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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

And now for something completely different ... or an interlude with "the Dude" ...

If you got here looking for the Siminoff Lutherie Camp photo essay just click on the 2009 entries link on the left side of this page expand the October entries and you will be jumped to that part of the web log ... or just scroll down and you'll see them ...


This past Saturday (2/20/2010) I jumped on the opportunity to attend a "Master's Class" hosted by the Luthiers Interactive of North Texas (LINT ). This particular class was being taught by none other than Lynn Dudenbostel "The Dude" !! Lynn is one of the absolute top tier mandolin and guitar builders in the world ... if you could get on his long waiting list for an F5 mandolin build you would be expecting to fork over $25,000+ for your mandolin when delivered. His skill and reputation made the 500 mile round trip drive well worth the effort.

The seminar was specifically directed at mandolin and guitar "set up" which basically means once an instrument is finished it has to be 'adjusted' to make the playing action comfortable and play without buzzes or string rattles. A really great instrument with a poor set up will play and sound like a very inferior instrument and a well set up mid-range instrument will play and sound up to its best potential. A huge part of lutherie in general is dedicated to learning good set up skills and Lynn is definitely one of the best around.

Lynn (on the left) was introduced by LINT president Bo Walker

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Lynn had brought with him the mandolin he built during the DIY Channel taping of Handmade Music and used it to demonstrate how and where to take significant measurements for proper set up.

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After showing how the measurements are taken Lynn took the F5 that Chris Jenkins had started while we were attending the Roger Siminoff Lutherie Camp back in October and proceeded to do a complete set up on that instrument. (Lucky you Chris!!! Two of the world's recognized F5 experts have had a hand in the construction and setup of that instrument before it is finished!!) This setup included being sure the frets were level and properly crowned and trimmed, the bridge properly fitted and the nut properly cut and slotted ... all the while Lynn managed an entertaining dialog with the audience (about 25 lucky souls) explaining what he was doing and answering many questions covering all sorts of lutherie topics.

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and then the moment of truth ... first notes played while in the white ...

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And as would be expected ... it sounded great and played like butter!!! How could it be otherwise???

Lynn is a very approachable guy and a fountain of information ...

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This is a shot of the F5 Lynn built for the DIY series ...

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SO ... it was a wonderful day ... 9AM to 5PM with a great lunch of Cajun Gumbo served to all attendees ...

Driving home I was thinking ... It's not a bad life when you can meet and learn from the absolute world's best in the field of your chosen hobby ... it was a good day!!

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Headstock bound!!! ... or ... Getting the angle on the dremmel ...

If you got here looking for the Siminoff Lutherie Camp photo essay just click on the 2009 entries link on the left side of this page expand the October entries and you will be jumped to that part of the web log ... or just scroll down and you'll see them ...


The celluloid binding on an F4 is a bit less 'decorative' than a typical F5. The F4's are traditionally "single bound" meaning there is only one 'color' or 'layer' in the binding strip ... the good news for me is that means that in the miters of the joints in the bindings on the F4 it is a little easier to hide poor craftsmanship since there aren't multiple layers of colors to match up ... this is a good thing it turns out.

The headstock of an F style mandolin (whether F4 or F5 or basically F anything I guess) is traditionally kinda 'curvy' with some pretty tight bends and corners around the edges that makes cutting the binding channel somewhat tricky to cut. Add to that the fact that the headstock of these mandolins is actually cut on a 15 degree angle from perpendicular adds to the joy dictating that at least on the "end" the luthier needs to respect that 15 degree angle and incorporate it into the ledge being cut so that the binding lays 'flat' across the headstock edge. ... kinda reminds me of the line from Saturday Night Live ... "... it just goes to show there's always something! ..."

So first I had to fashion a 15 degree base for my dremmel tool so it would ride at the appropriate angle over the headstock ...

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It took longer than you might guess just to get that cut like it needed to be ... but this is how it rides over the headstock ...

