The Instrument Making Class At Rawlins College

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Label	Finished Guitar	Back - Rosewood

OCTAVE MANDOLA
I started this instrument in September 2007 - in February 2009 I had a major disaster. I sanded the top too thin and made a mess of trying to remove it! So I started again. I made a new top out of Spruce and the back and sides are made of Amazon Rosewood. I am using the Yew neck I made for the previous instrument.
Still, maybe I'll use that pretty back one day :-)

Here are a few pictures of the first try - the back is made of Yew strips
I started the new term - September 2009 - with a new front, back and sides ready for assembly
Yew neck	Sides	Front
Back	Purfling detail
Cutting the grooves for the Purfling and Banding needed to be accurate so I contacted my friend, Mark, who has a special setup for cutting these grooves square. After a few setbacks I finally settled on a pattern for the bandings and managed to fit everything together by late December 2009
Fitting purfling	Fitting Bindings	Finished body
Ready to fit the neck in 2010
Well, here we are at the beginning of May - The neck has been fitted and fingerboard glued on. I then spent some time fitting the logo (a Swan) and applying the Brushing French Polish finish to the neck and head. Next I fitted the frets and profiled them. I built a gig, using a mic stand,to hold the Mandola while I applied the finish to the body. I'm now ready to fit the Bridge. Almost there!
The gig for finishing		Head detail - showing the Swan logo

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