Mandolin construction, parts, repair and maintenance
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The Quest To Build A Mandolin features luthier Lyn Dudenbostel. There's also a Guitar Quest
King Brown mandolins and pickups http://www.kingbrownhandcrafts.com/mandolin.html Home page with other music links http://www.kingbrownhandcrafts.com/
Neat on-line mandolin tuner at Mandozine http://www.mandozine.com/resources/mandotuner.php
Euphonon strings now on the web http://www.hotworship.com/euphonon/ Mandolin strings at http://www.hotworship.com/euphonon/mandolin.html
Lots of mandolin family information (including scale lengths and tunings) at The Mandolin Player site courtsey Frank Nordberg - includes some quite obscure instruments! http://www.mandolin-player.com/index.html
Some nice pics of guitar construction including French polishing at Milburn Guitars http://www.milburnguitars.com/
So's Your Mom has useful pages about mandolin construction and repairs - includes pics and correspondence http://www.sosyourmom.com/mandohelp.html and http://www.sosyourmom.com/mandohelp1.html
Home page of the band So's Your Mom http://www.sosyourmom.com/index.html
Mike Vanden's new products at http://www.vanden.co.uk/new.htm include the ConcertMaster fiddle pickup http://www.vanden.co.uk/concertmaster.htm
Armrest by Weber mandolins http://www.soundtoearth.com/prod_armrest.htm See also their Wood Nymph, designed to reduce unwanted harmonics between the bridge and the tailpiece http://www.soundtoearth.com/prod_woodnymph.htm
Stainless steel tailpieces by Newell Mandolins
http://www.shamrockgold.com/newell/tailpieces.html Newell Mandolins home page http://www.shamrockgold.com/newell/newell_mandolins.html
Wide range of mandolin strings listed at Elderly with gauges http://www.elderly.com/accessories/strings_Mandolin.html
A good selection of metronomes at Janet Davis Music http://www.janetdavismusic.com/metronm2.html
String tension calculator courtesy Doug Dieter at http://www.kennaquhair.com/ustc.htm Home page of Kennaquhair Stringed Instruments for cittern, bouzouki, and other mandolin
family instruments http://www.kennaquhair.com/
Kangaroo hide mandolin straps http://www.carmelmusic.com/stocklist/mandolin_straps.html
How to make a Velcro silencer for your mandolin http://homepage.mac.com/philg2/silencer.html
The Perfect-Tune is "a heavy-duty piezoelectric device which will greatly aid in the tuning of all flavors of acoustic instruments" http://world.std.com/~ereilly/perfect.html
Construction of Sawchyn S-5 mandolin, courtesy Brad Burns
How to build a carved-top mandolin - two videos by Don MacRostie
Making An Archtop Guitar by Robert Benedetto - "the definitive work on the design and construction of an acoustic archtop guitar" http://www.musicbooksplus.com/books/hl296.htm
K & K Sound offers the Hot Spot universal pickup amongst others - "it is perfect for smaller instruments and it can be used for hand drums, congas, mandolin ..." http://store.yahoo.com/kksound1/hotspotunpic.html
Mandolin tailpieces at Janet Davis Music http://www.janetdavismusic.com/mantail.html
Grover mandolin machine heads http://grotro.com/catpage9.html
How to look inside a guitar (or mandolin) courtesy Frank Ford
Various adjustable two-piece mandolin bridges http://members.cox.net/musicman5/archbridges.htm
Andrew Mowry's pics of stages in the manufacture of a mandolin and an F5 "in the white" Home page for Mowry Mandolins at http://home.comcast.net/~nicholsw/mando/index.htm
Pics of Mike Stangeland's finished Dudenbostel F5
Birth of a Tucker mandolin http://members.aol.com./mandolinexpress/tucker/index.htm
Mandolin tuning gear repair at Frets.com
How to adjust the tension of your Waverly mandolin tuners courtesy Stewart-Macdonald http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-3220/
Mandowash (!) and other interesting mandolin construction pics courtesy Old Wave http://community.webshots.com/album/30629386bsgobhNULg
Stewart-Macdonald mandolin kit plus recommended tools list http://www.stewmac.com/freeinfo/i-5148/index.html
Comments on the Virzi tone producer http://www.co-mando.com/resources/virzi/
Band and orchestral tuner pickup http://www.catamuse.com/banandortunp.html
