Luthiery

Had a great day! John and his wife (a delightful couple) came over to pick up his new Nava mandolin.

 My "New Model" mandolin (as I'm currently calling it) has now been completed. I'm incredibly happy with the final outcome and looking forward to building the next one! Here is the last video in the series and below that a whole batch of photos for you.

Cheers Gary

Well, this is another long video but so, so much to get through!

The bridge is made and I have brief chat about its design, the strings go on and I show you how I set-up my mandolins. And finally……..the New Model Mandolin gets to sing its first notes!

So, cuppa at the ready and off we go.

Cheers Gary

The saws aren't sharp upon arrival and I have to give the teeth more set so they will cut proper sized kerf required for the fretwire I use. And the saw blade is backwards, the teeth cut on the pull stroke, but they are not filed and shaped like a Japanese saw. I was always told by old time carpenters that that fancy bit of folded brass on the saw's back is supposed to help keep the saw cutting straight, and they said there was no need for a Westerner to cut on the pull stroke.

...and glued it to a piece of quarter sawn walnut and cut out the handle. I didn't take more photos of the carving/shaping process, I am in the middle of renovating an early 20th century adobe house, meaning that I am the carpenter that is doing all the work. I don't have much time for side work these days, I had to put guitar building on hold.

I shortened the brass back bar and trimmed the saw blade, which it hindsight I didn't have to do. Next time I do this I will leave the saw blade saw and then do some tricky ripsawing on the handle to make the blade fit. 

A Lie-Nielsen dovetail saw has the right set for the slot, the fretsaw blade fit perfectly.

The completed saw handle mounted on the saw with split nuts. Please note that the saw's teeth are properly oriented to cut on the push stroke. 

When I have time, I will buy a 16 tpi gent's saw from Tools For Woodworking, cut off the stiff back and handle and make a new handle useing the same saw handle template. I will also drill holes in the saw so I can use the same kind of depth stop that is on the original saw. If you are still reading this post, I may end up putting this saw on eBay, stay tuned for that annoucement!
 

Time now to shape the neck!

Also, I have a brief chat about the tools needed for this process. After running through the shaping process, I start the clean-up in preparation for setting-up the mandolin, “in the white.”

Cheers Gary

In this episode, I design and make a new jig for routing the neck joint. Then: fit the neck, the fretboard’s supporting wedge, and the fretboard itself. Quite a lot there to take in!

I skim over the fretting process as I’ve demoed this many times before, but if you’re interested in how I fret, have a look at thisvideo- 

Although I fret my short scale bass, the actual process is the same, just the scale is different!

Cheers Gary

As you’ll know, once in a while, I like to do resto project: just for fun really! I’d been hankering for a Westone bass made in the legendary Matsumoku factory and I finally managed to get my hands on one. So, this series of videos is all about bring a 44 year old bass back to life!

Part 1

Check out my latest Substack post!

New steel string acoustic guitars in progress, will be available for sale by the beginning of summer!

Stayed tuned for updates!

The body of the mandolin is now together, so what’s next? In this video, I look at routing the rebate for the purflings and bindings. The purflings take quite a while to fit as there are tricky mitres to cut and the bindings (made from walnut) need to be bent on the bending iron to fit exactly. All good fun! Oh, and a bit about the fretboard too!

Cheers Gary

Hi, Everyone!

I just added two new shorts to my YouTube Channel, that feature the wonderful guitarist, Juri Yun. 

I attended the 2025 Denver Guitar Festival as a vendor and Mr. Yun stopped by my table to try out the guitars I brought to the festival and he was very impressed with my work!

Go to my YouTube Channel page on this blog to see videos of other great guitarists playing my guitars!