More mandolin news!

 Here’s a bit of an update on the two mandolins in the last post, now that they have arrived safely in their new homes.

First the videos;

And here are a couple of threads on Mandolin Café

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?90039-Another-Nava-twin-point-more-Cocobolo!

http://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?89967-New-Nava-with-that-wenge-neck

I thought that you might also like to see these pictures of John’s twin-point, I‘ve just completed the purfling and bindings and it’s looking rather good!

I’ve also been doing this customising job on a Breedlove mandolin; it’s quite a cute little instrument. I’ve re- dressed the frets, Breedlove uses large frets so there’s plenty of room to re-dress them before a re-fret is needed.

 It’s owner wants a Headway under saddle transducer fitted, so I’ve made a bridge similar to the ones that I use on my own mandolins although it has to be a little wider to accommodate a 2.5 mm wire being threaded through it. With bridge in place, I file the bone saddle to get the action and the intonation spot on. I know that there are millions of mandolins out there with that typical staggered wooden bridge, but it’s beyond me how you can get the intonation spot on with one of those. The mandolin is now strung up and I’ll let it settle down for a few days to ensure that the bridge doesn’t move and I’ll fit the pick-up next week……