Post by lars on Sept 3, 2017 18:55:15 GMT
Here is my "latest" build - that is my FIRST build that I share here on this forum and the first instrument for some five years. But I actually began this instrument for more than ten years when I started with a family of three instruments but only completed one. The plan was to build a mandolin, an octave mandola and a tenor mandola that was a kind of hybrid of the two siblings - it shared the body of the mandolin and the scale length of the octave mandola. For some reason I only completed the octave mandola but the parts for the other two have dwelled in my garage since.
So this is a "small bodied, long necked tenor mandola". I really can't recall the reason why I originally wanted to make such an instrument, but I do know why I wanted to make one now. I wanted a 'jack of all trades'-instrument for sessions. When I go to (irish) sessions I never know what instrument or instruments to bring. I switch between being a tune player and a backer. It usually ends whith me bringing the octave mandola, changing between GDAe and GDAd tuning. But I really would prefer to play melody on a mandolin and I'm also bothered about my mandola blending with bouzoukis and guitars. A tenor mandola with a capo would let me accompany in a different position to the other backing instruments and it would also let me play tunes in a mandolin setting when capoed at the seventh fret. As I wanted a treble oriented sound I went for the small body. Giving it a scale length of 530 mm gave me a mandolin scale length of about 350 mm at seventh fret.
Anyway, I've spent a lot of hours during august and now she's (almost) completed. Here is what she looks like:
Specifications:
Scale length 530 mm
Body width: 260 mm
Body depth: from 70 mm
Top: Sitka spruce
Back, sides and neck: African mahogany (sipu)
Bindings, "rosette", head veneer: Laburnum
Fret board: ebony.
Cylinder shaped top with H-bracing and floating carbon fibre butresses.
Cylinder shaped back with ladder bracing.
Bolt-on neck
Finish: Liberon finishing oil
In following posts I'll give you some details from the building, but the whole process can be read at larsgrahm.blogg.se
So this is a "small bodied, long necked tenor mandola". I really can't recall the reason why I originally wanted to make such an instrument, but I do know why I wanted to make one now. I wanted a 'jack of all trades'-instrument for sessions. When I go to (irish) sessions I never know what instrument or instruments to bring. I switch between being a tune player and a backer. It usually ends whith me bringing the octave mandola, changing between GDAe and GDAd tuning. But I really would prefer to play melody on a mandolin and I'm also bothered about my mandola blending with bouzoukis and guitars. A tenor mandola with a capo would let me accompany in a different position to the other backing instruments and it would also let me play tunes in a mandolin setting when capoed at the seventh fret. As I wanted a treble oriented sound I went for the small body. Giving it a scale length of 530 mm gave me a mandolin scale length of about 350 mm at seventh fret.
Anyway, I've spent a lot of hours during august and now she's (almost) completed. Here is what she looks like:
Specifications:
Scale length 530 mm
Body width: 260 mm
Body depth: from 70 mm
Top: Sitka spruce
Back, sides and neck: African mahogany (sipu)
Bindings, "rosette", head veneer: Laburnum
Fret board: ebony.
Cylinder shaped top with H-bracing and floating carbon fibre butresses.
Cylinder shaped back with ladder bracing.
Bolt-on neck
Finish: Liberon finishing oil
In following posts I'll give you some details from the building, but the whole process can be read at larsgrahm.blogg.se