AHG octave mando build

[AcornHouse]

After some initial shaping and sanding (I'll finish it after the other side is done so I can match them).

 

[AcornHouse]

2nd fillet in; endless sanding begun.

 

[AcornHouse]

Just about there.

 

[GGJaguar]

Time to bring in The Supervisor for an inspection.

 

[AcornHouse]

Spokeshave time.

 

[AcornHouse]

Since the request on the next build was for a slope-shoulder J45 type dread, I checked with my Lutherie Guild and sourced some plans to base it on. They arrived with plenty of details.

 

[GGJaguar]

Should be a fun build!

 

[Stuball48]

Those plans remind me of traffic patterns in Atlanta.

 

[AcornHouse]

Those plans remind me of traffic patterns in Atlanta.

Hopefully there’ll be fewer crashes when I start.

 

[Stuball48]

"Smooth waters do not turn out the best Sailors." Heard that recently and you strike me as a person who would look at a negative as an opportunity to find another way - maybe better

 

[GGJaguar]

Are you going traditional mahogany or will you use the beautiful piece of flame maple that you recently got? Or maybe rosewood?

 

[AcornHouse]

Are you going traditional mahogany or will you use the beautiful piece of flame maple that you recently got? Or maybe rosewood?

The maple. Adi top.

 

[AcornHouse]

Final order from LMI before they close their doors for good. Abalone dots, purfling, Sitka and Adi bracewood, as well as another bag of my favorite shellac.

 

[GGJaguar]

The shellac chips look like a snack.

 

[AcornHouse]

The shellac chips look like a snack.

You could eat it. They have (and still do?) use it for candy shell coating.

I don't think they make it for taste though. It would depend what the lac bugs have been eating. (It's their secretions.)

 

[GGJaguar]

It's their secretions

Bug secretions - coating fine violins for over 500 years.

 

[AcornHouse]

Slowly but slowly, the neck takes shape. I love the look and solid feel of a maple neck, but man they are a pain. They hold scratches like nobody's business and take forever to tweak because of their hardness. The transition areas are the worst.

But, it'll get there.

 

[GGJaguar]

Slow and steady wins the race... and shapes the neck.

 

[chazmo]

2nd fillet in; endless sanding begun.

Hey, Chris,

Are fillets like this common with mandolin builds? Forgive the ignorance, but do they have a purpose -- like, perhaps, to keep the fretboard end off the soundboard? They are a very cool detail, but I've never seen such a thing on a guitar. The Hoboken acoustics often (always?) had a shim under the fretboard to act as a spacer (I think), but I feel like it might have had a different purpose than something like your fillets.

 

[AcornHouse]

Hey, Chris,

Are fillets like this common with mandolin builds? Forgive the ignorance, but do they have a purpose -- like, perhaps, to keep the fretboard end off the soundboard? They are a very cool detail, but I've never seen such a thing on a guitar. The Hoboken acoustics often (always?) had a shim under the fretboard to act as a spacer (I think), but I feel like it might have had a different purpose than something like your fillets.

It's very much a mandolin detail. With a dovetail neck joint, the front part goes on first as one piece and the dovetail is cut into it at the same time as the neck block. With the V joint, they go on after. The fingerboard extension with the matching wings is pretty much the same in both types.

It's the mandolin way to conceal and decorate the joinery.