my mandolin

this is my f-style mandolin, as in mine. the top is redwood which i got from salvaged floor boards. the back, sides and neck are maple. the neck is from the same log the baroque guitar came from. the bridge and fingerboard are padouk.

i believe i built this in 2004, but  i ought to stamp it 2011 since that's when i completed it. it never got a number or anything since i always planned on keeping it. in fact, it's the first instrument i built without the bad logo, there are still remnants of it in the inlay though.

the nut and lily-of-the-valley inlays are mother-of-pearl which came from shells i've collected.

i took this to an outdoor show  in Winona one very humid hot summer day and camped that night by the river. when i got home i saw the glue in the neck joint had softened and the neck had slid up a little. luckily i had plenty of bass playing to do at the time and shelved the mandolin for a while.

 then about a year ago i pulled the neck to reset it. i also removed the back and carved away more wood from the inside on the top and back and thinned the sides too. i even shaved down the neck at this time. initially i built everything pretty bulky, the plates and rim were way too thick. before the mandolin wasn't nearly loud enough and sounded weak. after removing all that wood it's almost twice as loud as it was and the whole sound has opened.

after i glued the back and neck on i redid the binding and refinished it in shellac. originally it was finished in nitrocellulose laquer which i am here and now officially denouncing. i will no longer be using ncl on any instruments i build.

half of a p-bass pickup is the perfect thing for many four stringed instruments. i've used this same pickup set-up on another mandolin, everything is mounted on the pickguard. there is a volume and tone and the output jack is underneath.

the pictures don't really show but the pickguard, vine and headstock inlays are all matching "mint green".