Building a Mandocello - Page 2

Well, My Mandocello build got interrupted. I didn't have all the parts so I have started to build a case for my Mandolin.

However, things have not stood still. Things have been cut out:

You may notice I have been thinking about bracing...

Some steam bending.

Laminating the neck block.

Then some parts started to show up. Here are tuning machines, nut and saddle, Neck torsion bar and a neck with premade fret board.

I found that just taking the white binding off the fretboard made it very close to the right width for a mandocello at 1.5 inches at the neck. By the time I clean the glue off It will be perfect. Then I will carve (or recarve) the neck to match.

As you may have noticed, this neck is for a Martin style 6 string guitar which is why it is too wide. As you can see, it also has the wrong number of holes for tuners.

They are not even spaced right. So I will have to fill them and redrill. I could have used dowel for this operation, but that would leave end grain showing on the headstock which would for sure be darker that the surrounding wood as well as making precision hole drilling harder. So I am starting with these wee chunks of wood and will hand carve them to fit each hole.

Stay tuned for more...