world's largest tune-o-matic bridge

some guitar tech humor. the world's largest tune-o-matic bridge. located at the east end of the washington bridge.

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".

electric 12-string neck

here is an electric 12 string guitar i built the neck for. the body is an ibanez that a friend in chicago gave me.
she was the one who did the impressionist paint job. 

 the neck is mahogany with a 22 fret rosewood fingerboard, a corian nut and bright yellow vinyl inlays. 

i painted the headstock face to match the body as closely as i could.

 (that's a wall hook the guitar is hanging from that you see.)

this guitar has also just found a new home. may it serve well and last forever.

baroque guitar

here is one of my very first instruments. i made this at red wing (luthier school) back in 1999. it is a baroque style guitar based on 1700 Stradivari plans which were at the school. the strings are in five pairs and tuned like the five highest strings on a modern guitar.

the top is red cedar. the fingerboard, bridge, tuners, and frets are ebony. the rest of the body and neck are maple with ebony and bloodwood trim.

the celtic knot design comes from the album cover art of Thunder and Consolation by the english band New Model Army. they were and are one of my favorite bands ever, but at the time they refused to play in the states. when i finished the guitar i jokingly told everyone that i would give it to justin the guitarist/singer as a bribe to bring the band over here.

well, word must've gotten over because in november 2003 they came to the u.s. for a short tour. so i lugged this thing all the way to chicago on dirtydog to hold up my end. justin was completely speechless aside from thanking me profusely.

the next september i got an e-mail from a local club saying that my band the Knotwells had been requested personally to open for New Model Army. it was worth the bribe to be able to say i played a show with my favorite band, even if the show itself was sorta suck. some are. apparently the guitar was in a NMA art exhibit with original album art, stage props, and fliers and stuff that toured europe a few years back. i am however still waiting to hear it on a recording of theirs. 

 

here's a look at the inside. i modified the bracing from the plans by adding the three fan braces. this picture is of my workbench at red wing. the maple for this guitar came from a huge 4 foot long 12"x6" log that me and a classmate, joe, bought together. there was enough wood for both our guitars plus a couple more.

the upper frets incorrectly taper down toward the bass side. i must have flipped my tracing over, not a big deal, it's my first guitar. i just wish i hadn't put that awful logo i used to use on the fingerboard. dumb logo. i also wish i had gotten some better pictures before sending it off to england.

resonator violin

here is my most recently completed instrument, the resonator, or Stroh violin.

i made this for a fellow named tommy. he and i sometimes play with the bare bones orchestra for their annual halloween puppet show. that's where he got the idea to be able to switch between string section and horns and to fill out both as needed.

it actually isn't all that brassy sounding. tommy described the sound as "silky". volume wise it as loud as or a little louder than an acoustic violin, but only in front of the bell.

 the bell is from a bought-as-is trombone. the neck came from a dismantled violin and was more or less in the scrap bin. the body and shoulder rest are from an oak railing banister. the resonator box is from an alarm clock.

for the resonator itself i had originally been using an aluminum speaker cone center. it was very similar in consistency  to cones used in resonator guitars. ultimately it was too fragile and not loud enough and i ended up using the lid to a mason jar. because of the ridge around the edge the center can act more like a membrane. this made the violin a lot louder and more able to withstand everyday use. 

 the tailpiece and knobs i carved from cocobolo, the chin rest i got online. the wings that the shoulder rest attaches to are hollowed out to reduce weight and to hold the pickup controls.

since the design was a solid body i figured it would be a good idea to make it electric as well. here is the piezo bridge pickup i built. it sounds pretty nice through an amp too, without the feedback an amplified acoustic can have.

tommy practices accupuncture here in town and is paying me in sessions to treat my sciatica.

(aka: luthier's leg, aka: pain in the ass)

  

dated 2012. the 1 is upside down to commemorate the magnetic pole reversal happening this year, really i meant to do it that way.

please, seriously, take a moment and check out some of the other instruments i've built and posted here. this is only one of many that are just as awesome. the list is over there on the right => go on, have a look!