On with the neck

I'm just fitting the truss rod to my walnut neck, and I have had to cut a thread for the first time. It turned out to be pretty straightforward...

New Wood

Both instruments lurched forward a bit. The cittern belly got a set of braces (shown not quite finished here). When I have tidied up the two little braces I will be setting this one aside for a while.




I prepared the tailblock for the octave mandola from some of the alaskan spruce, and glued the walnut ribs to it. I am pretty happy with the joint. I also 'bent' a set of linings from some willow I had in stock (shown in the foreground of the photo). I will probably use these for the backs of both instruments, and make some spruce ones for the bellies. Or then again, I might use stick with just the willow.



Finally, I received a shipment of walnut from Paul at Goulden Hardwoods who was really helpful. I will be using one bit to make the neck of the Octave Mandola, and the other bits may well find there way into future mandolins...

Braces and Ribs

After the lads got beaten at football, I finished off the braces for the octave mandola. I then bent my walnut ribs and put them into the mould. The walnut bent quite easily, and looked really pretty when darkened in the water. The ribs were a little too long for the mould so had to do a bit of trimming and also take out one of the turn-buttons. I will leave the ribs to dry in the mould for a few days.

I have been looking around for some UK-based wood suppliers, especially with the dollare so strong, and I have a couple of leads. I'm trying out Yandles for some maple and sycamore (for the back braces), and contacting tonewood-suppliers to look for some fingerboards, back and neck wood.