Mandolin parts at Cumberland Acoustic
More pics of the stages in constuction of Mike Stangeland's Dudenbostel mandolin
Pic of DeArmond mandolin pickup courtesy of the Electric Mandolin Resource site http://www.emando.com/images/pickups/DeArmondPickup.jpg
Building a midi mandolin, courtesy Paul Jordan http://users.characterlink.net/jordan/mandolin.htm
Tourtellotte violin-style mandolin bridge
Schatten VVM pickup for mandolin at http://www.schattendesign.com/vvm.htm This and other links to pickups courtesy Steve Tourtellotte in the CoMando archives More Schatten pickup stuff at http://www.schattendesign.com/
Woody's Instrument Projects has ideas on overhauling mandolins and violins http://home.earthlink.net/~mandofiddle/
Bruce Moffatt's Mandolin Project #2 http://www.picknowl.com.au/homepages/bmoffatt/mando2-index.html
Solid mandolin bridge construction courtesy Alan Dunwell http://www.fretlinks.com/adunwell/Mando-SolidBridge/
Building a solid bridge at Matt's Mandolin Mayhem http://www.mafudesigns.com/mandolin/buildbridge.html And Matthew O'Brien's mandolin home page http://www.mafudesigns.com/mandolin/
Stages in building two Dudenbostel mandolins http://www.thefishnet.com/makemandolin/newmake.htm
Coydog site documents David Zimmerman's experience in building a mandolin http://coydog.com/mandolin/ Also some MP3s of what it sounds like at http://coydog.com/mandolin/finalproduct.asp
A very light mandolin bridge at Frets.com
David Zimmerman documents building an F5 from a Stew-Mac kit http://coydog.com/mandolin/
Tutorial at Milburn Guitars on French polishing a guitar http://www.milburnguitars.com/fpbannerframes.html
Red Henry's one-piece maple mandolin bridges http://www.murphymethod.com/redbridge.html
Lots of mandolin parts at Greg Boyd's House of Fine Instruments
Discount mandolin strings at String This http://stringthis.com/mandolin.html
New Brekke traditional two-piece mandolin bridge (closer to Loar style)
http://www.soundtoearth.com/T-bridge.htm
Bruce's Home Page includes mando building pics and jazz mando tablature
http://www.picknowl.com.au/homepages/bmoffatt/
And even more importantly, read about Bruce's brave fight against cancer.
StringCalc calculates the load in pounds given the scale length (distance from
nut to bridge), the note, the string diameter and the string type
http://www.massmedia.com/~mikeb/mando/stringcalc.html
Mandolin armrest by Siren String Works
http://www.sirenstringworks.com/armrests.htm
Mandolin strings at BP Strings http://rfd.cc/bpstrings/mando.html
Mandolin strings at Mostly Strings http://www.mostring.net/MIndex.htm
Mandolin construction pics by Lynn Dudenbostel, courtesy Mike Nelson http://www.thefishnet.com/makemandolin/newmake.htm
Mandolin/violin/ukulele stand
http://www.elderly.com/accessories/items/VS10.htm
Instrument stands at
http://www.stringswing.com/
Mandolin wallmount at Katahdin Music Works
http://www.katahdin-online.com/manwalmoun.html
Don't leave your instrument
in contact with vinyl!
D'Addario strings at
http://www.daddario.com/daddario.html
Dave C's octave mandolin construction project
http://home.mindspring.com/~dcrnc/index.html
Guitar Clinic - repairs, restorations and used/vintage instruments for purchase
http://www.guitarclinic.com/
Interesting musical conversions, including how to turn a guitar into an octave
mandolin
http://www.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/
Plaited hide mandolin strap
http://members.home.net/ogershok/photos/mandolin/Strap.jpg
The Musical Instrument Makers Forum for types of lutherie - lots of mando
interest
http://www.mimf.com/
MM-1 MetroGnome ("the world's smallest and lightest metronome") plus electronic
tuners
http://www.smittymusic.com/Tuners-Metro.htm
Electronic tuner jump lead for acoustic instruments
http://mysite.freeserve.com/thejumplead
Dix Bruce's Musix website - lots of goodies including teaching courses, back
issues of Mandolin World News and Dawg picks plus developing library of music
which can be downloaded in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format.
http://www.musixnow.com/
The Tone-Gard "isolates the back of the instrument from the player and ...
helps the top produce more volume and deepen the tone."
