Summer Projects

So the humidity is not the best for building guitars right now but I am still plugging away at pore filling the parlour guitar and it is almost done... whew.. I'm going to be trying a new shellac formula on it for french polish from Shellac Finishes called Royal Lac it sounds very promising..

http://www.shellacfinishes.com/

I'm using the time to sort out a few more jigs or update some, this seems a never ending task I've got a few new ones I want to make and I am also almost done updating my neck tenon jig to make it more users friendly.. I'll post those when done

Also I'm working on fixing up the first non-dulcimer instrument I ever made a Mandocello.. I seriously screwed up on the design and now I'll be replacing the original flat top with a carved arch.. I just jointed the top (some decent Yellow Cedar) tonight..

DONE!

Ok strung this up tonight and it sounds pretty good, decent volume and good sustain... IMHO.. I did end up making the low C pair and Octave pair, we will see if I change that in the future.. Not sure if the action is still a bit high but going to play it for a bit and  see..

Getting Very Close

So the finish is done a satin sort of French Polish, not too shiny, I like it.. The tuners are on a nut & Saddle are made and tonight I glued on the bridge... Should be making music with this Mandocello pretty soon..

I think at least for the start I'm going to string it up with the C string pair as an Octave pair its easy to change if I don't like it.. But harder to go the other direction...

French Polish so far my favourite finish

Front view

Back view

Tuners front

Tuners back

The only way I could set the intonation was to actually string it up
with a temporary tailpiece and just fiddle with the bridge position...
actually 2mm of compensation came out pretty close

Gluing on the bridge

Pore Filling

I'm still not 100% sure I personally like a pore filled instrument but it is pretty much the standard for instrument building these days..

Typically I use z-poxy to pore fill & it works well enough. For this instrument it left it a bit heavier than I have in the past in the hopes of getting a better French polish on top of it.. We will see how that works..

Now on to the French polish...

Intonation & Bridge position

So intonation, a bit of a black art to say the least, how do you get it right? I have some ideas for 6 string guitars pretty much based on the work done by others and some trial & error but for a fanned-fret Mandocello I have no idea how to calculate that.. But luckily there is a low tech way to do this..

I take no credit for this method, I saw Dan Erlewine doing this in a guitar bridge replacement video.. Basically you make a temporary tailpiece to allow you to string up the guitar and just adjust the bridge by trial & error until the instrument play in tune up and down the fretboard.. Not really a fast process but it works.. So that is what I did.

Of course once I am finished French polishing I'll have to do it again to get the final bridge placement before I drill  holes etc but this was good practice any way and now that the bridge position is masked off I can start finishing. First z-poxy pore filling, then some sanding & on to French Polish....

Carving the Neck

I always enjoy this part of the build process even if it is a bit nerve racking trying to get everything even and symmetrical.

Typically I use a spokeshave for most of the work and various rasps & files for the heel area..

Turned out pretty good on this one..

Now just a lot of sanding and oh yes the fret work to finish...

Attaching the Neck & Fretboard

Things are moving along and really starting to look like an instrument now, the neck & fretboard are attached to the body (bolt on mortise & tenon joint) and the next step is to carve the neck.

The bridge is also made but will not be permanently attached until after finishing the Mandocello..

Neck & Fingerboard

SO the next somewhat nerve wracking step in construction is to route the tenon on the neck to fit in to the already routed mortise. The main reason for the nerves is getting the angle of the neck right somewhere around 88 or 89 degrees. I don't actually measure the angle, I just adjust it to get the proper height above the future bridge location..

Then the fingerboard needs to be slotted and tapered, I have a nice jig I made for slotting fingerboards but of course it will not work on fanned frets.. oh well i could use my new fingerboard tapering jig..

My first time using a Japanese style saw for cutting fret slots.. works great

\Looks fine to me

The fingerboard next to the neck

My tapering jig

Arm Bevel Done and Time to Start on the Neck

Well the binding and arm bevel are done, since this was my first try at an arm bevel I used the simplest binding possible which still look fine IMHO.. Not actually to hard to do but I can see how a more complex binding scheme would be difficult.

For those interested I used cyanoacrylate glue for the bindings but fish glue for the veneer on the bevel.

Not on to the fingerboard and neck..

Glued, Taped and Elastic

Completed Body

I'm Happy with how the Binding & Bevel look

The Back - Oregon Myrtle

Plain & Simple

d caption

Arm Bevel Time

So after a break while I was out of the country, it's back to finishing this MandoCello..

I carved out the arm bevel today, actually looks pretty good in the contrasting woods but it will eventually be covered in Rosewood to match the binding scheme. The carving of it actually went pretty quickly and easily. Hopefully the binding of the bevel does as well :-)

Bracing the Top

So time to cut the top braces to rough shape and glue them to the top. For the top I chose a 20' radius which is perhaps a bit tighter than normal but I believe (hope) it will work well with this instrument.

Gluing the X brace

Then the tone bars and finger braces

Next the upper transverse brace and plate (glues without a radius)

Lastly the soundhole supports (also without a radius)

The Back Meets the Sides

So the back is done and the braces are sanded so time to join it to the back.. Before the two parts meet the back was radiused to a 15' radius

The completed Back

Now joined to the sides

And labled

Moving Along with the Body

So, kerfing is glued in and some laminated vertical bracing is glued in, now ready to be radiused and have the back then top glued on.

Since this is a bit thicker body I was thinking of doing and arm bevel but I've got enough new things going on with this build so maybe next time.

Sides & Binding Bent

Ok so the sides and bindings are now bent and ready for the end block & tail block which are also ready..

Bending the sides

Routing the mortise in the neck or end block

Bent sides with the tail and end blocks sitting there waiting

Top and Final Work on the Soundhole

Next step is to thickness the top and then cut out the soundhole, the soundhole is also bound in BW Purfling.. Turned out pretty good..

The aftermath of planing the top to thickness

Soundhole cut and bound

Completed

Closeup

After that the top gets cut to rough size..