6 doors

All hanging very nicely...but where's all the time gone?

Campanella Strings

Campanella Strings Highly pleasing...

Oops

My lovely wife has spotted the large lump of wood in the garage. This is hardly surprising as it's 8 foot long and 4 foot wide. "Are you making another musical instrument?" she enquired. "well...maybe" was all I could muster. I really must get those doors hung...

More Supplies

I now have a large (very) sheet of plywood taking up most of my garage. I'm going to hack this up to make the mould for the dulcimer. However, some dee-eye-why is taking priority and I really have to get some doors hung first.

The Start of the Dulcimer

Construction has begun with just 310 days left. I've made a start on the two head blocks (at the bridge end). My first attempt was rubbish - I cut the wood badly and, rembering the quest for perfection, I chucked it out. The current bits look better.

Rebetika No 1

I bought the CD of the above title in Kefalonia airport - it features Glykeria-agathonas and michalis genitsaris. It's rather good...

Fretboard Design

Dulcimer plans

Well, I'm back off holiday, and I did manage to do a bit of work on the drawings. I have decided to make the dulcimer in celebration of 20 years married to my lovely wife. This, I hope, will force the pace of the project and will give my until early July 2006 to get it finished. I have decided to make it quite ornate with, for example inlaid fretboards (two, since it's a courting dulcimer). I have finished the fretboard inlay design - it is a vine with 20 leaves representing...well it's not too difficult to work that one out! I also want to use a decorative binding around the edges of the instrument. It's my intention that doing this decorative work will help me with the archtop guitar(s?) planned for 2007....

Dulcimer drawings

I'm going to try and complete my dulcimer drawings over the next two weeks. Pencils have been sharpened...

Plans plans plans

Just for the record, it is my intention to make a double course 'courting' mountain dulcimer next, and after that an archtop guitar, following Bob Benedetto's book. After that...

A well made cookie tin mandolin?
A violin?
An archtop mandolin?
A lute or a bowl-back mandolin

...though perhaps I'll never have time.

New Bridge

Bridge Making

Now that I've finished the mandolin, I've been able to make a new bridge for my bought one (Blue Moon, from Hobgoblin). I used the same compensated design (maple with a bone saddle), and I also made the slots in the nut a bit deeper to lower the action. It sounds much better now - louder and more resonant, although it's developed a slight buzz which I will need to fix by dressing one of the frets. Picture to follow in a day or two.

The finished instrument in its case

Hard Case

I ordered a hard case from hobgoblin. They were most helpful (they had to do some measuring to make sure it would fit) and I am delighted with the case - my mandolin looks most comfy in it!

It sings!

Today I fitted the tuning machines and the tailpiece, and made a cover for the truss rod hole. I then strung the mandolin up to pitch and...played it. The strings still need a bit of time to bed down, and I will have to do a second fit of the bridge in a week or so, but I'm very pleased with the tone. Picture to follow in a day or so

DISASTER

Bit of a crisis this evening. I went to put the next coat of oil on and found that the hook holding up the mandolin had broken and the mandolin was lying on the garage floor. There was a big chip missing from the back and worse still, when I tapped the back, there was a buzzing noise as if one of the tone bars had come loose. I felt very depressed all of a sudden as this would render the instrument into the equivalent of firewood... However, after a more detailed investigation I found that the buzzing came from the truss rod nuts which were not fully tight. Phew. I have now inlayed a small peice of sycamore into the back to replace the missing chunk. Its far from perfect, and looks quite ugly, but at least it will be playable. Next time... Anyway, to cheer myself up I am going to order a tailpiece from Hobgoblin.

Finishing with Oil

Here is my mandolin, drying after its third coat of finishing Oil. I thing that three or four more coats should do...

The slotted nut

The nut with slots. On the right hand side you can see the bit that kept breaking off.

The Bridge with bone saddle

I am quite pleased with the bridge. The only thing I'm a bit worried about is if I will need to trim too much off the bottom when the strings are fitted.

Filling some gaps

I'm ready to apply the finish now, but I noticed a couple of places where there was a small gap between the ebony bindings and the ribs (about 0.2 mm I think). I decided to fill these before proceeding with the finish, so I made a paste of 1 part ebony dust (made with a file) a 1 part quick setting araldite epoxy adhesive. I've applied this and will sand/scape it down in a few minutes.