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After that it was just a matter of using the pilot bit around the edge of the headstock and getting in the tight spots as far as I could go ...

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Then I cut the 7 pieces of celluloid binding and started dry fitting them trying to get the right lengths and the right angles cut on the ends for a tight fit ...

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Glued each piece one at a time mostly with Cyno ...

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Sooo ... I'm getting close to the point where I HAVE to finish up the body scroll work by hand ... not looking forward to that but I AM looking forward to hearing this things voice!! ...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Inlaying the headstock ornament ... or "The Yellow Rose Of Texas ...."

If you got here looking for the Siminoff Lutherie Camp photo essay just click on the 2009 entries link on the left side of this page and you will be jumped to that part of the web log ... or just scroll down and you'll see them ...


On the F5 I built in 2006 I had an inlay fashioned for me in Vietnam (I bought it on ebay) and had intended to use another of the same design on the F4 ... I had in fact sent Roger the already inlaid ebony overlay for the headstock prior to the camp thinking he could just glue that on before shaping the headstock. Roger and I exchanged a couple of emails and decided that since this particular inlay was etched, there was a better than even chance some of the etching would be lost when sanding down the headstock in the finishing process ... I'm not sure how I managed to avoid that on the F5 but agreed I didn't want to risk it on the F4 built at camp so I purchased another inlay not already 'inlaid' in ebony from Andy DePaule at Luthier Supply and would then do the inlay at home after camp.

The great thing about inlay in ebony is that it's fairly easy to blacken the glue (epoxy or even elmers) one uses to stick the ornament into the cavity and fill any 'gaps' caused by in-exact routing ... a VERY GOOD THING for me !!

So ... here's the simple "Yellow Rose" I chose as the headstock ornament for the F4 ...

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I traced the outline onto the headstock ...

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I in-expertly scribed the line to mark where to carve/route ...

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I hacked at it with a scalpel, a chisel, a machete, a broad axe, a pick axe, a bit of nitroglycerin ...

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Then I used my dremmel ...

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I mixed up some "please forgive my lack of skill!" epoxy with some ebony dust ...

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I said a short prayer, waved an enchanted rabbit's foot over the piece as I gently laid it into the glue filled cavity ... and clamped it flat (but not too tight ... didn't want to break the pearl/abalone) ... and left it overnight ...

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... and after a bit of sanding to remove the excess glue ... by the grace of the rabbit's foot and "ebony that allows even club handed miscreants to look skilled ..." ... I revealed The Yellow Rose Of Texas ...

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It's not "perfect" and I will do better next time .. but I'm satisfied for now ...

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Binding with The Beatles ... or ..."jumping off the ledge..."

If you got here looking for the Siminoff Lutherie Camp photo essay just click on the 2009 entries link on the left side of this page and you will be jumped to that part of the web log ... or just scroll down and you'll see them ...


OK ... here's the deal ... cutting the "binding ledge" or "binding notch" is one of those tasks that I suspect most luthiers have obsessed over more than once. It's kinda like what a car enthusiast might go through when contemplating serious body work on his or her prized ride ... it probably has to be done but you really don't want to start and then discover you've botched the job! People are gonna notice, point fingers and snicker behind your back! It isn't that the task hasn't been completed successfully thousands of times by countless individuals ... it's that now it's your turn and people are watching!!

Added to this already "clinched posterior" circumstance is the realization that the instrument I am about to attack with a motorized, wood eating, razor sharp, madly spinning power tool, is one that I have significant funds and time invested in and it could all go very South in the blink of an eye ... Basically I had driven over three thousand miles round trip to attend a class taught by the recognized world expert of F style mandolin construction at an appreciable monetary cost and investment of personal time and effort and am now faced with the very real possibility of instantly turning the cherished result of that investment into a small pile of firewood that wouldn't produce enough heat to successfully roast a marshmallow. No pressure at all big fella ...