http://home.earthlink.net/~typhill/
Mandolin arm rest from Siren String Works
http://www.sirenstringworks.com/armrests.htm
Mandolin (and banjo) parts at
http://www.siminoff.net/pages/siminoff_banjos.html
Siminoff home page
http://www.siminoff.net/
DIY mandolin instrument holder for shelves and tables, courtesy Phil Good-Elliott http://homepage.mac.com/philg2/mandohanger.html
Pic-Dic dictionary of flat picks! http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Plaza/5566/dic.htm
Highly Strung UK string catalog at http://www.highlystrung.net/acatalog/index.html
Wedge pickups for violin and cello http://wedge.netfirms.com/
Interactive online mandolin building course at http://www.mimf.com/mando.htm
StringPull has guitar building materials including Tor-tise pick guards, bone and fossil ivory, etc http://www.stringpull.com/
How to modify picks, by Mike Stangeland (from the CoMando archives)
Interesting page on picks and how to customise them http://home.pacbell.net/torkes/
Hundreds of flatpicks (plectra) at Elderly Instruments http://www.elderly.com/accessories/Flatpicks.html
String This has all sorts of strings at discount prices http://www.stringthis.com/
Ryder Stringed Instruments - electric mandolins and handwound pickups http://www.sjryder.com/
Ratliff mandolin kits (A and F models) http://www.ratliffmandolins.com/orderform.html
Heartwood Music Works offer a mandolin kit for $150 http://www.gotech.com/parsons/homepg.htm
Pick Up The World - "the perfect pickup for everything you play" http://www.pick-uptheworld.com/
How Antonio Stradivari achieved his tone
Mandolins by Mike Nelson (including construction of an A5 copy) http://www.geocities.com/pipemakermike/mandolin/instruments.htm
Guild of American Luthiers (lots of resources including instrument plans) http://www.luth.org/
The Tone-Gard was made to isolate the back of the instrument from the player and protect it http://tonegard.freeyellow.com/GardFrameSet3.html
The Stuart Hugger holds your instrument away from your body for maximum volume and optimum tone http://www.stuartmusic.com/hugger.html
Janet Davis Music has mandolins, accessories and teaching materials http://www.janetdavismusic.com/mandolin.html
Half Speed Music leather mandolin straps, fiddle tunes and Celtic tunes, also learning tools for aspiring musicians of all ages. Audio CDs with 30 tunes played at normal and 1/2 speed, both at correct pitch (60 tracks total per CD) http://halfspeedmusic.hypermart.net/
Introduction to string tensions and their calculation http://www.celticmusic.co.nz/html/StringCalc/Multistringcalc.html
Arto's String Calculator for calculating string tension and diameter http://www.cs.helsinki.fi/u/wikla/mus/Calcs/wwwscalc.html
Fret placement calculator http://www.dougsparling.com/cgi-bin/fretcalc.cgi
Mandolin (and other!) strings from the Big City String Company - lots of makes (but no D'Addarios listed) http://www.bigcitystring.com/mandolin.htm
Schertler mandolin pickup http://www.schertlerusa.com/DYN-M.html
Instant vintage for your new instrument! http://www.acousticguitar.com/gear/advice/vibration.shtml
Interesting page on bridges by Frank Ford http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/Mandolin/LtMandoBr/ltmandobr.html
Stewart-Macdonald entire catalog on line http://www.stewmac.com/
D'Addario strings: gauges and tensions http://www.daddario.com/STRINGCT/Dcatalog.htm
Just Strings (for every instrument you can think of) http://www.juststrings.com/
Weber tailpieces (lots of pics) http://www.soundtoearth.com/page115.htm
Acoustic instruments and winter care - thought-provoking article by Scott Zimmerman at http://www.paulhawthorne.com/wintercare.html
Bill Bussmann's pics of instrument manufacture, including carving the top and back of a mandola http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=1248872
Kathy Matsushita's full account of building an F5 mandolin (and lots of info about building guitars on this site) http://pweb.jps.net/~msm/htmlpages/mandolin1.html
Steve Smith's Building A Mandolin page http://www.tollway.com/mando/
Mike Nelson's Mandolin Page has lots of useful technical info on building mandolins http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5701/mandolin/mandolin.htm
Mandolin plans available at Elderly Instruments http://www.elderly.com/books/611.htm#614
And plans for a teardrop mandolin at Musicmaker's Kits http://www.musikit.com/bluepts.htm
Gary Price home page, including mandolin cases and Price tailpieces http://home.telepath.com/~ghprice
Violin/mandolin/ukelele stand http://www.elderly.com/accessories/items/VS10.htm
The Co-Mando list members were asked to name the strings that they used: http://personal.centenary.edu/~dwilliam/mandostrings.html
Mandolin kits at http://www.musikit.com/mandos.htm
Mandolin kit and instruments at http://www.larkinthemorning.com/MenComNet/Business/Retail/Larknet/Mandolins
Experience in building from a kit http://www.dougsparling.com/lutherie/mandokit/index.html
Mandolin plans for builders from The Guild of American Luthiers http://www.luth.org/bp.htm
Allen guitars, mandolins, resophonics and luthier supplies http://www.allenguitar.com/
Allen mandolin tailpieces http://www.allenguitar.com/tpcs.htm
Jim Coon's Liteways site, http://members.tripod.com/liteways/, tells you how to position your (movable) bridge, and how to create a stereo mike setup for recording on to minidisc. Also lots of pictures of musicians and gigs.
Construction of a mandolin - pix (URL courtesy of Lynn Dudenbostel on Comando list): look at Chris' Mando 1, 2 and 3 http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumList?u=66138
Everything about the construction and setting up of fretted instruments at Frets.com http://www.frets.com
Brilliant maintenance manual for all mandolin owners http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/OwnerManual/manmando.html
How to pack up an instrument for travelling http://www.frets.com/FRETSPages/Musician/GenMaint/Packing/packing1.html
Electric mandolin resource page and portal site. Lots of links to electric mandolin players http://www.emando.com/
First Quality Musical Supplies - a huge range of instruments, strings and accessories. Very competitive prices on strings. Order their brilliant new catalog! http://www.fqms.com
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