I decided to go with a cross bracing because by all accounts it is best suited to the single sound hole, provides good rigidity and brightness, and plays in rapidly.
I used straight-grained pine for the braces as this seemed to be closest to bass wood that I had in my shop at the time. I thinned the tops of the braces and cut a cross halving joint to connect the intersection. I also added a brace next to the sound hole for extra rigidity and glued them in place with hide glue. I used that glue because it is acoustically transparent – it doesn’t interfere with the sound.
I tapped the top and reduced the braces to achieve a tuned plate at G, reasoning that this would give a good bass response.
Here is the bracing pattern. I may add another brace at a later point if it needs it for structure
Cheers
Jerry
January 5, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Hi Jerry – neck is looking good! Reading your blog a couple of months ago got me very excited about the idea of a mandolin and resulted in my getting one for Christmas! Having fabulous fun with it, although I’m regretting doing so little violin playing lately because I’ve lost my callouses and it’s proving a painful business getting them back.
What I like best about it is that it’s sort of low-commitment. You can pick it up and play it for a few minutes, put it back down and check whatever in the kitchen, play it quietly watching telly, pass it to a friend to have a go… Violin practice requires quite a bit of intention doesn’t it? I used to have a dedicated chair for it, but now I have to set up the stand, put the shoulder rest on and get it in place, wind the bow up etc etc etc… And you certainly can’t hear the telly. 🙂
Loving my mandolin – thanks for the inspiration!
(Oh – despite the fact that one of the Es snapped the second I got it up to tune. Never mind, got another one now.)
January 6, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Thanks Rachel – yes I’m pleased with the progress so far.
Yeah mandos are great fun, although my Daughter plays much better than I do – so this mando is for her 🙂 And I agree that it’s easy to pick up and put down, and you can play it in the car (as a passenger!) and carry it easily on a motorbike and so on.
I suppose playing violin does take a bit of intention – but I have a couple hanging up in the lounge ready to play at any time – they have shoulder rests on already so I just need need to tighten the bow and play…
Getting the callouses back can be painful – if I go some time without playing I use the old guitarist’s trick of dipping the ends of my fingers in methylated spirits or white spirit – as an artist you would have plenty of that lying around – and the ends of your fingers will harden up in no time. It may not be the most feminine way to treat your hands, but I’m sure that if you paint with oils then a bit of meths will be the least of your issues 😉
On a mandolin, E strings often seem to go when you first tune them up fresh out of the packet – I guess they are inherently the most tightly stressed string. I’m glad you managed to get a spare
Happy playing 🙂
Cheers
Jerry