Building a mandolin from a kit

[tearlach]

I've been wanting to try a project like this for some time now. Firstly, I wanted to build a mandolin from scratch, but I feel a kit might be safer. I intend to use a Stewart-MacDonald kit,they're not cheap at $450/£306, but seem to have a good name. I haven't decided on an F5 or A5 yet as they both sound much the same to me. Does any one have any experience in this sort of project? or do you think I'm raving mad and would be better off buying a large "carry out" before the price goes up.

[Ray(T)]

I think it depends on what you think you'll get out of the experience of building an instrument. Personally, I prefer to play them so I wouldn't be interested in building one and I'd leave that to someone who knows what they're doing. If you're talking about a carved top (or even a tap-tuned flat top) I suspect you'd have to build several before you'd build one as good as a professional builder. If you think you'd enjoy the building bit, I'd go for it; you're likely to learn a lot, but why a kit? Couldn't you buy the wood and other bits more cheaply, I know that there are plans available.
Ray

[tearlach]

Thank you for your reply Ray. Yes, I agree building from scratch would be cheaper,but I feel I would gain more practical experience from a kit. I've been led to believe the proper wood and other material is very expensive any way and would hate to waste it. If all goes well, my intention was to try from scratch next time. I too prefer to play but I look on this project as another extension of the same subject.

[mandopicker101]

(07-03-2009 11:18 PM)Ray(T) Wrote:  I think it depends on what you think you'll get out of the experience of building an instrument. Personally, I prefer to play them so I wouldn't be interested in building one and I'd leave that to someone who knows what they're doing. If you're talking about a carved top (or even a tap-tuned flat top) I suspect you'd have to build several before you'd build one as good as a professional builder. If you think you'd enjoy the building bit, I'd go for it; you're likely to learn a lot, but why a kit? Couldn't you buy the wood and other bits more cheaply, I know that there are plans available.
Ray

Totally agree with you Ray.

I did a class with a guy called Thornton Caldwell a few years ago as I had a craze for owning an F5 (think it was when I bought Tone Poems II...all those Loars, Gilchrists and Monteleone's just blew me away). Armed with a copy of Roger Siminoff's 'How to Build an F5 Mandolin', a ton of confidence, and plenty of enthusiasm off I went. Well to cut a long story short, the F5 is still several F5-shaped pieces of wood as I got into other things (a music class run by some guy called Gatherer...). But I learned a lot and had fun.

At my class, Thornton arranged for the purchase of tonewoods, glues and any special stuff you might need. He laid on his own finger planes to help carve out graduated tops, and loaned you bits and pieces if you wanted to get on in between classes. You weren't pushed in the deep end and left with a pile of rough-hewn wood, but after a few pointers on what to do next, you pretty much got on with some wood butchery. A flat top, flat backed 'Celtic' mandolin is probably the easiest option, which you could follow up with a carved top/back instrument.

I'd looked longingly at the Stew-Mac kits and even ordered a catalogue from them. However, it seemed a wee bit too easy and I wondered how much you'd learn from doing it. I wanted to feel like my mandolin was all the result of my own toil (well, not quite my own, but you see what I mean).

Incidentally I never did get an F5 (hope to get on with the mandolin when I have time...probably when I retire 30-odd years from now). But I did blow a long overdue tax rebate on a nice Freshwater mandolin!

Regards

Gareth

[Skreech]

(08-03-2009 01:46 PM)tearlach Wrote:  Thank you for your reply Ray. Yes, I agree building from scratch would be cheaper,but I feel I would gain more practical experience from a kit. I've been led to believe the proper wood and other material is very expensive any way and would hate to waste it. If all goes well, my intention was to try from scratch next time. I too prefer to play but I look on this project as another extension of the same subject.

I think it depends very much on why you want to make an instrument - if you are thinking of just making one instrument so that you can play something you made yourself, then a kit is the way to go, for the simple reason that you won't need to invest in any specialist tools. If you see instrument making as an ongoing thing, then buy the tools and build from scratch - you'll actually learn very little from gluing a kit together. But if you are going to build from scratch I would suggest starting with something simpler than a carved top - maybe start by making a flat top, or even a mountain dulcimer (which will be a lot cheaper in materials) to learn the basic techniques.

Before you make any decisions though, it would be worth getting hold of a copy of 'The Mandolin Manual' by John Troughton - it will give you a good idea of what is involved in building an instrument, what tools you will need etc. And help you decide if you are up to the challenge.

Good luck!