So I turned on my MP3 player in the shop blasting The Beatles Mono remaster collection at a volume that would drown out both the high speed whine of the laminate trimmer and my pounding heart and proceeded to set the mandolin in the carriage I had fashioned ...

Ooops ... problem number 1(geeze ... already???) ... I had decided to route the back of the mandolin before the top for a couple of reasons ... I wanted to put off routing on the top that people would most often see as long as possible and I wanted to get a little more 'experience' with the jig (on real wood) before dealing with the soft spruce of the top where I anticipated likely tearout problems around the points. The problem is ... unlike say a dreadnought guitar or an A style mandolin for example that is the same shape looking at the top or the bottom an F style mandolin is not symmetric! ... you might THINK I had already noticed that but apparently while mentally thinking about using the jig for the last several months ... it never crossed my mind! ... So ... first I need to make a carriage for the back side (or I could have just turned the first carriage I made over and drilled appropriate mounting holes but since I had the "dummy" body blank I just decided to press it into service since it was otherwise of no other value).

So here are the "twins"" ...

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And I'm happy with the backside result ... the following several pictures show various views of where the binding notch for the back has been routed with the TrueChannel jig ... I have also pointed out where I could go no further with the routing jig because either the attached neck was in the way or the pilot bit setup I used was the limiting factor ... so obviously some tedious benchwork hand cutting will be required.

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This is as far as I can go on the scroll with the jig ...

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Happily I didn't get any tearout on the points on the back!

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So ... the back is done as much as I can do with the jig ... and I'm happy with the result! Now ... it's time to crank up the Beatles a little louder and dive into the task on the top ... aaaaggggghhhh ....

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A look before cutting at how the mandolin sits on the jig ...

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As far as I will be able to go on the top as well ...

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... and some views of the results ...

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No tearout!!! Yea!!!!

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As far as I can go on this part ... hand work to follow ...

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and that pesky scroll area ... some long hours at the bench await ....

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So ... whew!! I am very glad that particular ordeal is over ... I still have some significantly difficult work ahead of me around the scroll top and back AND I still have to route the binding ledge on the headstock which will not be done with the TrueChannel jig but another fixture altogether and I will document that in another posting.

As far as the TrueChannel jig itself ... I have to say that it works exactly as advertised and is seemingly made of quality materials. I would like to see a little closer tolerance on the "sliding" rollers and the tower but it seems to work fine as is ... as far as the "carriage" I fashioned that myself with no real difficulty. The leveling/height adjustment mounts were well made and easily installed on the carriage. It took me longer to 'seat the mandolin in the jig' and get it level and "tight" than I expected but it was worth the time investment because once I had it set it seemed very stable and easily moved around the jig table.

I would definitely suggest cutting the binding ledge before gluing on the neck if at all possible ... I think I could have gotten further in the scroll area had that been my situation. I also believe that with a little different cutter bit setup I could get even further into the scroll and will experiment with that before my next build.

So ... much more tedious work to come but really only one more task (headstock binding) left to do with a power tool ... please tune in again ...

Monday, January 11, 2010

Learning a new jig ... or ..." we need to make mandolins out of MDF !!!"

If you got here looking for the Siminoff Lutherie Camp photo essay just click on the 2009 entries link on the left side of this page and you will be jumped to that part of the web log ... or just scroll down and you'll see them ...


Well if it hasn't been obvious I'll tell you a small secret ... I've been avoiding the binding task like I avoided the H1N1 flu!!! My previous binding experience on the StewMac F5 I built in 2006 was traumatic and I'm pretty sure damaged my psyche for life. It's simply NOT a pleasant experience in my mind ... the binding on an F5, particularly around the scroll and headstock is the first place I look to determine the craftsmanship with which the instrument was built. A sharp, clean scroll with tight even binding is a thing of beauty ... it's why F style mandolins (assuming of course they sound good!) are so much more expensive than A style mandolins ... the carving of the scroll, the difficulty of artistic binding are things that take incredible patience and skill to master and when done by a master are obvious marks of quality. At this point in my lutherie efforts I aspire to be an "average or better student" ... "journeyman skills" are several builds down the road but I am enjoying the journey!

