First mandolin

[Jamie Unden]

This is my first ever acoustic instrument - a mandolin I made for my nephew. I used my CNC for most of it, making it sort of a cross between a thinline and an archtop. The top is from a piece of soft maple, shaped front and back on the CNC with integrated braces. The main body is a Wawabima, which is very splintery, but light with properties close to Mahogany. The fretboard and bridge are made from Padauk from my mom's shop. When her sight was to the point where she was legally blind she gave me all of her hardwood. My nephew will be glad to know that some of the wood came from his grandma.

[Jamie Unden]

This was a test cut of the top, showing the integrated braces.

[Bryan Bear]

That looks great! The wood colors compliment each other well and fit well with the overall design. I'm sure he will love it. How does it sound?

[Hans Bezemer]

Nice instrument!
Cool that you used your cnc-router for it. Did you make the design / drawings yourself?
I would love to hear some of it to.

[Jamie Unden]

That looks great! The wood colors compliment each other well and fit well with the overall design. I'm sure he will love it. How does it sound?

Thanks Bryan. I'm not much of a critic since I don't play mandolin, but to me it sounds pretty good. Very loud.

[Jamie Unden]

Nice instrument!
Cool that you used your cnc-router for it. Did you make the design / drawings yourself?
I would love to hear some of it to.

Yes, the design is right out of my demented mind. I'll try and record a little bit. Like I said, I don't ply, but I can do a few chords.

[Jamie Unden]

Ok, here's a little clip - only two chords. The background noise is pretty bad.

https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/M ... ILR8CBhvJQ

[Mark Swanson]

That's pretty cool Jamie! I think it is close to the electric mandolin plan that you drew up those years back. Any reason why you didn't use a traditional tonewood for the top, like spruce?

[Jamie Unden]

Yes, out of work and on a low budget. I used wood that I had on hand and bought cheap Chinese tuners and truss rod.

[Mark Swanson]

Ahh, I see! Well there are easy ways to find spruce or something useable for a top these days...you could probably get something wide enough at a local Home Depot or something, in Douglas fir Spruce or redwood, or cedar. You'd be surprised at what you can find in those cutout scrap bins. Still, nice work!

[Jason Rodgers]

Nice! I like the shape. How thin did you take the top?

[Jamie Unden]

The top started out 0.15" before I sanded it out.

[Patrick Hanna]

First ever acoustic? Wow. I think it's pretty cool!

[Michael Lewis]

Jamie, are you going to teach your nephew to use the CNC?

[Jamie Unden]

Thanks, Patrick!

Michael - He wants to learn but he's a newlywed and he lives up in the mountains. He works as a final assembler at Deering Banjos.

[Jason Chinchen]

Wow this is cool! Great look and execution! You should write a blog post for our site!

[Allan Midgley]

Nicely executed there. Love that curly maple?! But I was just wondering , why you only put in two screws in the neck joint, instead of three or four - is that joint strong enough with the eight strings, just asking?

[Jamie Unden]

Hi Allen - Well, it's been about eight months and it is still holding up, last I heard. Thanks for the comments!

[Barry Black]

It looks great to me and the wood looks a lot nicer than I would find in a scrap bin at my local home depot.