of a Tenor Uke

Tenor Uke Rosette, Koa on Western Red Cedar