So ... since I received the TrueChannel jig for Christmas I had procrastinated to the point where action had to be taken. My thought was to fashion a "dummy" mandolin body just to run thru the jig to see if there were any obvious trouble spots ... now a couple of important points here ...

1 - I used MDF for the dummy .. MDF has no grain ... basically it's "paper" ... and as such it routes very cleanly with essentially no danger of tearout. Not the case at all with spruce, maple or other typical woods one would use to make a mandolin. That being the case this testing will not reveal any trouble spots in that regard.

2 - The MDF is FLAT ... as in NOT CONTOURED like the body of an F style mandolin. But, in fairness that is one of the touted advantages of this jig ... "the contour isn't supposed to effect the routing because of the 'floating' nature of the jig ...". So ... if we believe the premise then we can at least "tell ourselves" that this won't hide any real trouble spots ... I'm TRYING to believe that ... really I am!!

3 - This test is on a dummy blank with NO NECK attached ... unlike the F4 I started in camp with Roger. I believe that future builds I do I will choose to route the binding ledge BEFORE attaching the neck ... that's the way I do it with guitars and it seems to me to give me much more movement freedom than having the neck attached ... but regardless, the F4 I'm building DOES have the neck attached and I'll deal with it when the time comes. That is one suggestion I need to make to Roger for future camps .. consider finding a way to cut the binding ledge in camp ... I understand the time constraints Roger and his team are working under to get a mandolin "in the white" finished in just under five days but the the difficulty of the binding ledge has lead to several anxious emails between us Class #1 campers discussing the task and how we wish it could have been done "under supervision".

So enough rambling ... this posting will only be the testing of the TrueChannel jig and not the actual cutting of the ledge on the F4 ... I will save that for another posting! Kinda like a "cliff hanger on TV" ain't it ???

This is the body blank I fashioned ... showing the direction of the cuts I would make on an actual "wood" body ... it took me quite a bit longer to fashion the dummy body and attach it to the jig than it did to do the actual routing!!!

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A shot showing how I fashioned the dummy to sit up on the carriage of the jig ...

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I decided a little baby powder would make the movement of the carriage around the board smoother ... it worked fine!!

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Almost slipped up here ... it is important to have clearance around the whole body on the jig ... since this "dummy" is considerably 'thinner' than a real mandolin body I discovered I needed to raise it up a bit (the jig provides leveling screws that make this easy) to clear the pilot bearing set screw...

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Time to rock and roll!!! When the "real moment" comes ... I'm gonna be sweating bullets!

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Drum roll .... and in about 3 minutes it was basically all over but the shouting ...

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Close up around the scroll area ....

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How far I could go on the scroll ...

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Easily around the heal cap treble side ...

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These next few pics show where I would CONSIDER stopping to avoid tearout ... I MIGHT risk the climb cut indicated by the arrows just to see if I'm having a lucky day ... on MDF as will be obvious ... it isn't an issue since there is no grain ...

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see why we should make mandos out of MDF ...

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This is a close as I could come with the pilot ...

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... and just a couple of shots of showing that the binding would lay in this channel very nicely ... just dry fit of course ...

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So ... that would be "the test" ... at this point and taking into account the things that I know are "different" from the real thing I have to say I am encouraged! ... It LOOKS like this jig works as advertised and although I fully expect some difficult benchwork ahead on this task I think this will be "better than the last one ..." (he said hopefully and with just a smidgen of trepidation ... )

I have at this point also inlaid the headstock ornamentation and will reveal that as soon as the glue dries and I have it sanded down to my satisfaction ...

We return you now to your regular programming ...